Newspaper Page Text
Page 20
— Griffin Daily News Saturday, December 14,1974
’Twas the night before Christmas
Clement Moore improved Santa’s image
NEWPORT, R.I. (UPI) - It
was on a snowy December
night 152 years ago that Santa
Claus became the jolly figure
Americans recognize today—
"dressed all in fur from his
head to his foot...and a round
little belly, like a bowl full of
jelly.”
On that wind whipped even
ing a serious scholar named
Clement C. Moore sat down at
his desk in his snug, candlelit
study to compose a verse he
had promised to recite to his
children on Christmas Eve.
Ils title was “A Visit from St.
Nicholas.”
Moore wrote his poem in New
York City in 1822, but he later
moved to Newport with his wife
and nine children and it will be
The CIA still at work in Laos
VIENTIANE (UPI) — The
Central Intelligence Agency’s
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Ladiess34,9s Menss39.9s
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Pleats Extra
— KNIT SHIRTS EXTRA —
5 EXTRA PER SHIRT FOLDED & IN BOX
? CARTER QUINN PEGGY QUINN
Manager Manager
118 U (itllegeSt. 162 W. Solomon St.
CHRISTMAS ORATORIO
by
Camille Saint Saens
presented by
The Sanctuary Choir
and
Orchestra
of the
First Baptist Church
Griffin, Georgia
Sunday, December 15, 1974
6:30 P.M.
Mis?
read there again this year in a
ceremony that has become
tradition.
Each Christmas season for
the past 20 years Newporters
have recognized Moore’s ac
complishment with a reading of
the poem. At first it was read
to neighborhood children before
the fireplace in Moore’s old
home on Catherine Street.
Now the home has been
turned into apartments and this
year the reading will take place
at the Van Alen Theater on the
Saturday before Christmas.
The man who has portrayed
Moore for most of the readings
is James H. Van Alen, one of
Newport’s most noted citizens
and the founder of the National
Lawn Tennis Hall of Fame. Up
to a thousand children this year
covert activities in Laos offi
cially have ended, but the
■ agency still indirectly bankrolls
some of its former guerrilla
troops here.
According to sources in
Vientiane, the CIA continues to
work through Maj. Gen. Vang
Pao, the Meo hill tribe warlord
who commanded its “secret
army” in north Laos. The force
was formally disbanded June
30, shortly after installation of
a coalition government that
includes Communist Pathet Lao
members.
are expected to hear Van Alen
read:
“Twas the night before
Christmas, when all through
the house, not a creature was
stirring, not even a mouse.”
The words, by some unex
plained inspiration, came to
Moore with great ease.
Today it is difficult to think
of Santa Claus except as Moore
described him, but the figure
originated in Europe hundreds
of years ago as a withered old
man in white robes astride a
horse and carrying a bag full of
toys for good children and a
birch rod for the nasty ones.
Santa Claus, as Moore
envisioned him, is thought to
have been based on a beloved
The CIA now has turned to
funding agricultural develop
ment projects in Xieng
Khouang province, which is
Vang Pao’s fiefdom, the
sources report.
Some of the projects generate
profits which go to Vang Pao
who, to keep his power base,
has in turn dispensed money to
tribal chiefs angered at being
dropped from the U.S. payroll.
When the fighting in this
theater of the Indochina War
ended, Vang Pao had about
11,000 troops under his control,
Stripper says
she’s quitting
CASSELBERRY, Fla. (UPI)
— Fanne Foxe, the stripper
involved in the political down
fall of Rep. Wilbur Mills, says
she is quitting the entertain
ment business.
She said Friday night she is
retiring to prevent further
troubles for the Arkansas
congressman.
The 38-year-old Argentine
took off her bra and told a
nightclub audience of 250
Friday night: “I have an
announcement to make.”
She then told the crowd she
would complete her perfor
mances Friday night and
tonight at the Club Juana and
then go into retirement.
Miss Foxe finished her act by
stripping to a g-string and
adding a filmy negligee before
walking off the stage with tears
in her eyes. The audience gave
her a standing ovation.
Miss Foxe became stripdom’s
biggest attraction in years,
after the Tidal Basin incident in
October involving Mills, chair
man of the House Ways and
Means Committee. She was
pulled from Washington”s Tidal
Basin by police after jumping
from a car carrying Mills.
In her topless announcement
or more than one-third of the
total CIA-paid forces in Laos.
About 6,000 of them are due
to be “integrated” into the
regular Laotian army and
receive reduced military sala
ries. The rest were to have
turned in their arms and gone
back to farming, but many
Meos kept their modem Ameri
can weapons and showed little
inclination to return to a
peaceful life.
One problem arose in July
when a group of bandits armed
with Ml 6 rifles shot up a bus en
route from the royal capital of
Friday night, the stripper,
billed as the “Tidal Basin
Bombshell," said she is quitting
because of the “amount of
pressure” that has built up both
on her and Mills, who she said
was “a great, wonderful man.”
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Dutch servant employed by toe
author.
Moore and the servant had
recently been out for a sleigh
ride during which Yule presents
were delivered to friends and
relatives.
Moore sat beside the servant
as they rode through the night: •
“the stump of a pipe he held
tight in his teeth, and the
smoke it encircled his head like
a wreath... he was chubby and
plump, a right jolly old elf.”
It also is likely that during
this evening out, Moore had
wished his sleigh could fly
through the air so he could get
home faster and out of the
cold: “when, what to my
wondering eyes should appear,
Luang Prabang to Vientiane.
The brother and sister-in-law of
the Australian ambassador to
Laos, Mr. and Mrs. Alexander
Borthwick, were aboard and
were killed.
U.S. sources in Vientiane
believe the bandits were former
guerrillas of Vang Pao cut off
the dole because they came
from an area only marginal to
the general’s own political
interests.
Although the July ambush
attracted widespread attention
because two foreigners were
killed, there have been other
incidents. In Vang Pao’s
mountain headquarters of Long
Cheng, disgruntled tribesmen
touched off a grenade outside
his residence.
U.S. officials in Vientiane
decline to discuss CIA funding
and congressional auditors
from the General Accounting
Office have been denied infor
mation about it.
American sources say the
amount of money now involved
is small compared to what was
di er »ensed during the war when
But a miniature sleigh, and
eight tiny reindeer, More rapid
than eagles his coursers they
came, And he whistled, and
shouted and called them by
name.”
Moore, a scholar whose field
was ancient languages and who
wrote books such as “A
Compendious Lexicon of the
Hebrew Language” and a
biography of King Castriot of
Albania, never meant his poem
to be made public.
But a friend of the family
copied it down and had it
published in the Troy, N.Y.,
Sentinel. In fact, Moore often
denied he was the author. But
his attitude softened when he
saw that the poem was
becoming a children’s favorite.
Vang Pao used to make the
rounds of tribal chiefs with a
money-filled valise provided by
a CIA officer.
The farm projects, set up
under an organization dubbed
the “Xieng Khouang Develop
ment Association,” include a
chicken farm, pig nursery and
cattle-raising scheme. All rely
heavily on U.S. support; a CIA
liaison officer monitors the
program and U.S. AID person
nel provide technical help.
When it became a target for
congressional criticism in the
past year, the CIA de
emphasized covert activities.
But continued use of CIA
money for political patronage
in Laos appears in line with a
recent statement by agency
director William E. Colby.
The CIA chief said in a
speech that in the era of
detente covert activities were
no longer important to U.S.
foreign policy, but that he could
foresee situations “in which the
United States might well need
to conduct covert action in the
face of some new threat.”
Santa's image maker.
little, ones
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"WHERE QUALITY IS HIGHER THAN PRICK"
128 S. HILL STREET DIAL 227-2973
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