in the literature
of the American nursery.

We have seen the somewhat lugubrious influence of Puritan and Quaker
upon the occasional writings for American children; and now comes a
story bearing upon its face the features of a Dutchman, as the jolly old
gentleman enters nursery lore with his happy errand.

Up to this time children of wholly English extraction had probably
little association with the Feast of St. Nicholas. The Christmas season
had hitherto been regarded as pagan in its origin by people of Puritan
or Scotch descent, and was celebrated only as a religious festival by
the descendants of the more liberal adherents to the Church of England.
The Dutch element in New York, however, still clung to some of their
traditions; and the custom of exchanging simple gifts upon Christmas Day
had come down to them as a result of a combination of the church legend
of the good St. Nicholas, patron of children, and the Scandinavian myth
of the fairy gnome, who from his bower in the woods showered good
children with gifts.[148-A] But to celebrate the day quietly was
altogether a different thing from introducing to the American public the
character of Santa Claus, who has become in his mythical entity as well
known to every American as that other Dutch legendary personage, Rip Van
Winkle.

In the "Visit from St. Nicholas" Mr. Moore not only introduced Santa
Claus to the young folk of the various states, but gave to them their
first story of any lasting merit whatsoever. It is worthy of remark that
as every impulse to write for juvenile readers has lagged behind the
desire to write for adults, so the composition of these familiar verses
telling of the arrival in America of the mysterious and welcome visitor
on

"The night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse,"

fell at the end of that quarter of the nineteenth century to which we
are accustomed to refer as the beginning of the national period of
American literature.

It is, of course, true that the older children of that period had
already begun to enjoy some of the writings of Irving and Cooper, and to
learn the fortunately still familiar verses by Hopkinson, Key, Drake,
and Halleck. School-readers have served to familiarize generation after
generation with "Hail Columbia," "The Star Spangled Banner," and
sometimes with "The American Flag." It is, doubtless, their authors'
jubilant enthusiasm over the freedo