Here are images of Santa Claus when he was a century younger—in yuletide ads and cartoons in the Star-Telegram of 1912:
The Star-Telegram’s Goodfellow Fund has been around for one hundred Christmases.
Personally, I think the big Santa in the upper left of the Waggoner ad looks a bit scary.
On the other hand, this Santa looks perfectly . . . no, wait. How’d he get in here? That’s not Santa! That’s kindly ol’ Doc Betts, a local physician who a century ago treated the “chronic and private diseases” of men, including, it seems, those men who had been more naughty than nice.
Dr Betts looks VERY interesting!
Dr. Betts had practiced medicine in the United States and Europe for forty-two years before moving to Fort Worth about 1910. In 1913 he was attacked by a patient and seriously injured. In 1914 a postal inspector wrote to Dr. Betts and requested the doctor’s medical questionnaire. The inspector’s answers to the questions intentionally indicated that he was an “absolutely healthy man.” Nonetheless, Dr. Betts offered to “cure” him for $40. Betts was charged with using the mail to defraud and went on trial. But during the trial a juror slashed his own throat in the jury box, and a mistrial was declared. I could not find the disposition of a new trial.