It is the gift that many newspaper editors give themselves, and some of their writers, just about every year.
We need one less thing to worry about during a season of staff days off, moved-up deadlines and readers who are are in no mood to read serious commentary on weighty matters of public affairs — if they are interested in reading anything at all. So it has become a ritual at this and many other American newspapers to reprint, on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, an editorial in praise of a fictional character that appeared in a long-defunct newspaper 120 years ago.