Wikipedia
The Billiken is a charm doll created by an American art teacher and illustrator, Florence Pretz of Kansas City, Missouri, who is said to have seen the mysterious figure in a dream. It is believed that Pretz found the name Billiken in Bliss Carman's 1896 poem Mr. Moon: A Song Of The Little People. In 1908, she obtained a design patent on the ornamental design of the Billiken, which she sold to the Billiken Company of Chicago. The Billiken was elephant-like with pointed ears, a mischievous smile and a tuft of hair on his pointed head. His arms were short and he was generally sitting with his legs stretched out in front of him. Billiken is known as "The God of Things As They Ought to Be."
To buy a Billiken was said to give the purchaser luck, but to have one given would be better luck. The image was copyrighted and a trademark was put on the name. After a few years of popularity, like other fad toys, the Billiken faded into obscurity. The Billiken should not be confused with baby-like Kewpie figures that debuted in the December 1909 Ladies' Home Journal.
Today, the Billiken is the official mascot of Saint Louis University and St. Louis University High School, both Jesuit institutions located in St. Louis. The Billiken is also the official mascot of the Royal Order of Jesters, an invitation only Shriner group, affiliated with Freemasonry. The Billiken also became the namesake of Billiken Shokai, the Japanese toy & model manufacturing company (established 1976).
Many current online articles about the Billikens are based on an article by anthropologist Dorothy Jean Ray that first appeared in Alaska Sportsman (now Alaska) in 1960, with an updated version in Alaska Journal in 1973.
Billiken is a weekly children's magazine in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the oldest Spanish language magazine for young people.
Usage examples of "billiken".
And the Billiken looked so cheerful that Sara decided that she must surely take him along, to reward him for being so unfailingly pleasant.
So Sara sat down on the blue plush grass, and undressed the Billiken while they waited for Schlorge.
Of course the Brown Teddy-Bear and the Billiken were all right, though the latter might come to grief if he should fall on his head.
The same is true of many of my colleagues--the Billiken, for instance, and the Kewp.
And then Avrillia insisted on buying all sorts of things for the dolls at home--gorgeous oriental costumes for the Japanese doll, sailor-suits for the Billiken, and a handsome fur overcoat, of a conservative style and cut, for the Brown Teddy-Bear.
Tony kept as solemn a face as the conformation of his benevolent Billiken features permitted.
He looked sick, and all the more so because of the Billiken grin which he was afraid to let drop.
He flushed up at that, poor boy, all over his nice Billiken face, and I felt like every cat in Christendom rolled into one.
And he looked so much like the nicest Billiken ever seen on earth that I really did love him, though not quite in the way he wanted.
I flashed another glance at Tony but he was looking more like an imperturbable Billiken than he had ever looked.
Opposite him the youngest Carr squatted like a brown Billiken on a wolfskin.
Isabel was presiding over the Billiken, Teddy- bear, and Fancy Goods stall.