The Project Gutenberg EBook of Is There a Santa Claus?, by Jacob A. Riis

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Title: Is There a Santa Claus?

Author: Jacob A. Riis

Release Date: April 15, 2010 [EBook #31996]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Illustration: cover]

IS THERE A SANTA CLAUS?

[Illustration]

IS THERE A SANTA CLAUS?

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BY JACOB A. RIIS

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NEW YORK THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

1922

_All rights reserved_

[Illustration]

COPYRIGHT, 1904
BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

SET UP AND ELECTROTYPED
PUBLISHED OCTOBER, 1904
REPRINTED DECEMBER, 1904
REPRINTED NOVEMBER, 1912

IS THERE A SANTA CLAUS?

"DEAR MR. RIIS:

"A little chap of six on the Western frontier writes to
us:

"'Will you please tell me if there is a Santa
Claus? Papa says not.'

"Won't you answer him?"

That was the message that came to me from an editor last December just
as I was going on a journey. Why he sent it to me I don't know. Perhaps
it was because, when I was a little chap, my home was way up toward that
white north where even the little boys ride in sleds behind reindeer, as
they are the only horses they have. Perhaps it was because when I was a
young lad I knew Hans Christian Andersen, who surely ought to know, and
spoke his tongue. Perhaps it was both. I will ask the editor when I see
him. Meanwhile, here was his letter, with Christmas right at the door,
and, as I said, I was going on a journey.

I buttoned it up in my great coat along with a lot of other letters I
didn't have time to read, and I thought as I went to the depot what a
pity it was that my little friend's papa should have forgotten about
Santa Claus. We big people do forget the strangest way, and then we
haven't got a bit of a good time any more.

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