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IS THERE A SANTA CLAUS?

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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_




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          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