KinSource

Minnesota Tales

The Minneapolis Journal, December 19, 1916, p. 12


MERELY ASKS ALL SANTA CAN CARRY IN BOTH ARMS.


Little Christmas Correspondent Concedes Brother a Train and Sled.


Toy Automobiles, Sleds, Candy, and Many Things Requested in Pile of Letters.


Addressed to "Santa Claus Mountain," to the "North Pole," "Lake Minnetonka," to "Every Postman Knows Where," and even to big stores where Minneapolis little people have seen the bluff and hearty saint, a pile of Santa Claus letters inches deep and running into the hundreds, lies in the office of the Associated Charities today. Most of them were turned over to the charities by Postmaster E. A. Purdy.

Secretary Frank J. Bruno and his fellow workers have laughed over some of the letters until they nearly cried. Over others they have nearly done the same for quite different reasons. For the letters are of all sorts. Evidence of real want is queerly mingled with childish yearnings for everything from red "spress wagons" to motorcars, among the boys. Little girls' wants range from hair ribbons to pianos.

Take Oscar, whose last name, with the others, will be left out at Mr. Bruno's request. He asks his "Dear Santa" for "en ottomodile." "Hen will hava been good rojke," confides Oscar, whose English grammar is somewhat mixed with another tongue, meaning "I have been a good boy."

Here's Coming Capitalist.

One youngster who "goes in for things" and seems destined to become a captain of industry, states his wants like this:

"Dear Santa   Will you send me a motion picture machine and some skiis and a rifle gun and a soldier suit with a sourd and a printing sett and a safe and that is all."

"And that is all" winds up 40 per cent of the letters as if to indicate to Saint Nick that surely his correspondent hadn't asked for very much.

"Thank you Donald" who signs one of the letters, has a hard time deciding whether he wants to be a hunter, a fisherman, a fireman or just a "kid." "Dear Santa," he writes, "Merry Xmas. Please send me a sled, goldfishes, a box of candy, bubble pipe, a duck and a fire team."

"P. S. Santa," adds one little girl, who rather doubts her own ability to behave, "I will try to be a good girl till Christmas."

Others are much surer of their own deportment. Martha, whose course in capitalization was brief, puts it like this:

"i have ben a good girl. i am seven years old. i want a doll bed and a nice baby doll and i would love to have a doll house and i would love to have a doll cart."

Claude is real bashful about asking for things. He writes: "Dear Santa Claus - Bring me as much as you can carry in both arms. I'm a pretty good boy. And I got a little brother named Teddy. He would like a little sled and a train of cars. I hope you will get a round to every house." Of course, he intends to lend Teddy some of his "armful" to go with that train and sled.

Another rather arbitrary young man with high hopes requisitions the saint in this manner: "I am sending you this letter to tell you that I want 2 boathouses, 3 boats, 5 automobiles, a drum (imagine it, only one), 2 drumsticks, opera glasses, a gun, a soldier, 1 soldier suit. If you can't give me all these things this Christmas, well, I will be sorry."

Doesn't Omit Much.

The small maid who wants Santa to give her a few small trinkets and then "take me out of bed and put me by the Christmas tree" can be contrasted with the one who lets her imagination get away from her and writes:

"Please bring me a big doll, please bring me a buggy, please bring me a ribbon, please bring me beads" and so on, warming up to the job until she has run through roller skates, furs, a muff, a writing desk, a piano, a bed, a storybook, a cradle, a chair, a bracelet and what not besides.

"A pair of skates and a little cubber and dishes that is all, " is the modest request of another of the more dangerous sex. And the little girl who wants a pair of shoes, size 11, hasn't such big feet as it seems. "Child's size, you know," explained one of the young woman secretaries.

Like Good Things to Eat.

Ann's mind wandered from good things to eat to toys as she wrote this: "I want a doll with curls, and i want some candy and then i want some nutts and some doll dishes, then I want a peach and a plum and a little writing desk."

John knows his limitations and doesn't intend to make any more sacrifices than necessary: "I want a big choo train," he suggests, "and a sled. I am in the 3 at school. I want a lot more but I was told I could not get it unless I was a good boy.

One little girl names her own wants and then wants Santa Claus not to let her mother get too much off the pack. "She wants a pcoketbook and $5," says the letter, "and that will be about all for her."

Perhaps she had heard her father explaining to mama that he didn't get the raise and that living was high, also how a man must have his smoking money, etc, etc. In any case she passed the tip along.

Douglass thinks of giving up the nursery for the field of battle but wants to be prepared for either decision. Santa is asked to bring him "a hundred soldiers and a little dolly."


Copyright 2011 KinSource All Rights Reserved