Evening bulletin., 1897-12-28
LETTERS TO SANTA CLAUS
f1o Very Young Children Win in Wall,
Nichols Contest.
Hard 10 Decide Between Girls Letters-Muriel
Gibson Gets the Doll Harold Gear
Hears from Santa Claus.

Adams OF the Advertiser, IL. w.
Shingle of the Star and repre-
sentative of this paper opened
and read the large number of
letters written by children of Ho
nolulu and the islands and left in
the Santa Claus box at the store
Of Wall, Nichols Co.
Letters came from every street
of Honolulu. There were some
from Maui and Hawaii. The
SCHOOL at Kekahs, Kauai, sent
down a package conta,ninga letter
from each pupil - some 30 in all.
Letters we're from children OF all
ages from 5 to Is. Que of tn m
covered whole page of vide
paper, but only two words were
intellieible. The writer is evil
IDENTIFY quite young and the letter
was certainly ori1 i1iual.
Two prizes were awarded, one
to girls and Que to boys. BY
throwing out those not considered
up to standard, the lett rs from
the girls wsre reduced the first
time to about a dozen. A second
wedding out" brought the com
mittee down to four letters, all
good. and with really very few
points between them. They were
those of Muriel Gibson, Claire
Williams, Oracle Robertson and
Lillian Waity. 1t took all the
points of the competition to lay
as'de the letters of the Two little
girls last named, and was practi-
cally question of "dotting is
and or ossing Is" that the commit
tee finally decided in favor of the
letter written by Muriel Gibson.
This letter ran as follows:
Honolulu, Dec. Is, 1897.
Dear Santa Claus:-I am the
little girl you brought to Papa |
and mama for CHRISTMAS preas
snt six years ago in Waimea. |
am very glad to know where to
6nd you. L was afraid you would
not come here as there were no
children in Il is house last Christ
mas. 1 live at No. l34 Prospect
street. There is not chimney on
this house so big that you can get
down, but we will not lock our
doors and my room is the blue
one upstairs. | hope you will be
very kind to all the girls and boys
and bring to me big doll aud
bureau.
"Your little Christmas girl,
"MURlEL GIBSON.
'No, l34 Prospect street"
1t was. not very hard to decide
between the letters from boys.
Quite a number of them were well
written. On a second reading,
however, the committee found
itself unanimous in favor of the
following, which at once suggest
ed the fulfillment of every require
ment of the contest:
Emma Street maksi of High |
School.
"Dear Santa Claus:-I hope
You got my letter that L put under
my bed for you last week 1t
was not there in the morning.
Please make Mama we'll by
Christmas if you can and send
me the bicycle and pistol that l
wrote for, and some lead soldiers
ike this one that Willie Morgan
gave me.
"HAROLD GEAR.'
This letter was printed out with
lead pencil in big capital letters
and bore every evidence of hard,
earnest work. 1t was at once
forwarded to Santa Claus, and the
old gentleman sent down the bicy.
Gle, pistol and caps aud all the
lead soldiers, like the sample en-
closed, that could be found. In
the same sleigh arrived the big
doll and bureau for Muriel Glib
son.
1t is learned today that the two
successful competitors are each
Just six years of age, which makes
their efforts the more notable, in !
asmuch as children. of twice their