Bisbee daily review., 1906-12-30
THE LESSON
 OF GIVING.

The postoffice department can make some of the most ridiculous rulings this side of Gov Vardaman. of Miss
 issippi. Recently an unknown, but
 wealthy woman. appeared at the New
 York postoffice and requested that all letters addressed to Santa Claus be delivered to her ard she would see that the writers were given the things which they prayed for. The woman
 was we'll known to the postmaster and
 amply able financially to make the gifts and as a lady of great charitable inclination and exquisite honor. but in
 searching for authority from Wash ington to grant the request he dis covered the cold hard statement that ali letters addressed to Santa Claus must be forwarded to the dead letter office. There are tons of these letters deposited in the New York postoffice every Christmas. They are mostly written by the children of the poor people, although very often some child in ahluent circumstances will want kingship or an automobile put in his stocking. If these letters could be answered many little hearts would be made happy and 1t is foolish rul- ing that will not permit a postmaster worthy person as San ta Claus The letters, when they get to Washington. are either returned to the writers from the dead letter office or burned IL is very evident from the nature of the address, which is something like Santa Claus, Iceland, or Santa Claus, Greenland" that the letters are yaIueless and contain only
 the heart cries of little children who look upon the world as boundless toy and Santa Claus as a fairy con ception who will na'erialize their de sires.
 But putting aside the stone-iike, in
 animate heartlessness of such d postal ruling. the New York incident is ex tremely touching. It goes to show
 that there is at least one very wealthy
 woman in the world who has heart
 in the right place and. perhaps, men
 who put in half their time setting
 around town on dry goods boxes, ex
 pectorating amber at flies and damn ing the rich may find in the incident some good in them after all. The general idea of the poor man Is tha the rich people are all for self and tha their charities are done before men but this woman contemplated he Christmas cheer as secret surprise In this she is like ar unknown Bos lton man who, on the 10th of Decem
 Der of every year, sends large sun lof money to the Boston postmaste
 and instructs him to pay deficien . postage on all packages addressed t . foreign countries. this man, whoeve he may be, was obviously at one tim , poor foreigner who, probably as [ child longingiy looked forward to package of Christmas cheer fror . America which did not come or a' | count of insufficient postage. No' , that he is rich in the depth of hi heart he remembers the poor, pover ! ty-stricken children of Europe wh - have relatives in this country an l wAo look forward to the receipt ( 3 packages upon which the sender + have neglected to place the necessar r postage. These two persons may ns r DC Christians in the orthodox Inoal Q ling of the word; hut God looks int a their hearts and permeates their bein $ | and if there were more men and WI d men of their kind this world would el e joy more of the sunlight of heavel ell It is not the man who accompanit '- This ewing with Carnegie library ( z a brass Danu who sttains the dignii of charfty-it is the man who ''le $ not his left hand know what his rigl l. hand doeth."