The San Francisco call., 1906-12-23

Above are the names of the winners
of the cash prizes given by The Call
for the best letters addressed to Santa
Claus. care of The Call. during the
month ending Wednesday, December
19. A check for the amount set op-
posite each name has been mailed to
the lucky contestants, and it is hoped
the money will help to make merry
Christmas for the recipients.
The degree of interest manifested In
this contest was a surprise and reye-
lation to the publishers of The Call.
When the offer of the prizes was made,
IT was not anticipated that so many
people would take the trouble to COM
ply with the rules of the contest In
the hope of winning little money for
Christmas. The rules required the let
ters to be composed of words and
phrases cut from advertisements ap-
pearing in The Call such clippings to
be pasted on sheets of paper in a man
ner to make good sense and convey the
authors desires in the way of gifts
from Santa Claus for Christmas.
To compose a letter of this kind
required no little labor and ingenuity,
but scores Of competitors were equal
to the task and many of the letters
received by old Santa at his headquar-
ters in The Call building are real
works of art and compositions spark
ling with wit and the true Christmas
spirit.
Scarcely an advertisement appearing &
in The Call within the thirty days al
loted to the contest escaped the scis-
sors Of some of the eager competitors.
One thing is certain, and that is that
never We're advertisements of holiday
goods read with more care and closer
scrutiny than those OF the merchants
who have sought publicity for their
wares through the columns Of The
Call during the pre-boliday period.
From all over the State of Califor-
MIA, from Siskiyou to San Diego, and
the Golden Gate to Carson City, New,
came the missives to Santa Claus, the
jolly old fellows mail being the heav-
lest during the closing days of the
contest that came to the Claus Spreck-
els building. 1t was a stupendous task
for the judges to read all these letters
and carefully weigh their respective
merits. There were so many letters of
about the same degree of excellence
that it was hard to decide who should
receive the prizes. However, the work
was conscientiously done, and after
due deliberation the unanimous deci-
sion of the judges was that the awards
should be made as above stated.
Some of the letters contained quota
tions from practically every advertise
ment appearing regularly In The Call.
Some were handsomely illustrated with
pictures cut from the advertisements.
On some day during the holiday week
facsimiles of some of the best letters
submitted will be reproduced in The
Call. They will form an interesting
exhibit. 1t is regretted that space will
not permit the reproduction of all of
the good ones. 1t is also regretted
that there were not prizes enough to
go around
HONORABLE MENTION
The letters submitted by the follow
ing contestants, though not in the
prize winning class, are nevertheless
worthy of honorable mention:
Ellen Oldham, IS East Lindsay street,
Stockton, Cal
Efie Graves, Pentz, Butte County, Cal.
Z. v. jackson, 511 Hobart street,
Oakland.
Thornton Scriber, Monticello, Napa
County, Cal.
Alvin RossIow,. 12eo O'Farrel street,
San Francisco.
Mrs. John Stock, "a Mission street,
Santa Cruz, Cal.
Jeanie Baird, % Grant avenue, Napa
Cal.
Caroline ellison, cottage lib, Camp
23, San Francisco.
Clara Schroeder, 745 Clayton street,
San Francisco.
Therese Beckwfth, Los Gatos, Cal.
Dorothy Johnson, SausaIito, Gal.
Margaret VI. Larkin, 4444 Twentieth
street, San Francisco.