Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-12-14
LETTERS FOR SANTA CLAUS
NEW ORDER SENT TO ALL POST
MASTERS.
Communications Addressed to the
Old Gentleman May Be Delivered
to Responsible Societies.

Santa Claus can now have his mail de-
lvered.
Children may now rejoice. for their
patron saint has been re-established as
an. American citizen in good standing by
order. of Postmaster General Meyer.
All mali addressed to Santa Claus is to
be delivered to any philanthWpic society
in the city to which it is sent that signi-
fies its readiness to assume the burden of
playing the part of the gray-bearded dis
penser of gifts during holiday time.
No applications for Santa Claus mail
have yet been filed by any of the phlan-
thropic societies of Washington. but by
Monday it is expected that a number of
such organizations, both lay and religious,
will have volunteered to take care of
the appeals. and act as understudies for
the good old saint.
Order to All Postmasters.
Following is the text of the Postmaster
Generals order, issued today:
Ordered that hereafter and until the
close of the list day of january. 1908, post
masters are directed to deliver all letters
arriving at their respective post offices
addressed plainly and Enthusiastically to
Santa Claus without any other terms or
expressions identifying the person for
whom such letters are intended, to any
regularly organized charitable society in
the city or town of address, to be used ex-
clusively for philanthropic purposes. In
the event that claim should be made by
more than one such society for letters
so addressed. such letters will be equally
divided according to number between or
among the societies making such claim.
Kris kringle,' a name under which
Santa Claus has been known by some
misguided young persons Will not be al
lowed to have his mail distributed in that
way. for it appears that there are real
Kris Kringles living in the United States
so real that they have their names in
the directory and pay taxes, presumably.
Postmaster General MyerS'S order is in
response to a demand from all over the
country, and it was sent out today to
every postmaster in the United States.
The reasons given hitherto by the depart
ment for denying the requests OF the
Children's friends are the following:
THAT letters of importance would be
classed with Santa Claus letters through
error: that it would be exposing to private
parties secret correspondence; that let
tiers might contain valuable Enclosures;
and shat such a practice would violate
the principle of the sanctity OF the mails.
The Practice Hitherto.
Hitherto the mail that has come to the
Post Office Department annually for
Santa Claus, not less than $4,000 letters
has been turned over to the dead letter
office. where it was sorted by Mrs. Patti
Lyle Collins and her corps of women as
sistants When the mail was opened 1t
was divided into two lots-thoSe contain
ing the correct addresses of the senders,
and those which contained no information
by which the writer could be traced. The
latter were destroyed The mail returned
to it's sender often fell into the hands of
the Santa Claus of the home, and thus
the childish wishes were gratified.
Some of the addresses written or let
tered on the envelopes. which range from
tiny, sweet-scented ones to those made
from cheap brown paper, pasted with
flour or held together with a pin. are in
dcative of the imagination of the child.
They are addressed to Santa Claus, the
North Pole" to Santa Claus, care of
Mr.. Peary-on-way-to-Pol to Chris
Claus Toy Store. Iceberg, Greenland;
st Nickerlas. Gate of Heaven Mr..
Zanty, Klondike, Alaska Mr.. Santa
Claus. care of Dash's Department Store"
(where they have seen him in the win
dow: "Mr. Christy Cringle, the Snow
Cave, Iceland" etc, etc.
On many of these letters the addresses
are very legible full postage is paid. and
the name and address of the sender is
written in the left hand upper corner.
These can be returned to the sender.
Others are written in sign language, and
have drawn stamps in the corner where
the stamps should be. Some of these
stamps have scarecrow figures. under
which is written '.2 cents inclosed' in an
oblong border nicely pinked to represent
a stamp. Other writers have pasted on
Cancelled stamps of various denomina-
tons OF course, these little offenders
against postal regulations are never
brought to the bar of justice.