Jacob A Riis
Is there a Santa Claus? Published 1904
language
(Republished by Internal Arts Media Aug. 27, 2016)
NO Santa Claus! If you had asked that car full of people I would have
liked to hear the answers they would have given you. No Santa Claus!
Why, there was scarce a man in the lot who didn't carry a bundle that
looked as if it had just tumbled out of his sleigh. I felt of one slyly,
and it was a boy's sled--a "flexible flyer," I know, because he left
one at our house the Christmas before; and I distinctly heard the
rattling of a pair of skates in that box in the next seat. They were all
good-natured, every one, though the train was behind time--that is a
sure sign of Christmas. The brakeman wore a piece of mistletoe in his
cap and a broad grin on his face, and he said "Merry Christmas" in a way
to make a man feel good all the rest of the day. No Santa Claus, is
there? You just ask him!
And then the train rolled into the city under the big gray dome to which
George Washington gave his name, and by-and-by I went through a doorway
which all American boys would rather see than go to school a whole week,
though they love their teacher dearly. It is true that last winter my
own little lad told the kind man whose house it is that he would rather
ride up and down in the elevator at the hotel, but that was because he
was so very little at the time and didn't know things rightly, and,
besides, it was his first experience with an elevator.
liked to hear the answers they would have given you. No Santa Claus!
Why, there was scarce a man in the lot who didn't carry a bundle that
looked as if it had just tumbled out of his sleigh. I felt of one slyly,
and it was a boy's sled--a "flexible flyer," I know, because he left
one at our house the Christmas before; and I distinctly heard the
rattling of a pair of skates in that box in the next seat. They were all
good-natured, every one, though the train was behind time--that is a
sure sign of Christmas. The brakeman wore a piece of mistletoe in his
cap and a broad grin on his face, and he said "Merry Christmas" in a way
to make a man feel good all the rest of the day. No Santa Claus, is
there? You just ask him!
And then the train rolled into the city under the big gray dome to which
George Washington gave his name, and by-and-by I went through a doorway
which all American boys would rather see than go to school a whole week,
though they love their teacher dearly. It is true that last winter my
own little lad told the kind man whose house it is that he would rather
ride up and down in the elevator at the hotel, but that was because he
was so very little at the time and didn't know things rightly, and,
besides, it was his first experience with an elevator.
- Pages
- 42
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