SANTA CLAUS, 
225 
a platform, and after a solemn speech to the 
awestruck children, in the course of which they 
were again told what had been reiterated in 
every household for months previously — that he 
had no gifts for any but good little boys and 
girls — he descended and mingled in the crowd. 
To his particular question some little fellow with 
the most earnest manner would declare that he 
had been indeed a good boy during the year ; 
and tiny maidens would peep up from hiding 
their faces in their mother’s skirts to receive 
their share of bon-bons from the great bag hung 
round the neck of Santa Claus, The little folks 
of Amboina must all be good, for before they 
went home one and all received a pretty gift,- — 
secured to them, however, by tickets purchased 
previously by kind relatives. 
We do not hear so much in our country of 
Saint Nicholas, or, to use the form initiated by 
the Americans, Santa Claus, To my friends the 
Van De venters I owe the information I now 
offer you, in the supposition that it may be as 
new to you as to me. With all Teuton nations 
the night of 6th December, the name-day of the 
good Saint Nicholas, is the feast for children par 
excellence . He was a bishop who lived in Asia 
Minor in the fourth century, and who was famous 
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