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29th President WARREN G. HARDING Autograph Letter Signed with Christmas + Santa!

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:1,000.00 USD Estimated At:1,200.00 - 1,400.00 USD
29th President WARREN G. HARDING Autograph Letter Signed with Christmas + Santa!
Autographs
Warren G. Harding Writes on Christmas Day to the Father of his Future White House Secretary !
WARREN G. HARDING (1865-1923). Twenty-Ninth President of the United States, serving from 1921 until his death from a heart attack in 1923.
Christmas, 1904-Dated, Autograph Letter Signed, “Harding,” 4 pages, measuring 4.75” x 6.5”, at [Marion, Ohio], upon Mrs. Harding's gilt-embossed, “FKH” monogrammed white linen stationery, Very Fine. Some earlier archival reinforcement to the central spine, overall, clean well written and easily readable. This Holiday Letter mentions Christmas and Santa, being written to “Colonel [George B. Christian] and Cooney.” Here, Warren Harding pens, in full:

“Christmas, 1904, Dear Colonel and Cooney: ----

Here's wishing you a Merry Christmas! -- Just as like as not you will think the circumstances not very suggestive of merriment, but bless you! Things are not half bad. You might be dead, or worse, in politics. Besides, it is not without compensation to be housed with pretty nurses and comfortable surroundings, and let the world wag a little without sweating about it. The labels will indicate the bon bon dish is a little remembrance for Coonie. She might also have gotten a blooming plant to add color to her loafing quarters.

The book and booze are for the Colonel. I wonder which he will like best. The Duchess says the book will last the longer. Great head, hasn't she? I fancy he will enjoy both.

I tackled Santa Claus for a new set of nerves but he turned me down. He declared that if people could buy nerves to order, I'd be getting a new set myself. Also said that nerves were poor stock to handle, that most people had too much nerve already. I guess he didn't quite understand.

Anyhow, you are both climbing up-grade, your doctor says it, your friends observe it, and you will soon feel it, and we all rejoice.

It is custom at this point to introduce T. and J. and our old friend Punch on Christmas. It won't seem quite right if the Senior Christians are not here. Wish you could join us in making merry. No body's else's presence is so valued.

Anyhow, cheer up, Colonel. Your old friend and ally, named Gyp, is lots worse off than you. Gyp has had his day but you and Cooney still belong to the young crowd and we can all be happy yet, you bet.

Here's to you, any way, with the very best wishes a man can write in this great, glad, holiday, and the Duchess joins in heartily. She's a regular female Santa Claus and is glad of it. --- Yours, - (Signed) Harding” Noted below to, “Rooting and grunting and glad.”
Colonel George B. Christian (1847-1930) was the father of George B. Christian, Jr., who was 31 years old at the time of this letter (Harding was 39). The Christian family lived next door to the Hardings in Marion, Ohio. In 1915, newly elected U.S. Senator, Warren G. Harding, asked his boyhood friend to come with him to Washington as his personal secretary. Thus, George B. Christian, Jr. became his White House secretary in 1921. “Duchess” was Harding's personal nickname for his wife Florence.