From the San Francisco Call, Volume 87, Number 27, 27 December 1900
Fire in the Saint's Whiskers.
OAKLAND, Dec 26.— While impersonating Santa Claus at the Piedmont Episcopal Church Sunday School Christmas celebration, Harold Haven's long cotton beard came in contact with a lighted candle and the inflammable stuff blazed up fiercely. Tne young man's face was badly scorched and but for his quick action in tearing the burning mass away he would have been fatally injured. The accident created a great sensation, but after the interruption the exercises were continued.
his article comes from the California Digital Newspaper Collection, Center for Bibliographic Studies and Research, University of California, Riverside http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cdnc. The collection has digitzed more than 400,000 images from newspapers in the 19th and 20th centuries. Images dated between 1846 and 1922 are in the public domain and not subject to copyright.
Spelling, capitalization and punctuation have been kept as they appeared in the original article.
Learn more about Piedmont's history and view the city's collection of historical photos at www.ci.piedmont.ca.us/history.shtml.
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