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Show i s There A Santa Claus ? Si (The Mowing Christmas classic first appeared as an editorial in the New York "Sun" September 21 1897 ) Dear Editor: --Cg I am eight years old. ; Some of my little friends say there Is no Santa Claus. : Pap 9a's "u you see It In the "Sun" ifs so." Please tell me the truth. Is there a Santa Claus? Virginia O'Hanlon Ti H5 West 95 Street 'if Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a sceptical age Thev ... i0 not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible to their little minds :s!; All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's! are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere ;-s; insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the bound-: bound-: less world about him, as measured by the intelligence cap- able of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge. "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and ' you know that they abound and give to your life its highest Pj teauty and joy. Alas! How dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary' as if v there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith J then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this exist- ance. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and .... sight. The eternal life with which childhood fills the world ::; would be extinguished. Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not ; believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to y watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, k but that is no sign there is no Santa Claus. The most real s:: things in the world are those things that neither children ": or men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the ' lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are ; not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world. You tear apart baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world :;: which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength - of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. ... Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside ; the curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding. No Santa Claus! Thank God he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to y: make glad the heart of childhood." |