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Show 1 "Yes. indeed! ll ' f ' 7' I if Virginia, your hltle friends are wrong. They have been al- r :: " ff.: . .; fected by the skepticism of a skeptical age they do not believe I 1 . J; ' ' ' i; except what they see they think that nothing can be which is M ''- T" " not comprehensible by their little minds. . v,i ' ZLl. J j: 'All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are fed i -Z ' 1j f!rj 4 : In this great universe o! ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in f Pf JlyTit?"' " l i I his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as ,3 h"' ' VtZlll A' I I measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of M $ IK I ZUZZZ I truth and knowledge. ; 1 t - m ' v , I "Yes. Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. : J f , Y . - 4 p . e exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion ex- : J . , ' I is!, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest i 'WV I beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there j , ffzf- I were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no I t 'A j I ! ' I Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no 1 Jj.-- ; I romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no en- i H i " ' " I joyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which jl 'ii&f childhood fills the world would be extinguished. i j V t" ' I "Not believe in Santa Clausl You might as well not believe JSfsy4 4 1 '' I I , I in fairies! - ' j X. - rf S" i I "You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chim- Y 7T'Zi' "' ' f neys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus. but even if they did - ' " uH$5 " Y I not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? No- I 7 f V I body sees Santa Claus, but that is no Sign that there is no Santa I t 4 S ir ' . I Claus the most real things in the wprld are those neither chil- j 4 - ,V (J I dren nor men can see. , , x ' 4 , ' , J- 1 "Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, J ' 1 w? ' . J "' I I but that's no proof that they are not there nobody can conceive ) Jf j I I " j j: or imagine all the wonders that are unseen and unseeable in the 4 1'' ' I world. j ( ,1 i M 4 t "You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise ' " p t , I' inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the X 'J ' , " " I strongest man, or even the united strength of all the strongest men, J ! w j: that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, g ( 'YaOC '' j romance, can push aside the curtain and view and picture the fwjV f j: supernal beauty and glory beyond. I iV h r' I "Is it all real? ah. Virginia, in all this world there is nothing 1 uJmjmv , " , . . I else real and abiding. j j-tir' ' . " "! f " "No Santa Clausl Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever jt ' , "T 'j, " 1? t a thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten thousand years " I irom now, he will continue to make glqd the heart of childhood" , " ' ', , . V Jfcl v -iJ One December dojr in fS97, Virginia Q'Hanhn wrote to the New York Sun. ' Nfcv 1 $ -ZT' x t k Y y ;V; " 5t,':' 1 "lomj yeoi oW Some 0 my fitte friend say there is no Santo Claus. Papa J - 'L I f X slfI' y00 5ee ,n e Sun Weoie (eW me ffie (ruth is tiere 0 Santa Clous? :-v.. I .: -?l'' : -- .ja e onswer (0 V'r9'n'0 O'Honlon's question, written in a moment oi rlep spiritual insight by Francil B. Church, stands even today as q testonieni rfHectin two thousand I ? te V , " years oi faith It has been reprinted htre because it always will deserve to be read again fciinavrjrff Z-Z- " ZMLUUIjM |