Zurich Herald, 1944-12-21, Page 2Mn::+w�•^'""•�•�—ter
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Back In 1897, little Virginia O'Banion wrote the following letter to the
editor of the New York Sun: of am $ years old. Some of my little friends
Na' there is no Santa Claus. Papa gays, III you ��see it in The Sun it's so.'
Please tell me here Sianta
or wrote a news-
paper and literary l
ry, classicinhe truth—ls ireply to this childish plea.eItt15 reprinted here
Yes, indeed!
"Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have
been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age—they
do not believe except what they see—they think that noth-
ing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds.
"All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or chil-
dren's, are little.
"In this great universe of ours, rnan is a mere insect, an ant, in his
intell, as m, as measured
by heccompared
intelligence bgraspingle of boundless
the whole of truth iand knowledge.
"Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.
"I -le exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist,
and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty
and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa
Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would
be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this
existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The
eternal light 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 inen to watch in all the chimneys
on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see
Santa Claus corning down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa
Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus—the most real
things in the world are those neither children nor 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 imag-
ine all the wonders that are unseen and unseeable in the world.
"You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise
inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strong-
est man, or 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 all real?—ah, Virginia, in all this world
there is nothing else real and abiding.
"No Santa Claus! Thank God !—he lives, and
be lives forever ---a thousand years from now, Vir-
ginia,
nay, ten thousand years from now, he will con-
tinue to make glad the heart of childhood."