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5" io 14) 2 - i' Achy : 2st HAE yor » ? Y.07 AST AM CY EVANS 2 LY 5 ' FA y . » [147 " er rh PTR : YLT Ly * RAY ' v 5 ' : 3 PITA A msn dt itd dase Yount 2 Ch SN ph bd susan A 0) " NE ~ « mci i a AE lv a aS pe SR mR ER | - CN Feo) 5 WZ S J N AN » EAE Sl wR en Tv CA 2? Cal > oh [RAR mia NY CT ~ Jo SAAT RUBY. z T = A 3 "1% \ : 5 \ ! \ : oN hd ; { - / q 8 oN) oN) s, Virginia, There 33 A Santa Claus. editor of the New York Suni "I am 8 years old, Some of my little friends Si 15 * ¥ 3 Back im 1897, Nitle Virginia O'Hanlon wrote the following letter to the ~ { say there is mo Santa Claus. Papa says, 'If. you mee It Mn The Sun it's no. ] Please tell me the truth--Iis there a Santa Claus?" The editor wrofe a mews- paper and litérury classic in reply to this childish plen, It is reprinted here! on " : * Yes, indeed! - - "You might get your papa to hire men to 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, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus--the most real things in the world are those neither children nor mien can see. "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, ere little. "In this gvest universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his Jitllect, ais cotmpured with the boundless world about him, as measured Ty the intelligerice capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge. "Yep, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus, "He exidts as certainly as love sind generosity and dévotion exist, and you know that they a snd give to your life its Highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary ould be the world if there were no Santa * Claus! It be as dr as if there were no Virginias, There would be no chil faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence, We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The éternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished. "Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in Yoboai Ari Fi 8; - "" A AAA A Wb GL lr se in EW SS TET A "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 end 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 snd view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyontl. "Is it all veal?--ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing elte real and abiding. "No Santa Claus! Thank God!--he lives, and he lives forever--a thousand years from now, Vir: . ginia, nay, ten thousaiid years from now, he will con- tinue to make glad the heaft of childhood." Ye, rr "Villy Si Be aie I A aa a aaa -------- ~ 2/3