|
Is there a Santa Claus?
Dear Editor. ??“ I am eight years
old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
Papa says ???If you see it in The Sun, it??™s so.??? Please
tell me the truth: is there a Santa Claus?
-- Virginia O??™Hanlon, 115 West
Ninety-Fifth St., New York, NY (the year is 1897)
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 nothing can be which is not comprehensible
by their little minds.
All minds, Virginia, whether they
be men??™s or children??™s, are little. In this great universe
of ours man is a mere insect, and ant, in his intellect, as
compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by
the intelligence capable 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
our 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 to believe in Santa Claus! You
might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your
papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas
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 there is no Santa Claus.
The most real things in the world
are those that 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 imagine all the wonders there are unseen and un-seeable
in the world.
You may 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 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 that 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 make glad the heart of children. Casual
Essays of the Sun.
Postscript:
Virginia O'Hanlon went on to graduate from
Hunter College with a Bachelor of Arts degree at age 21. The
following year she received her Master's from Columbia, and
in 1912 she began teaching in the New York City school
system, later becoming a principal. After 47 years, she
retired as an educator. Throughout her life she received a
steady stream of mail about her Santa Claus letter, and to
each reply she attached an attractive printed copy of the
Church editorial. Virginia O'Hanlon
Douglas
died on
May 13, 1971,
at the age of 81, in a nursing home in Valatie, N.Y. |
