The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1910-12-23
DEAR SANITY CLAUS A MYTH!

I1lSo LUNA \AaAh VI 0SSNN@
latest to lead an attack against Sanity
Claus. She said in a lecture the other
day:
why should children flock around
the dreadful, tawdry images Of Sanity
Claus, when Jonathan Edwards lived in
New England7 A representation of
Benjamin Franklin, for instance, would
be much more real to them. After all
they don't want what is artificial. They
know Sanity Claus is only a myth"
All those who prefer Jonathan Ed
wards to Sanity Claus please stand and
be counted, says the Farmers Weekly
Dispatch. Mr.. Edwards was a great, a
very great man; but he spent his long
life conscientiously handing sinners over
to an angry God" His spirit does
not abide among US very knowingly to-
day; and if it did we should do less
complaining about the high cost OF
living, for Jonathan made it hard for
his fellows to scare up an enthusiastic
appetite.
The lady is unfortunate in picking
out Ben Franklin as a substitute for our
patron saint, for Benjamin would be the
first to protest. He would take up
arms to support the noble institution OF
Kris Kringle.
Gradgrinds begin their warfare on
Sanity under a woful misapprehension.
Sanity Claus is not a myth. He is a
symbol and an ideal, and as such the
world will never grow beyond him. In
a divine world facts are necessary, but
not pre-eminent. Mar has dreams, Wis
ions, sentiments, faith; and so he has
Sanity Claus. Men believe in Sanity
Claus because he is true-because he
is a truth. A myth persists only as a
curiosity-but Sanity Claus, being a
symbol, persists as a spiritual need Of
the world. This world, stripped Of what
Sanity Claus stands for, would be intol-
cradle to men who aspire and love and
pray.
No doubt there are those who do not
believe in Sanity Claus. There are also
those who do not believe in fairies.
Why argue with them? If a man is
blind, it is useless to tell him Of color.
If I do not lift up my face to see the
stars, that does not prove there are no
stars. If I do not lift up my soul to
see God, and keep a holy hush in my
life that I may hear the rush Of angel
wings, that does not prove my own
spiritual color blindness.
To the believing is given a vision,
they do know Sanity Claus is real, and
that he comes down the chimney and
leaves his benediction upon such as
have kept their child hearts undefled.
Sad indeed is that little child who is
denied his faith in Sanity Claus. He
must grow up without the exercise Of
that which makes a man strong in be-
lief. Sanity Claus is the ~inalienable
right of childhood. He has made the
world blossom with the smiling faces Of
children.
He has touched US, too, with his
necromancy, and we have remained
children-and of such is the kingdom
Of heaven" He cannot die vi of the
world SO long as men bring their gifts
to the Little Child in the manger of
Bethlehem. He cannot die so long as
the human heart sings toward God in
the consciousness that men are the
children Of God. The laundering old
world goes on its foolish, happy way,
clinging to its dreams and its child
play, in spite Of the scientists and the
women's clubs, because man is normally
a worshipping being-a child eager to
fling his love about whatsoever things
are beautiful-whatsoeve things give
scope for his growing, aspiring ideals Of
human gentleness and affection.
I'll bet twenty to n on St. Nick if
all the literary clubs in Boston boycott
him.
His Golden OppOrtunity