Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1914-12-24

| If anything the youthful thinker expe-
riences feeling akin to that accompany
ing the loss of treasured possession
This is very sad, for to lose ones
| Santa Claus is to be bereft OF glowing
belief of childhood that ranks far above
| in value to the fairies which dance about
ones head at night and whisper sweet
| things In a dream.
One day. a long while ago. little girl
whose name was Virginia, had been told
there was no Santa Claus. The informa-
ton was furnished by her schoolmates,
who should have known better. Perhaps
they spoke carelessly and later repented.
What they said, however, alarmed Vir-
ginia. She wanted to have no doubts
about the spirit of Christmas. So sho
wrote letter to the editor Of the New
York Sun, and said: please tell me,
is there q Santa CLAUSE"
And the editor of that paper, because
he was a kind man and believed all ms
life what Virginia had been told to doubt,
answered her letter. By his reply he
brushed away all misgivings from the
mind of his little inquirer.
What the editor wrote has been many
times reprinted. but because it is so full
of that same spirit which told the Wise
Men to follow the star and take their
gifts to tiny Child lying In n manser,
It win probably be quoted many times
again He said:
Virginia, your little friends are wrong.
They have been affected by the sleptl-
clsm of a skeptcal age. They do not be-
lieve except they see. They think that
nothing can be which is not comprehen-
sible by their little minds. All minds,
Virginia. whether they be mems or chill
dren's, are little. In this great universe
of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in
his intellect. as compared with the bound
less world about him, as measured by the
intelligence capable Of grasping the whole
truth and knowledge.
''Yes, Virginia, there is Santa ClauB.
He exists as certainty as love and gener-
osity 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 IL there were no
Santa Claus. 1t would be as dreary as II
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.
mot believe in Santa Claus! You might
as we'll not believe in fairies You might
get papa to hire men to watch in all the
chimneys on Christmas I've to catch
Santa Claus, but even II they did not ses
Santa Claus coming down. what would
that proven NOBODY sees santa Claus,
but that is no sign that 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 unseeable In the
world
You may tear apart the baby's rattis
and see what makes the noise inside, but
there Is 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 ana glory
beyond. Is il an real? All. Virginia, h
all this world there Is nothing else real
and abiding
NO santa Claus! Thank Godl he lives.
and he lives forever. A thousand years
nom now, Virginias nay. ten times ten
thousand years from now, he win con-
tinue to make glad the heart OF child
hood"