The Daily Alaska empire., 1927-12-23
IS THERE A SANTA CLAUS!

Yesterday two little newsboys asked that ques- tin, one of the other One skeptical because he hadn't seen Santa Claus. The other took him on faith. "You believe in God. don't you?' he queried Well, you can't him." he concluded his argument trumphantly Faith is one Of the most necessary elements of life, the spirit that in the recognition of the reality of many things that cannot be
 Thirty years ago, a writer on the old New York Sun wrote an editorial article under tho caption "Is There A Santa Claus?" II took the form of reply to little girl who had written the editor to know if there was really a Santa Claus But it has a message for "grown-uI folks" as well as children. It is probably the most widely quoted Christmas editorial that has appeared since it first published in the New York Sun on September 21, 1897. It hasn grown old in the lapse of time and it applies today despite the vast progress that has been made in all lines, just it did then The Elm pire has published it in the past and, appropos is it of the which is now upon us 1t IS with all the pleasure feels on greeting an old and very dear friend that we republish it here with:
 We take pleasure in answering at once and thus prominently the com munication below expressing at the same time great qualification that it's faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:
 Dear Edtor-1 am 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 Santa Claus? = Virginia oHanon, 115 West Ninety fifth Street."
 Virginia your little friends wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of skepteal age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not com prehensible by their little minds All minds Virginia, whether they be mems or childrens are little. In this great universe of ours man is mere insect an 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 Santa Claus He exists as certainly love and gen erosity 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 V1rgnias There could be no childlike faith then no poetry no romance to make toerable this existence We should have no en- joyment except in sense and sight The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
 Not belive in santa Clausi You might well not believe III idiilSS. 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 Santa Claus coming down. what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus but that is no sign that there is Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see Did you fairies dancing on the lawn? of course not, but that's no proof that they not therel No body can conceive imagine all the wonders there unseen and unseeabe 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 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 all real? An Vir- ginia. in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
 No Santa Claus, Thank God he lives and he lives forever thou sand years from now Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now. he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
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