New Britain herald., 1929-12-20
Classic Reply to Small Girl's Questioning Letter Results in Years of Eff fort Among Unfortu- mates.

SNIllCl oIl NtN oIh ; COlllplcN East Side, there is formed q cross such as the poor of all the world must bear
 It is q burden Of sQualor and struggle, lightencd only by the un- dying desire for survival.
 And at this corner stands school No. 117, which draws from the drah and depressing trnrmeuts all about an army of children so gay and eager that they seem 10 belle the evidences of their bleak hack grounds. The cocoon is not a lovely thing-but the butterfly is.
 And in this school you will dis cover a Christmas story which does not end OH December g5, but goes on through the year.
 The Little Girl Who Doubted
 santa Claus Has Grown Up
 For here. as though playing the echo to a childhood cry, you'll find the woman who once was Virginia o'llaulon, and "ho, when years old, was taunteI by Her playmatcs into sitting down and writing a skeptical letter concerning the real y of SInta Claus.
 Happily this letter fell into tho hands of the late Frank Church, then aE editorial writer on the New York Sun. Church pcnncd a reply which has become q Christmas classic. This was &2 years ago.
 But Mrs. Edward M. Douglas, who
 
 and who has lived to read the mes sage many times to her own little girl, has applied the santa Claus definition 10 her life. and in so doing has herself become something or symbol of the spirit described.
 As Church expressed it. santa Claus exists so long as generosity and love and devotion exist. and they abound 10 give your life it's highest beauty @nd joy. Alas, how drcary the Worli would be if there were no Santa CiaUs! IL would be as droary as if there were no Nir- gjnias. Thor" would ho no child like faith then. no poetry, no TO- nance 10 make nor" toIcrablr
 
 have no enjoyment. save in sense and sight The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be rNtinguishcd."
 \ scene Of Poverty
 So the woman, who once was the puzzled little Virginia, has gone into one Of the most thread bare sec tione of th1 Now No5l- s.I,rt,., tIe slice of the world wherein "only the eternal light of childhood' brightcns moan streets.
 The window 1f her school room looks out upon ;t triangle, cluttored with rickcty push-carts. At the peak ot this triangle, h raudy-und-toy shop reveals it's bright Christmas or nnmcnts below q Wind-tWistcd cigar sign. Just beyond this a brick wall, splotchcd with fragments of ancient theatrical posters, leads the way to a line of drcary tcncments. And these seem all the drearier because of the lines of washing whipping in ;t dirty wind.
 Tn" long, gray lines of Manhat- tan bridge sweep over the nearby river, and in the vaulting arch ways men, women and children hudllc pathcticHlly about little fires made of Eiudlin& which youngsters have filched from the wharvos. latriarchal old men and shiycrins women desert their push-cart stands to crowd about ash cans which have been turned into stoves.
 Carries Childhood Message
 Into this neiEhborhool, Mrs. Douglas is bringing tho message which came 10 her in childhood and which has been sent forth 10 mill lions Of othcrs-it is an effort to bring some romance, beauty and happiness into the lives of the chil- drcu of "poEcrty row"
 Church, in his editorial, had writ ten it something like this: "Nobody seos santa Claus. but that is no sign there is none The most real things in the world are those that roithcr mon nor children ever see Only faith, fancy poetry, love, romance can push aside the Ncils covering the unseen world and pie ture the Supcrual beauty and glory beyond"
 It's rather hard, to hc sure, 10 make Monroe and Market streets socm anythiu% Hut poor and taw- dry and discouragiug. Still, the children here ar" Hs the children of everywhere. The corner candy and-toy store is as glttcring and alluing as any other.
 Here, in School 177, surrounded by the hundreds of tenement urchins ~5 they scamper through the gay surroundings of holiday color. Mrs Douglas most modcstly asks to be kept in the background. Nes-thc Christmas message has been passed through her to IS many children as could understand
 Where Life ie Real
 Down near the river front where sQuIlor meets struggle at every turn. tho children need dreams even more than other children. Reality de- Sronds upon them suddenly and tor rjbly. It sweeps them into the toughest currents Of a great city; it hardcns them young and makes hundreds of them predatory Santa Claus isn't allowed to live long in their young imaginatons if the hard-bolod little rcalists of the street can help it.
 So the task Of tho woman who once was little Virginia becomes snmcthin" of a test. as well. And For. if Hs Frank Church one" wrote, santa C'"us exists as long as generosity, love and devotion rNist" then. in q fashion. Mrs. Douglas has bccom" something of S4ntn herself tn lhn .llillrnn N-hn