The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1949-12-22
RippZing
OF the Rivers

The following, written by
Francis B. Church of the New
York sun IN 1897 in response
to a letter from an e~ight-year-
old girl with the question, "iS
there a Santa Claus" has been
published many times.
At Christmas time it seems
always new to us, so it is pub
hshed again.
"YeS, indeed!
Virginia, your little friends
are wrong. They have been af-
fected by the Skepticism of a
skeptical age-they do not be-
lieve except what they see
they think that nothing can be
which is not comprehensive by
their little minds.
"An minds, Virginia, whether
they be mems or children's, are
little.
"In this great universe of
ours, man is a mere insect, an
ant, in his intellect, as COM
pared with the boundleSS
world about him, as measured
by the intelligence capable of
grasping the whole truth and
knowledge.
yes, Virginia, there is a
Santa Claus.
"He exists as certainly as love
and generosity and devotion eX-
list, and you know that they
abound and give to your life
its highest beauty and joy.
Alas! how drearv would be the
world if there were no. Santa
Clausi It would be as dreary as
if there we're no romance to
make tolerable this existence.
We should have no enjoyment,
except in sense. and sight. The
eternal light with which child
hood fills the world would be
eXtinguished.
Not believe in Santa claus
You might as well not believe
in fairies.
you might get your papa to
hire men to watch III all the
chimneyS on Christmas Eve to
catch Santa Claus, but even of
they did not see Santa Claus
coming down., what would that
prove. Nobody sees Santa Claus,
but that is no sign that there
is no Santa Claus-the most
real things in the world are
those neither children nor men
can see.
did you ever see fairies dan
cling on the lawn? OF course
not, but that's no proof that
they are not there-nobody can
conceive or imagine all the
wonders that are unseen and
unseeable 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.
or even the united strength of
all the strongest men that
ever lived, could tear apart. Only
faith, fancy, poetry, love, ro-
nance, can push aside the cur
tain and view and picture the
supernal beauty and glory be-
yond.
as it all real?-ah, Virginia,
in all this world there is moth
ing else real and abiding.
"No Santa Claus. Thank
Godl-he lives, and he lives
forever-a thousand years from
now, Virginia, nay, ten thou
sand years from now, he will
continue to make glad the heart
of childhood.
wednesday, Dec. q, was the
shortest day of the year, accord
ing to the calendar.
The Tribune-Herald advertis-
ing solicitor, Lyle J. Tintinger,
ST., has an argument about
this however. He claims last
Monday and Tuesday were both
shorter days than Wednesday.
With the added rush of solicit
ing Christmas greeting ads for
this issue, Lyle was buster than
the proverbial cat and saws he
was lucky to hit each business
house once.
If he was unable to contact
the manager on the first try,
he didn't have time to go back,
consequently some of our adj
v~ertisers who may have wanted
to greet their patrons through
the Tribune-Herald were not
contacted.
We wish there were some way
to have Christmas without all
the hustle and rush, but it was
ever thus and we see no pros
pect for improvement in this
respect.
We had to miss the Christ
mas program presented at the
high school last Wednesday,
night by the schools music
department under the direc-
ton of Miss Ethel Schuster.
From all reports, however, We
were one of the few who
weren't there.
The junior high school gym
was TANNED to capacity for
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