day 6

"Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of Glory shall come in. Who is the King of Glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of Glory." (Psalms 24)

Is There a Santa Clause?

Dear Editor:

       I am eight years old.

       Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Clause. Papa says, "If you see it in The Sun it's so." Please tell me the truth is there a Santa Clause?

                                                 Virginia O'Hanlan

                                                  115 West 95th Street

                                                 New York City

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligent capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Clause. He exists as certainly as love and generosity 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 Clause! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith, no poetry, no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Clause! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Clause, but even if they did not see Santa Clause coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Clause, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Clause. The most real things in the world are those that either 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 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 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? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Clause! Thank God he lives, and he lives forever, a thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.