The Independent-News, Volume 116, Number 30, Walkerton, St. Joseph County, 20 December 1990 — Page 7

Yes, Virginia . . . TP v • 4 . Y L I -* Ar K- Ar o J^Bs r b o <S jmEr I U—xtu. a LtA^ujiA ums JMBb Rfruwl

What is perhaps the nation's most reprinted editorial was written in the year 1897, in response to a school girl’s simple question about the validity of the Santa Gaus legend. Virginia O’Hanlon, then eight years old, sent this question to the editor of the New York Sun. “Dear Editor: Some of

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my little friends say there is no Santa Gaus. Papa says, ‘lf you see it in the Sun it’s so.’ Rease tell me the truth, is there a Santa Gaus?” The answer to this question, penned by an editorial writer named Francis Pharcellus Church has become an American classic. Here it is in full:

“Dear Editor — Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Gaus . ..” Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except what 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 intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge. Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Gaus. 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 this world be if there were no Virginias. There would be no child-like 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. Not believe in Santa Gaus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Oiristmas Eve to catch Santa Gaus but, even if they did not see Santa Gaus, but that is no sign there is no Santa Gaus. 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 unseenable in the world. You tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil the united strength of all the covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, love, poetry, romance, can push aside the 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

DECEMBER 20, 1990 — THE INDEPENDENT-NEWS —

more real and abiding. No Santa Gaus! 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.” WOMEN’S AGLOW TO MEET Walkerton Women's Aglow Fellowship will be meeting at the Community Building, on Thursday, December 20, with refreshments at 9:00 and the meeting at 9:30 a.m. E.S.T. Our speaker will be Margaret Parker. She and her husband, Pastor Ralph Parker along with

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