4A • COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL • DECEMBER 26, 2018
O PINION
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Yes, Virginia, this 121-year-old editorial
remains relevent in the heart of childhood
—Virginia O’Hanlon no Santa Claus! It would be
115 West Ninety-Fift h St. as dreary as if there were no
Virginias. Th ere would be no
he following editorial
Virginia, your little friends childlike faith then, no poet-
was fi rst published Sept. are wrong. Th ey have been ry, no romance to make tol-
21, 1897, in the New York
aff ected by the skepticism of erable this existence.
Sun, written in response to
a skeptical age. Th ey do not
We should have no en-
8-year-old Virginia O’Han- believe except what they see. joyment, except in sense
lon’s poignant question: Is
Th ey think that nothing and sight. Th e external light
there a Santa Claus?
can be which is not compre- with which childhood fi lls
Th e thoughful and heart-
felt response from then
editor Francis Pharcellus
From the Managing Editor’s Desk
Church was printed as an
Ned Hickson
unsigned editorial and
has since become history’s
most reprinted newspaper
hensible by their little minds. the world would be extin-
editorial.
All
minds,
Virginia, guished.
More than 100 years later, whether they be men’s or
Not believe in Santa Claus!
its relevance remains, not
children’s, are little. In this
You might as well not be-
just in the lessons off ered
great universe of ours, man lieve in fairies. You might
regarding the heart of
is a mere insect, an ant, in get your papa to hire men
childhood, but also in the
his intellect as compared to watch in all the chimneys
wisdom that we recognize
with the boundless world on Christmas Eve to catch
easily as children but risk
about him, as measured by Santa Claus, but even if you
forgetting in adulthood
the intelligence capable of did not see Santa Claus com-
— unless you “continue to
grasping the whole of truth ing down, what would that
make glad” your own heart and knowledge.
prove?
of childhood.
Yes, Virginia, there is a
Nobody sees Santa Claus,
Santa Claus. He exists as cer- but that is no sign that there
Dear Editor,
tainly as love and generosity is no Santa Claus. Th e most
I am 8 years old. Some of and devotion exist, and you real things in the world are
my little friends say there is know that they abound and those that neither children
no Santa Claus. Papa says, give to your life its highest nor men can see.
“If you see it in Th e Sun, it’s beauty and joy.
Did you ever see fairies
so.” Please tell me the truth,
Alas! How dreary would dancing on the lawn?
is there a Santa Claus?
be the world if there were
Of course not, but that's
T
no proof that they are not
there. Nobody can conceive
or imagine all the wonders
there are unseen and unsee-
able 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 stron-
gest man, nor even the unit-
ed strength of all the stron-
gest men that ever lived,
could tear apart.
Only faith, poetry, love,
romance, can push aside that
curtain and view and picture
the supernal beauty and glo-
ry beyond.
Is it all real?
Ah, Virginia, in all this
world there is nothing else
real and abiding.
No Santa Claus! Th ank
God! He lives and lives for-
ever. A thousand years from
now, Virginia, nay 10 times
10,000 years from now, he
will continue to make glad
the heart of childhood.
__________________
“Is Th ere a Santa Claus?”
reprinted from the Septem-
ber 21, 1897, edirtion of Th e
New York Sun.
Send letters to:
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