Posted on 12/13/2011 4:54:30 AM PST by iowamark
Eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York's Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history's most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and on posters and stamps.
"DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old. "Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. "Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.' "Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?
"VIRGINIA O'HANLON. "115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET."
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 Claus. 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 Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike 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 Claus! 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 Claus, but even if 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 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 unseeable in the world.
You may 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, nor even the united strength of all 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 Claus! 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.
Yeah and I think it might be that chubby white-haired wrinkly dude who's running for President.
Today, if you see it in the SUN, it's demonRAT propaganda and definitely NOT to be trusted.
And isn’t that just a damn shame?
Her famous correspondence followed her throughout her life. It was run in The New York Sun every year until the paper folded in 1949 (the paper's name was revived years later and is currently in print) as well as countless other publications throughout the years. In 1959, O’Hanlon moved to North Chatham, New York. She was the subject of a tribute by the North Chatham United Methodist Church in 1966. At the celebration, O’Hanlon read her letter and Church's response to an enthusiastic crowd. Her grandson, James Temple, told the The New York Sun in 2004 that she did not think she think that she had done anything special. He said that O’Hanlon told him, “All I did was ask the question . . . Mr. Church's editorial was so beautiful . . . It was Mr. Church who did something wonderful.”
Laura Virginia O’Hanlon Douglas died on May 13, 1971. In 2005, plans were announced to transform her New York City childhood home into a school, according to the the Sun. A decision of which lifelong teacher O’Hanlon would surely have approved
Seems she really had...A Wonderful Life.
ping
The Innocent question from a child sparked a a timeless answer and a wonderful story to be told through the ages.
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. However, to Libs it is the government. To conservatives, it is GOD, who gives us the greatest gift of all- life!
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