We take pleasure in answering at once and thus promi-
nently the communication below, expressing at the same
time our great gratification that its faithful author is num-
bered among the friends of The Sun.

Dear Editor: I am eight 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.

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 comprehended 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 cer-
tainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you
know that they abound and give to our 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 childish faith
then, no poetry, no romance, to make tolerable this exis-
tence. 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 men that ever lived could
tear apart. Only fancy, poetry, love, romance can push
aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty
and glory behind. 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 for-
ever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times
ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make
glad the heart of childhood.