Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus

This is another of my very favorite stories.....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 is 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 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 CALUS!!!! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith , no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should hav no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world woud 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 Calus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign there is no SANTA CLAUS. The most real things in the world are those that neither children or men can see. 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. THE NEW YOUR SUN, SEPTEMBER 21, 1897