Santa's Land USA

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Editor's reply New York Sun September 21, 1897 SANTA'S LAND PUTNEY, VERMONT IS THERE I an sight yours is some of my fanta friends say Dru Class Presse tell me the truth, is rere a Santa Claus? Virgris O'Harlon Virginia your friends are wrong They have been affected by the scepticism of a sceptical age. They do not believe unless they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their lillle 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 grasp- ing the whole of truth and knowledgë. Yés Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know A SANTA CLAUS? 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, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We would 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 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 that are unseen and unseeable in the world. You may fear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside but there is a vel covering the unseen world which not the strongest man or even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, and romance con push aside that curlain and view the supernal glory and beauly beyond. Is il 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, len times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

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SANTA'S LAND PUTNEY, VERMONT "Where it's Christmas time all the time" "Yes, Virginia And more than 100,000 visitors a year know I'm here all the time. (Except, of course, for my important trip on Christmas Eve!)" SANTA CLAUS. SL6 GAF Color by Leonard Lorette 128334 Pub. by Forward's Color Productions, Inc. Manchester, Vermont 05254 CARD