OK. Everyone I’ve always said that I’m a mean kitty and that’s true but I’m no Grinch, or a ‘Bah, Humbug Scrooge’.
I mean I never tell a kid that there is no Santa Claus, because in my personal experience I’ve encountered some unexplainable things that can only be attributed to some sort of “Santa Claus Spirit” Yep a spirit.
Because it’s got to be a special “energy” in which “Santa Claus” can come around, now in places like Botswana---the energy there has been almost killed, except for those few hardy souls that do what they can to at least keep it on life support. God Bless Them!
But a hundred years ago this year, a little girl by the name of Virginia O’Hanlon had an 8 year old crisis of faith. See little Virginia had a birthday in July of that year and it must have been a very nice birthday, but in September, when she went back to school her school friends must have asked her “what did you do during the Summer” and she must have told them about her birthday and the presents she got---and during that moment she must have said out loud “I wonder what Santa Claus will bring at Christmas?”
Now it must have been a nasty 9 year old boy who told her that Santa Claus doesn’t exist (boys are like that you know—he must have received coal in his stocking last year) but Virginia believed and of course she went home crying that day and must have told her mother, her mother being busy as a mother is may have said “I’m sure Santa does exist” but Virginia wanted it from an authority so when Dad came home she put the question to him. Now Virginia’s father was a doctor and worked as an assistant coroner with the New York police dept. both as a doctor and as a coroner he must have seen the very sad and seamy underside of life that he wanted to protect or shield his family and his young daughter from.
1897 was also a very skeptical period of time, the Civil war was barely over 33 years ago and there were still very hard feelings and loss from that, it was a skeptical age, people were no longer believing in God, if a God could do all that harm. Dr. O’Hanlon was dumfounded when Virginia tearfully told him what had happened at school. But he was a resourceful man, he knew he didn’t have the words to explain this to her, nor did he want to burst her belief in Santa, but here was an 8 year old slowly timidly knocking on adulthoods’ door.
From time to time if there was any question to be settled Dr. O’Hanlon and other members of his family would write to the Question and Answer dept of the New York Sun Newspaper. And Dr. O’Hanlon had the habit of saying “That if it’s in the Sun, it’s so”. That was how powerful journalism was in those days. So he suggested to Virginia to write to the Sun Newspaper.
The Sun was a very lively newspaper in its writing and editorials, back then other newspapers would always write editorial rebuttals to other newspapers, this was a form of rivalry. The Sun remained being published until the mid 1950’s.
Surprisingly Virginia’s letter did not go to the Question and Answer column, it was re-directed to the Publisher of the newspaper a Mr. Mitchell who read it and thought that it would be best to answer it as an editorial and the best man for the job was Francis P. Church.
Church was the son of a Baptist minister the Rev. Pharcellus Church, Francis was the middle son of three boys and surprisingly his eldest brother Matthew and his younger brother John Adams were better known than Francis, even their Father was of some renown having established a publication on religion. Francis and his older brother founded the Army and Navy magazine in 1862 and later the Gazette magazine which was later bought by the Atlantic Monthly, both brothers acted as correspondents during the Civil War until Matthew joined the Union army and attainted the rank of Captain, Francis continued as a war correspondent. Younger brother John Adams became a famous mining engineer and later in life was at Tombstone, Arizona at the time of the gunfight at the O.K.Corrall.
Francis was an editor in 1897 at the Sun and was frequently handed any assignments that dealt with theology, because of his life experience Francis P. Church was a sardonic personality and had no time for “fluff or flummery”. His was a logical type of thinking and he like many others had been affected by the loss of humanity from the Civil War.
Mitchell handed the letter to Church who at first refused it, thinking it some sort of joke, but Mitchell said it wasn’t a joke, so with great resignation Church took the letter and began to work an editorial about it.
What he created was a 500 word editorial masterpiece for its day and it added to the idea of Santa Claus as being a spirit of belief in a skeptical age. Church realized that here was a child who was approaching adulthood, to just say yes Santa exists would not be enough, he had to explain what Santa was, in a way that was acceptable to children and also wake up the minds of adults to have “goodness, compassion and love” in their hearts. He realized that Santa was bigger than a grown up, that is was a question of faith in times of adversity. Something inspired Francis P. Church, a man that had no time for “fluff” or foolishness.
Now this editorial did not run in December of 1897 but in September of that month and was the 7th of 12 editorials that ran on page 10 of the Sun. But there was something about it that captured the minds, hearts and spirits of the reading public.
Most of the time when any newspaper ran an editorial, especially about a controversial subject other newspapers would do editorial rebuttals---but this one no newspaper dared to write a rebuttal----
It was the Sun’s policy to not give any editorial credit but have it as a Sun Newspaper response; no one knew that Francis P. Church wrote it. The Sun never republished it although there was great demand, finally 6 years after The Sun did, still not crediting Church---when it was republished it was with this snippy phrase “…that perhaps people’s scrapbooks were wearing out.”
In 1898 Church married, but had no children and continued writing at the Sun until several months before his death, he died in April 1906 after an illness of 3 months, he was buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Sleepy Hollow, New York. So great was his loss felt that the Sun took a remarkable step and announced that Church was the author of “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus” and the following December the Sun started re-printing the editorial on an annual basis, many other newspapers followed suit. As a matter of fact other newspapers had started re-printing it when the Sun didn’t.
The letter that little Virginia sent was mailed back to her by an assistant editor and is preserved along with the original editorial by the grandchildren of Virginia O’Hanlon.
What happened to little Virginia---well as all children she grew up, went to college became a school teacher, married for a short time, had a daughter, and taught school for 47 years. During her adult life she received many letters about that remarkable question and she answered every single one and included a beautifully printed copy of the letter and the editorial reply. She said that reading that reply in the Sun affected her course in life for the better good. She died in 1971 at the age of 81. She is buried near Rochester, New York.
It was feared that the letter she wrote was destroyed in a house fire, but some years later it was found safe and sound, and was shown on Antiques Road Show in 1998 and valued at over $50,000.00 for its remarkableness.
The brownstone house that Virginia lived when she wrote the letter suffered a fire some years later and was too badly gone to be preserved.
But it’s better that Virginia be an 8 year old child in a Victorian skeptical age that asked a simple question to be answered by a man who has seen too many disillusions in life. In doing so it has given them both immortality and it is, perhaps the best description of the true meaning and idea of “Santa Claus”.
So without further adieu I give you “YES, VIRGINIA, THERE IS A SANTA CLAUS”
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.
(I thank Newseum website for this copy) And if I got some of my facts a little wrong, I do tell you that the bulk of this blog is correct.
So you any of you think that we have become to commerialized in this world, well let me tell you something, I saw at Target today an 11 year old girl who was carefully selecting things for her Grandma, her two younger sisters and her Mom and she was paying for it out of money she had saved from collecting cans and bottles over the year. Her Dad was proud of her choices and her sense of finacial responsiblity.
I asked her why was she buying these things and she said "It's my way of saying 'thank you for being here and I love you', but I know that they know I love them, but it feels good."
The father said that most of the money that's brought intothe house hold goes to paying bills and the house and food, and it's a good thing he knows how to fix the family car , they take bus or Bart. No trips or anything but they find ways of having fun that's free and low cost. They had major medical bills and are slowly getting out from under them. He has no desire of taking out a loan or going into debt.
I looked at her and said, "You know the real meaning of Christmas" and she smiled at me.
So I asked her "What can I get for a brother who has everything and can be a bit of a tease" and she said "A Screaming, Flying Monkey, I've seen it at Bed, Bath and Beyond"---and she was right--not a bad buy for $5.00.
So this mean kitty is going to put on "Miracle on 34th Street" and have a steaming cup of hot chocolate, because she has had her faith renewed.
On the Prowl
