When an 8-year-old girl of Irish descent wrote to a New York newspaper wondering if there really was a Santa Claus, the reply from editor Francis Church is generaly regarded as one of the finest leader articles ever written, recalls WILLIE NOLAN
 

In September, 1897, an eight-year old girl wrote to The Sun, a New York newspaper. She attended a convent school on the west side of the city; and she was a member of an Irish family who had emigrated from Ulster. It was not the first time a child had written to a paper and it certainly was not the last, but it was the response of The Sun which ensured that the name of Virginia O'Hanlon will always be remembered.

Benjamin Day founded The Sun in 1833. Prior to his arrival on the scene, newspapers were concerned almost entirely with business and political affairs. Thus they appealed largely to the priveleged classes. Day changed all that by expanding the definition of news to include crime and violence, feature stories and entertainment items. He was the first to enlist the services of newsboys, and he made The Sun the first newspaper in the US to cost one penny. The modern newspaper, with its appeal to a mass audience, was born. Sales of The Sun soared, helped by technological advances that made possible the production of cheap paper from wood pulp and the development of fast rotary presses to replace the traditional flatbed press. Because of its popular appeal, the middle and lower classes were very much influenced by whatever The Sun had to say. So, when in the 1850s and 1860s, the paper took a strong line in favour of abolishing slavery; many thousands came to resent what was happening in the South.

Other papers were started, and they too, became popular. Sales of The Sun fell, but still towards the end of the century the paper that Benjamin Day had established was in a position of influence. Francis Pharcellus Church was editor of the paper when the letter arrived from Virginia O'Hanlon. He is remembered, not for the manner in which he managed The Sun, nor for influencing the way people thought about the events of the time, but for his response to a little girl's letter.
 

We take pleasure in answering at once the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:

Dear Editor,
I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
Papa says 'lf you see it in The Sun it's so.'
Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?
Virginia O'Hanlon,
115 West 95th Street,
New York.

Virginia,
Your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the scepticism of a sceptical 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 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 even 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 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.
 

Some people maintain that this was the greatest leading article a newspaper ever published. That is arguable, but what is beyond question, is that Church's article is the one that has been, and will be, remembered with affection.