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SATURDAY AFTERNOON DICII
DAILY TtMI9-ENTERFRISE. THOMA8VILLC, GEORGIA
i Is There a Santa Claus? 1
n
the world would be extinguished.'
We take pleasure in answering
at once, and thus prominently,
the communication below, ex
pressing at the same time our
deep gratification that its faith
ful author is numbered 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?
“115 West Ninety-fifth street.
“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 noth
ing can be which is not compre
hensible .by their 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 intel
lect, as compared with the bound
less world about him, as measur
ed by the intelligence capable of
grasping the whole truth and
knowledge.
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa
Claus. He exists as certainly as
love and generosity and devotion
exists, 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 tol
erable this existence. We should
have no enjoyment, except in
sense and sight. The eternal
light with which childhood fills
Not believe in Santa Clausl
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 com
ing 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 that are
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 of 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 the world
there is nothing else real and
abiding.
No Santa Claus! Thank God!
He lives and He lives forever. A
thousand years from now, Vir
ginia, nay, ten times ten thousand
years from now, He will continue
to make glad the hearts of child
hood.
EDITOR'S NOTE—It was a litUa over a quarter
of a century ago that Virginia O'Hanlon wrote to the
“New York Sun" aaklng about the reality of Santa
Claus. The reply to that letter was In the form of
the article reproduced above and Is reproduced by
the Tlmei-Enterpriie upon special request It waa
written by the brilliant Charles A. Dana. It Is a
newspaper classic.)
CHRISTMAS
CHEER
As the old year draws near to a close and New Year hovers
nearby, we say to you, in the same happy vein
in which we have served you in the
past, that we hope
ffll Be Merry
your
New Year One Of Happiness
C. Dewey Norwood
■ • “Where You Get Auto Service"
*
MADISON ST. PHONE 319
GAS, OILS. GREASE-FREE WATER AND AIR
STORES AND
THE DODECANESE
Bust Babbit is apt to skip the item
“Italy Announces Cession of Dodeca
nese Invalid, Pending Lausanne Con
ference" with the exclamation:
"What are these Greeks to it
build bungalows, not Greek temples;
and I haven't time for the theaters
the art galleries."
On the way home, however, Bab
bit calls at the doctor’s office, Been
feeling a little sluggish," and
taken the prescription to a drug store
'‘That’s when the Dodecanese come
in," says a bulletin from the Wash
ington, D. C., headquarters of the
National Geographic Society.
“On Kos, second largest of the
Dodecanese, lived Hpocrltes, the fa
ther of modern medicine. For ser
vice to mankind this intellectual
colossus of Kos deserves to overshad-
the inanimate colosssua of Rho
des, the largest island in the chain
that straggles from Samos toward
Crete.
'Pharmake, or the island of herbs,
r is herbless. But this ‘drug is
land,' occupied some years ago by
single family, perpetuates its claim
1 being the first drug store in the
world by the title Thar. D.' held by
every man authorised to fill yor
prescription.
"Pharmako is not one of the ma
jor land unita which give the group
ita name—Twelve Island*. Even
some of the twelve are, or have been
uninhabited, and on none of their
rocky aurfacea are the residents self-
sustaining.
“When, in 1521, Kalymnos, just
north of Kos, gave up its losing fight
and sent a mission to surrender to
Saltan Suleiman, the delegates to*.,
along a highly suggestive geographi-
cal exihibit. The gifts they bore
consisted of sponges and white loa
ves. The first symbolized their pri*i
cipal industry — and today tae
•pongee piled on tho drug atore coun
ter most were collected by a Dodecs.
nese diver—while the white bread
showed the islanders’ need of wheat
from the mainland of Asia Minor
since they could not live upon com
of their owq growing.
"When the sponge-grounds in the
Aegean became depleted the Dodeca
nese divers discovered other beds off
Tripoli and when Italy virtually
made a monoply of the fisheries
there some of the divers fared as far
away from home as Tarpo„ Springs,
FIs. to ply their precarious trade.
“Patmoa, northernmost of the
group, known wherever the Bible is
read because its sheltered St John,
was without a single inhabitant in
the twelfth century.
"It long has been a saying that the
Greek islands are more Greek than
Greece. The Dodecanese are among
the msot Greek of all the Islands.
Homer knew them all and mention*
the leaders under which their armies
took part In ths expedition against
Troy.
le sort of ruins of the time of
Hippocrites may well be considered
the precuser of another humane fasti
tutlon of modem life, the hospital.
On os may be seen the base stones
and columns of an Asdepion. one
of thess institutions, which blended
the modern functions of a temple,
sanitarium and a clinic. By incantn
tions, charms and witchcraft the as-
clepia sought to heal the 8 j C k and it
was against these practices that Hip
pocrites rebelled. He was not per
mitted to dissecct human bodies but
his study of animals and a cumpari-
of their habits, anatomy and
and functions with those man gave
him a remarkable b.im for •l'agnosia
of human ills. His Ideas about diet
end re/troen for the sick, for exam-
p’e, are remarkably eoun-t when it
i* considered he was a pioneer in this
field.
"To many sufferers the ‘faith
cures' effected by ths asclcpia were
potent, others were kid: » n physical
condition by the gymnasia, but Hip-
Pocrates’ fame as surgeon, especial
ly, soon spread far. Thus these re
mote Aegean islands had three ther*
peutic schools with :orretponded to
°U” modem practitioners of mental
healing, medical practitioners and
physical culturiats.
"Geologically the islands
fragment* of Asia Minor, tom assay
by some remote volcanic upheave!.
The sporadic formation of the group
ia attested by their other name. Spo-
rades, given them i n contrast to the
Cyclades, so called because of their
circular arrangement
"Should you visit a home fn Rhodes
you would get a first impression
that some member of the household
has a hobby for collecting curious
heterogeneous assortments of plates
When a child is born cuatom decreet
that a plate be added to the family
collection, end the pattern of this
plate must be distinctive. Hence
genealogy recorded in platten
which, if they are the famous Rho-
ware, have great beauty and a
high price, since only extreme stress
generous offer would impel a
family to pert with any of the family
tree."
ty jail on January 12th. One of the
chief causes of concern is that no
official hangman has yet been engaged
In response to a recent advertise-
me ♦. several applications were filed,
but the fees demanded, ranging from
$200 to $300, were considered too
high. In the past officials said, $50
sufficient to get a man to fasten
the black cap on a condemned man
and spring the trap.
en sentenced to die are
Harry Rutka and Nick Thomas. They
killed a neighbor in a row over a real
estate deal.
AUSTRIA’S UNOFFICIAL
ARMIES BREED TROUBLE
Vienna. Dec. 1.—(By Mail)—Be
sides its little standing army of about
25000 men and ita state gendarmerie,
Austria has two other armed and or
ganized forces both irregular and both
probably without the paleaof the
Treaty. In the opinion of many ob
servers here the two last mentioned
organization! may lead to trouble.
They are the admittedly well armed
labor battalions, and the growing
heimwehr” or (conservative armed
organizations of the province*.
The latter are composed largely of
the peasants and lesser professional
classes and ex-officers, and are
particularly strong in Styria and
Tyrol. Just how and where they got
arms, ammunition and equipment is
not known. The Allied Military Con
trol Commslslon was supposed to have
stripped the country of military
more clearly the latent danger that
lies in this condition of affairs. Work-
from some factories entered the
homes of "heimwehr"' peasant* at
night and seized their arms. They
were arrested in turn, and, when a
first demsnd for their release was re-
fusedT'nearly 2000 woricinen, mili
tarily armed and organized, aasembl-
little .bridge. Then the government
ordered the release of the arrested
workmen, and further trouble waa
avoided.
The recent disclosure that tha
large industrial concerns of Austria
are paying to their central body a
regular tax greater than thair guise
for strike breakers and secret police.
ef and marched on into the town, jhas not seved to lessen the ill feeling
Gerdarmes were moblized, reinforced 'of the workingmen, and thii ondition
by students from the two! state uni- {is used by them as a justification for
versities there, and for two days the their own organizations.
EXECUTIONERS ASK HIGH
RATE FOR SERVICES
Niagara Falla, Ont, Dae. 9. (By
Mail—Welland county officials arc
werrying about a double hanging
which Is set to taka place in the eoun-
material, but the fact remains that
both these organizations arc fully
equipped and number many thous
ands. Recently the police found in
one of tha "heimwehr" headquaten
not only guns and loaded clubs but
hand grenades and poison gases.
Incidents in Styria recently showed
the danger of these factions. In one
strikers captured and disarmed
gendarmes sent to subdue disturb
ances, where opon the governor of
tha province ordered out the local
detachments of tha army. The army
la' preponderantly socialist and
sympathetic with the worker*, but
the soldien obeyed order*, subdued
tha trouble makers, an released the
policemen. The explanation is found
in the fact that the governor had, at
time, assembled 2000 of his
“heimwehr" and put them behind the
soldiery to sea they did what they
were told to do.
Tho two forces narrowly avoided
a serious dash vacantly hi Judanburg