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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