As it has every Yuletide since 1897, the staid New York Sun last week reprinted the famed letter-to-the-editor from eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon, and the Sun's richly sentimental reply: "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus . . ." Last week, Sun Funnyman H. I. ("Hi") Phillips jumped the gun on the editorial with a concoction of his own: a letter from a Virginia who asks the editor of Moscow's Pravda, "Is there a Santa Claus? . . . (Papa says, 'If you see it in Pravda, it's so')."
"Dear Virginia," sneered Phillips: "Your inquiry is inexcusable, insolent, and wholly incredible . ....