Show R I I II I I I 1 1FT I Jq f BY WILL P SHATTER 4 I f < 3 1 1 lr rl j l Y Y I HERE is n IJt Unit I ed I States bureau lh bu-reau of statistics W sta-tistics which annually furnishes fur-nishes the number of killed Injured in-jured and maimed as > a I result of Foirrth of July taorks celebrations tot Thanksgiving CUB t taltlcb from overeating ire never tabulated r So bo careful lest 1 mach a ran should be i put ht Deration and 4 IOU ut ours forced Into the spotlight of 1 i r 4q1 S i i j t 1 r y lIllKDfG PUMPlHtfPl fOR JHAlYH 11jGDINIYR h i 1 t i mouth Rock voiced their thanks to tho Almighty t l rJ mighty for preserving them year after year > from tho arrows and scalping knives of tho 1I i red Indians The season of tho fall of tho f s t p ft I autumn loaves bringing denudation to tho for i Dubllcily because you gave hanks In too t hParly b a manner Indications a few days 1 Wore the memorable holiday suggested e to corner in tho turkey market In the II diddle west and for that reason the king Pin of the 1 Thanksgiving meal was attain ible among those who perhaps a year r IgD Wore not so fortunate when thee the-e Sards were higher in priced price-d With over 80000000 persons giving s Jiankfaporhaps 10000000 dont knowS know-S ulnnn these United States there aro in iDOOOOO turkeys consumed on Thanks ld siring day The preparation of tho birds st for tho table IB one of the countrys great Miistiles for several months before the r rubrest takes place Roast pig duck IS eese and cbjckens are also sandwiched te D as Thanksgiving delicacies and their ut reparation for market and the festive m card IB also a big proposition to the Ull en who do the work lp Sixtyseven years ago the 30th of No or ember was tho first Thanksgiving day rer appointed for I and observed InCh py ago observed be It said by the people he racially There probably were In the Ire opulatlon of between 4000 and C 000 t It fouls as many New Englanders as there lns tare New Yorkers or Pennsylvanians or at ploans or southerners and some among I or iose from New England remembered om Ie auks old home custom of giving special I and spreading an extra bountiful meal at IB the last Thursday In November and prl omj fete y observed It But by the large majority topi r the Inhabitants it was entirely Ignored or rbej Usslhly by the most it was wholly unknown ulpl He New England influence however was the enej ost active of any and soon was the controlling om rtement In 1841 it was sufficiently virile to pt stroduco and establish the annual Thnnksglv > g as an institution run Sixtyfour years lire but few In the life of the icntl Nltiitlons ot a city or country but In this ncvj ise tho period carries one back to within 14 em ears of the Incorporation of Chicago ore to 1841 the fifth mayor Francfs C Sherman feet U In thin chnlr of municipal state A native will ft r Connecticut ho was of Puritan ancestry c or d I had been brought up In reverence of the lIglous and social customs of Now England r 0 ie came to Chicago In 1834 when the legally has anl7ed town was one year old and at once J F fted In the business of keeping a boards board-s a rg house Tho first year he was In this busl coat ess he observed the Connecticut Thanksgiving raise if giving his boarders the first Thanksgiving 11 t loner ever provided In Illinois sat To facilitate matters he had not the best of location ho betimes sent to Buffalo for a bar pera Jl 1 of good apple elder which was frequently Val red < on this occasion to But this humble occupation of boarding otest use Ilonlfnco did not content him for long fires shad worked at bilckmaklng In Connecticut card 1d Just then good bricks were much needed dan Chicago and he was just tho man to supply cs n I tem There was available clay without going ether for It than to where Adams and Market r or beets now cioss each other and there he set 0uy t his Kiln The first good house made of his ton icks was his own It was built In Lake a f con beet near Clark lie had now become a up l ding citizen Ho took a good citizens In Coeui sst In public affairs and had political infiu illawi eethis This Puritan born this giver of the first COB wnksglvlng dinner In Chicago waited but inlaln Q years till he took his turn In the mayor 11 Ir ex n fee And he made his occupancy of the office fwil ° morablo by ordering his official clerk Thorn eh th jHojne to draw up tho first proclamation o bt a public Thanksgiving ever seen In tho west Major Shermans Thanksgiving as tho dentin wits of the citizens derisively called It 11 If Is gladly observed by every Now England r late ally In the place but that was the extent TIi ItB observance Christmas was already a horde tier day In New York than Thanksgiving hlghe 4 4 In the other Atlantic states out of New peTe glQnd and In the southern states Thanks fag was mostly unknown Settlers from t + cafe and removing tho hiding facilities for ambuscades > t a > r h am-buscades of the redmen was deemed especially a N < L w rcak1pI t r y V y i lAnN yf p 1 1I 1 I two misS I < J A 22ZY P4TJCJL S i1iwlLI ir PRIPAR1lfG 7lJRHZY FOR rfAR W those parts being In the majority and indisposed Indis-posed to recognize a Puritan holiday poked all kinds of fun at the mayor on account of his as they chose to call it newvamped Puritan zeal Those of them who were members of the Protestant churches or congregations failed to attend the religious services In those churches of the morning of Thanksgiving day But every New Englander who could possibly attend did so and there were enough of them to make up goodsized congregations or what appeared to be such In the small church edifices edi-fices of tlie time The afternoon was given up to feasting and social pleasures No chronicler of the time was thoughtful enough to write for posterity a particular account ac-count of the social pleasures in which the thankful people Indulged but one among tho still living witnesses of the day Is the inepres slblo first citizen Fernando Jones and he icmembers going to a dance at the mayors fine house on Thanksgiving night The Jones family was from New York state and the good Feinando says it Is a mistake to suppose that nobody but New Englanders observed the day that his mother got up a big dinner on the occasion and that ho ato ns much turkey and things as any Puritan booby in the place But he admits that the New England families did most of the visiting feasting and dancing The example thus set by Mayor Sherman was followed by his successors for ten years before Illinois adopted the annual Thanksgiving Thanksgiv-ing as a state institution In 1833 three years before Chicago Introduced Intro-duced tho Thanksgiving custom to Its own citizens citi-zens a fraudulent Thanksgiving proclamation was issued In the name of Gov Duncan which caused the festival to be universally talked about In the state at largo Its object was to fool the Springfield 111 clergy without any thought at first of its going further And sure enough It did fool the clergymen at tho capital It no less imposed on the clergymen all over the state Most of the Inhabitants of Springfield wero from the south or from states west of the Alleghonles but a few were from New England Eng-land and from these latter a petition had proceeded pro-ceeded requesting the governor to appoint n day of Thanksgiving lie was n Kentuckian by bhth and a Presbyterian and therefore had not much tolerance for New England religious and social customs Ho would not on any account ac-count Issuo the proclamation asked for but that did not quite end the matter It occurred to a few of the young men employed em-ployed in the executive offices that n 1 bogus proclamation might bo ventured They for some reason had not the fear of Gov Duncan before their eyes and they foresaw how eagerly eager-ly tho Protestant ministers at the capital would welcome It as of course genuine Accordingly Ac-cordingly they drew up a proclamation In the usual form of such documents signed the governors gov-ernors name to it as woll as the sumo of the secretary of state and had numerous copies printed sending a copy to each minister who was knftwn to be desirous of celebrating a Thanksgiving All were deceived by it save one tho Methodist minister who had been quietly notified by one of the young men that It was a hoax The others made formal announcement an-nouncement that they would on the day thus fraudulently appointed hold Thanksgiving services ser-vices But on the evening before tho day arrived ar-rived to let the hoax Just fall of Its object the young men sent word to each of the ministers that the proclamation was not genuine The ministers were not long In Informing their people that the Thanksgiving was declared de-clared off After that the subject of Thanksgiving Thanks-giving was a forbidden < < topic of conversation or even allusion at the Illinois state capital for several years But the Thanksgiving was not so easily prevented In the outlying districts Copies of the bogus proclamation had been sent to all the pilnclpal towns which made pioparatlons to observe the festival Tho authors au-thors of the hoax had however repented In time with reference to places outside of Springfield Spring-field and consequently warned clergymen In those towns not to be fooled It was believed In Chicago to be genuine but no notice was taken of It first or last Twelve years passed in which the annual Thanksgiving of New England I had no official recognition except In Chicago In 1851 Joel A Matteson a native of New York was elected elect-ed governor of Illinois and notwithstanding his nativity and religious connections ho was not a Puritan nor even Puritanically Inclined he first of the governors of the state Issued his proclamation for a day of general thanksgiving after the fashion of the New Englanders lie thus had the honor of being the founder In Illinois of this ever lo bochcrlshed Institution In tho days of the revolution Thanksgiving day was a national affair It being annually recommended by congress But there was no national appointment of the day till 1784 on account of the suppression of the whisky rebellion President Madison recommended Thanksgiving for tho peace of 1815 That was tho last national Thanksgiving for 18 years It Is a well known fact that tho observance of a day of thanksglvjng dates far back In American history Its origin is traced to ancient an-cient festivals in which the Puritans at Ply appropilate for the Thanksgiving services which were held In the religious meetinghouses meeting-houses of the little colony In the first days of the first settlement of pilgrims pil-grims at Plymouth Rock they had a little village vil-lage with the houses constructed of hewn planks There were gardens Inclosed behind and at the sides with other rough hewn planks These fences were stockades that served asa as-a protection against sudden attacks and tho crude defenses thus arranged were reinforced by three heavy wooden gates at the ends of the streets In tho center on a cross street stood the colonial governors house Before this was a square Inclosure upon which four cannon were mounted so as to flank along the streets On a rounding hilltop they had a large square house with a fiat roof This structure was made of the customary thick planks of rough hewn timbers like the mas hlvo American log houses of later times The planks were blared or braced with oak beams upon the top of which they had six cannon which shot Iron balls of lour or five pounds and had a commanding sweep of the surrounding country The lower part of this building was used for a church In which religious services were held on Sundays and tho usual holidays The pilgrims weie called to tho services in this chinch with beat of drum and each man came with his mlsket and firelock Whlh at worship they rested on their firearms They wore their cloaks and stood three abreast with a sergeantmajor In command Behind came the governor In n long lobe beside him at the right hand was the preacher with his lowing low-ing cloak on and on the left hand was the captain his side aims pendant and a small cane In one hand |