Show 0 I Ui CA Pot h fw Yi lt f t vy y f f Sr r. r r cited rte gar 3 y y as lt i r f z i 11 t kr t x Si V C t A i s v fy w i i w it w fi Ft 5 w feie tr r YadA A t w av t t n r X y I t lf le vt rf f y i V iw 7 k rZ v r x t S-t V 5 A VV rJ fY i 4 a fi JV J. J J A e t r v Y t 1 r 1 ti f fi f i I Ct r i JY fI i t r i 4 I ln F Fr r i c K- K i I i 3 r s' s 3 I By ELMO SCOTT WATSON rn may n dispute the claim of Massachusetts to being belog the real l founder of this nation but the most truly deep rooted deep rooted holiday hollday In our cal calendar cal cal- and the most typically American American Ameri AmerI- can feast day began as a Massachusetts Massachusetts Massachusetts or more broadly a New England England Eng Eng- land Institution That Is Thanksgiving day As the tide of at New England Immigration spread into other parts of the country It carried the Thanksgiving In Idea Iden with It and on November 23 when that day Is being celebrated from the Atlantic Atlantic At At- lantic antIc to the Pacific and from the Canadian line Une to the Mexican border everywhere the observance observance observance ance will have ha a certain New England flavor Just as It was a New England woman Sara Josepha Hale who had the most to do o with making a national holiday hollday of at this observance which be began an as a purely local custom so It was another New England woman oman who wrote the known best-known Thanksgiving poem In our literature Look at the picture Home to Thanksgiving at ut the top of or this article It was vas one of at the tIle most popular of at the Currier and Ives prints which once adorned the walls of every cry American home One ne glance at It and there immediately comes com to mind these lines Over the river and through the wood To 10 grandfathers grandfather's house well we'll go The horse knows the way To carry the sleigh Through the white and drifted snow Over the river and through the wood 0 O how the wind does blow It stings the toes And bites the noso nose As Aa over the ground we go Over the river and through the wood wooI ool To have a rate first-rate play Dear Hear the bells ring f Ting TInga a ling a-ling ling ding ding Hurrah for tor Thanksgiving day r Over the river and through the wood Trot fast my dapple gray I Spring over the ground Like a hunting hound I For this is Thanksgiving day Over the river and through the wood And straight through the barn barnyard ard gale We seem to go Extremely ely slow It t Is so hard to wait walt I r rOver Over the river and through the u 11 Now Sow grandmothers grandmother's cap I spy Hurrah for the fun I 1 Is the pudding done Hurrah for the pumpkin pIe pie- I IThe The woman who wrote that poem was Lydia Maria Marla Child ChillI born In Medford Mass on February February ary nry 11 1802 In the period before Harriet Beecher Stowe Sto stirred the country with her Uncle Uncle Uncle Un cle Toms Tom's Cabin Mrs Irs Child was the most wide wide- known ly-known woman novelist Her a tale talc of at life IlCe In early Salem In which the hero was a noble red man of the tho J. J Fenimore Cooper type and the heroine was a n white girl gIr was published in 1821 This was followed the next nem year by T e Rebels or Boston Before the Revolution and andIn andIn In 1835 by Philothea a u poetical romance of at Athens In the days of ot Pericles Edgar Allen Poe poc heaped extravagant praise upon saying We Ve turn to these pure and quiet pages with that species of ot gasping satisfaction with witha a drowning man clutches tM tea th biu r t 1 t f fi g i i r J v. v Z t tU t t t t N J. J ft t 41 I f t J 41 I o i 5 fi a fi MW l i. i M 1 4 r S v w W Wv-f Wv t. i JV f 3 1 7 Z f 5 V f x x vv W rf ferrs I rv W M v vM J 1 M sJ W 0 ii f v M i W l n frO 1 j CHILD Gr NT O I V nV D James Russell Hussell Lowell eulogIzed ed Mrs airs Childs Child's Childs work In his Ills A 4 Fable for Critics An ardent Abolitionist Mrs Child published the first book written on the subject of freeIng the slaves sla It was An Appeal for That Class of or Americans Called Africans published In 1833 and William Ellery Channing made a ape trip to Roxbury to thank her for It A prolific prolific pro pro- lithe writer Mrs Irs Child also produced The Mothers Mother's Mothers Mother's Mothers Mother's Moth Moth- ers er's Book 1831 The uThe Ladles Ladles' Family Library 1 5 5 2 the series of at Flowers for Children 1514 1840 1855 The Progress of at Religious Ideas 1855 1555 and Autumnal Leaves es 1850 G The rhe long life of at Lydia Maria Marla Child In which Is distilled a definite fraction of ot American sentiment sentiment sentiment senti senti- ment and moral enthusiasm came to an nn end on October 20 1880 1850 Critics are not always In agreement as to her place In American literature literature litera litera- ture but her name Is remembered by the American Ameri AmerI- cnn can people each year at Thanksgiving time when they repeat the familiar lines Over Ocr the river and through the wood etc Almost as well known If It not so frequently quoted Is the Thanksgiving poem written by another another another an an- other New Englander who was one of ot Mrs Childs Child's Abolitionist friends and a favorite fa poet of ot an earlier generation of at Americans John AmerIcans John WhIttier It Is his THANKSGIVING ODE ODEOnce ODEOnce ODEOnce Once more the liberal year ear laughs out Oer O'er richer stores than gems of gold Once more with song harvest-song and shout Is natures nature's bloodless triumph told Our common mother rests and sings Like Ruth among the garnered sheaves Her r lap hip Is full of goodly things Her lier brow Is bright with Autumn leaves 0 O favors every year made new 1 I 0 O gifts with rain and sunshine sent I IThe The bo bounty nty overruns o our due The fullness shames our discontent We shut our e eyes es and flowers bloom on We murmur but the ears corn fill We choose the shadow but the sun That casts It shines behind us still God gives gl us with our rugged soil soli The power to make maIe It fair Eden-fair And richer fruits to crown our toll Than han wedded summer-wedded Islands bear Who murmurs at his lot Jot today Who ho scorns his Ills native fruit from bloom Or sighs for dainties far awn away Beside the bounteous board bord of at home 7 Thank Heaven Hea Instead that Freedoms Freedom's arm Can change a rocky soil Boll to to gold That brave and generous lives can warm warmA A clime with Northern Ices cold And let these altars wreathed with flowers And piled with fruits awake again Thanksgiving Ing for the golden hours The e early and the latter laUer rain Then there Is the familiar THANKSGIVING NIGHT For o miners bloom and autumns autumn's blight For foi 01 bending wheat and blasted maize For health and sickness Lord of at Light And Lord of Darkness hear our praise 1 I We trace to thee our joys jOS and woes To thee of causes still sUll the cause We thank thee Ulee that thy hand bestows We bless thee that thy hand withdraws We bring no sorrows to th thy throne ne We come to thee with no complaint In providence thy will is done And that Is sacred to the saint Here on this blest Thanksgiving night We raise to thee our grateful voice For what thou doest Lord is right And thus believing we rejoice 1 Another New Englander wrote that poem Who now remembers the name of Josiah Gilbert Holland Holland Hol Hol- land Probably not many except the special student of American literature and Journalism Yet there was a time when Holland was known to thousands of at Americans and two of at his lon long poems were the best sellers of the da day Critics of today are Inclined to dismiss his writings with the adjectIve commonplace or the statement statement state state- ment meat that his career as an author Is illustrative of the evanescence of at moral literature when un un- un- un endowed with real talent Yet the fact remains that his Bitter Sweet sold copies and his 1 Her lIer Life and Mine sold copies caples back in the fifties and und sixties E Holland was born at Belchertown Mass July 24 1819 1810 His Ills first ambition was to be n a doctor and In 1840 1540 he lle entered a physicians physician's office In Northampton as a student where he remained until he had learned the rudiments of medicine Graduated from the Berkshire Medical college at Pittsfield In 1844 he practiced In Springfield for three years before becoming convInced conduced that this was not his real profession Next he turned to Journalism and In n 1847 1547 founded a weekly called the Bay State Courier This venture lasted only six months so he was glad to accept an Invitation to settle in Richmond Rich Rich- Richmond mond Va as a teacher In a private school Next Neit he was elected superintendent of at the public public pub pub- lic Hc schools In VIcksburg Miss but after two years there he returned to Massachusetts where he jol Joined ed the staff starr of or the Springfield Republican Ican Hollands Holland's nom de plume of or Timothy soon became a familiar one all over o the country and resulted In his becoming widely known as asa asa asa a lyceum lecturer In his first long poem Bitter Sweet Sweet was published by Charles Scrib- Scrib Scribner ScrIbner Scribner ner and company which also published most athIs of at his later hater works By 1807 Holland had become so successful as a writer that he ire was able to retire from his editorial duties on O the Republican Republic Republic- an and the next neit year jear ear he lie sailed for a European trip While abroad he lie made the acquaintance of ot another touring American Roswell Smith with whom he founded In 1870 ScrIbners ScrIbner's Magazine a publication made possible by the backing of or Charles ScrIbner As editor of at the magazine Holland was mainly responsible for Its success and he Ile contributed to its columns his later successful successful suc suc- novels nO Arthur Seven SevenOaks SevenOaks SevenOaks Oaks and Nicholas MInturn as well as a number of poems Holland died in New York city on October 12 1881 C e Newspaper Union |