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Show r tmh'frf- pHMw4 Wfm&iAdif, !" We thank You for tkis glorious land of freedom and of peace. 0i'J-i II i J We tKank You for its harvest true, and for the year's increase jf-i ll Ii jij In health and wealth of wisdom. Lord, we lift our hearts to Thee J j i tWh'i And thank You for our year of peace and great prosperity. i 1 h Give Thanks That Are So Greatly Due It is told Unit a Scotsman made at one time a road tli rough the rough hills of the highlands and at the top of the last height hewed a stone into a sent and inscribed thereon, "Rest and Be Thankful." In this spirit also is Thanksgiving day appointed, at tho peak of the year as nature has fashioned fash-ioned it, for rest and the strengthening strengthen-ing of the spirit and for the giving of thanks where thanks are so greatly due, Don Rose, writing in the Philadelphia Philadel-phia Ledger, reminds his readers. Three centuries ago the wherewithal of the first Thanksgiving feast was provided by four I'ilgrims with blunderbusses, blun-derbusses, who in one clay "killed as many fowl as served the company almost al-most a week." In less dramatic fash-Ion fash-Ion the turkey of today comes to our board, though his persistence over a week in the various reincarnations of cold pickings, hash and soup is a custom cus-tom well established. The turkey, let it be noted, is in all respects a fitting offering, having pure American ancestry an-cestry and no entangling alliances with birds of other feather. In Hallowed Memory. Out of the past this feast is hallowed hal-lowed by long and honorable history, uuinmgined by the Pilgrim fathers, who stirred batter and peeled potatoes under the orders of the Pilgrim mothers. moth-ers. Its first observance was in reasonable rea-sonable peace, with Indians enough and to spare, but no unpleasantness. Later occasions were spiced and peppered pep-pered with unfriendly arrows, and the Indian sign of a feathered barb in the stout plank door interrupted many a peaceful meal. The Indian sign no longer marks our threshold ; it is transferred trans-ferred to father's pocketbook, where it leaves a scar deep and ominous enough, hough one endured with cheerfulness. Man is an adaptable creature. For most of the year he is content and well fed on a breakfast of hasty eggs and cofTee rashly inhaled, a lunch snatched on the run and a dinner discreet dis-creet and digestible, but on high days and holidays his capacity Is thrice multiplied. Thanksgiving dinner is no mere meal : it is a symphony In foodstuffs; food-stuffs; an epic of eatables; a pano rama of the animal and vegetable kingdoms. king-doms. Its calculated harmonies, the fruit of long years of feminine wisdom, wis-dom, convert even the cynic and dyspeptic dys-peptic into a valiant trencherman. E's temptations and opportunities must call on the special Providence that Is kind to overzealous ambition if "good digestion Is to wait on appetite and health on both." The fact fjhat we survive it marks this marvel ; that there is no digestant like good company; com-pany; no spice like good talk and laughter; no appetite like that which attends the warmth of opened hearts. Gifts Beyond Price. This is a universal feast that knows no creed. "It is good to give thanks unto the Lord" ; it is good for all men to find gratitude on special occasion for the grace that knows no occasion. The free gifts are the greatest gifts the high privilege of life, the knowledge knowl-edge of the loveliness of the varied world, the unmeasured wealth of love around us. For these we give thanks, for it is by their mystic alchemy that success and peace and strength are made worth while. Thanksgiving is not a human habit, which is a fact little to our credit. For this we shall probably be forgiven, as we are forgiven so much, if the habit of remembrance lives on. The gods have always been kind to human happiness, and when our Thanksgiving is adorned with good cheer, with laughter, with "sports of strength and skill" and with the companionship of those we love, we practice an ancient custom and a true one. There have been many creeds, many peoples, many strange habits and observances. But never in the history of the world nor in any race or country have men forgotten for-gotten the joy of the harvest nor failed to honor the eternal faithfulness faithful-ness of the changing seasons. Remember Only Mercies. So we may forget the faint hazard of abdominal repentance on the morrow mor-row and forget also the cold winds of the young winter and the coal bills that settle like birds of prey on the budget of November. Instead, we may "think of our mercies," as preached old Uncle Tom, and remember old friends and the distant ones of our family, and remember also to give a helping hand with the dishes that will soon be piled so high. So for this day the latchstring Is out, the fire burns bright on the hearth, the family is home again and the past and future do homage to the present. Loneliness we shut out of doors with the shivering trees and the wind-swept streets, and happiness Is complete in the full circle of familiar and friendly faces. And more than these are with us, for the heart of all America knows today one happiness, and the history of her people for 300 years is renewed in the countless homes that are her glory and her bulwark. Pli During the Revolution, the people observed an annual Thanksgiving Day by procla- P $5?V ip25: """'O'1 0 the Continental Congress. After peace, observance of the day ttoj discontinued SMb SSife? PWlSfe 1789- whcn Washington, as President, appointed Thursday, November 26, 1789, a flZ0& 0$$ KJiS day lor general thanksgiving throughout the Union. Later he also appointed February ;S!i5fc; fe5 y.T' ''iv?' J9' 1-'95' WasninSton'' proclamations tvere followed occasionally by those of other 'f'WZ-S 'Wwf W Presidents, but for the most part, Thanksgiving Day, although regu.larly observed, was ' JkmAW '1 $'?$'v '?' oj?o for a number of years: ' mRST MA .n I"'!, President Lincoln issued a proclamation, appointing the fourth Thursday fins 7 jVt'A K, ln November with a view of having the day kept, thereafter, annually without inlerrup- 4 Al4 tion- Since that time each President with the exception of Garfield, whose assassination f'A vJ( f J 'V'i-Jci- prevented has issued an annual proclamation and Thanksgiving Day has become a y?2ift 'A national holiday. . fjxWfK |