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Show 8 . fill I , X ?v t &)&&Jt ft' " WHERE THE WILD TURKEY CALLS THE REAL THANKSGIVING BIRD a 'fi NEW J THANKS-f I GIVING -4 by THIS is the week of Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving day is an American Ameri-can custom started by the Pilgrims Pil-grims who landed on the new continent and faced hardships which few can realize who are reared in the wealth and luxury of the land today. to-day. The season had been a hard one. Many had died and the prospect of starvation during the cold winter with Its ice and snow loomed large. So, when the harvest yielded enough to keep them until another season would produce the necessities of life, they met that last Thursday in November in year 1621, and gave thanks to their God, who had remembered them. Thankfulness Is usually in Inverse ratio to the value of the thing for which we give thanks. This is no disparagement dis-paragement of the things we are grateful grate-ful for; but humanity does not think of thanks until it has felt the terrors of distress. The rich who live In luxury and ease do not thank with their hearts. Their thanks are but formal expressions of meaningless words. How can words mean anything when one has not felt the things which make for thankfulness? thankful-ness? But the poverty-stricken who have faced starvation pour out thanks from their humble hearts for the things that have saved their lives. Those who live in gorgeous homes with comfortable fireplaces do not think of thanks. But those who live in the little hovel with big cracks in the walls and crevices about the doors and windows and without fuel, give thanks for the comfort of fire. We do not prize health until we have lost It, and we do not appreciate life until we have faced the danger of having hav-ing to give it up. That which we have ve are likely to accept as a matter of course; but be deprived of It and the sudden realization realiza-tion of its value jars our souls like an earthquake. We are thankful In the full sense of the word for things necessary to life and happiness only when we have had to do without them. We are not thankful for that to which we are accustomed and accept thoughtlessly. But when we are deprived de-prived of the necessities of life and face the hardships, including death, that come as a result, we are thankful j with all our heart. America has more to be thankful for yearly, than nny other nation In the world; but our thanks are tempered by the gravity of the sorrow of our neighbors. The year has not been one of great happiness, peace and prosperity. It if? a year of travail for humanity the travail of a people being born again. But out of it will come a disciplined and sober people; a people who will know the realities of life better. We will learn that life Is a serious matter, and no silly, simpering nffair. The war has brought us again to an understanding of the terrible earnestness earnest-ness of the thing we call life. The earth is in process, and we still have earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. erup-tions. Humanity, too, Is in process, and strife and sorrow and death will continue con-tinue to be its lot. We must face life resolutely and meet destiny undismayed. undis-mayed. This year we will not be thankful so much for the blessings we have, received, re-ceived, for the things that have been given to us for being pampered by a prodigal Providence and being relieved re-lieved of our burdens, as we will be thankful for the strength to bear them. In the shrine of our hearts our deepest deep-est prayer is not that we shall be relieved re-lieved of our burdens ; but that we shall be given the strength to bear them, for we are great In the degree and the manner in which we face our tasks and perform them. The Great Souls are those that have suffered and endured. Our Thanksgiving this year will be no perfunctory, infantile prattle because be-cause of satiety. This is a year of reckoning with fate ; of being thankful if we, ourselves, our-selves, have not fallen in the wreckage. wreck-age. We are thankful not for what has happened ; but for what has not happened. Life is not a trivial pastime. It is deadly earnest. It Is the course that destiny takes, and let us be thankful, not for less of life, but for more of it, and the courage, the fortitude, the strength, and the persistence to meet Its difficulties and continue its course undaunted by disaster and unspoiled by success. We are thankful for Character, not charity, and for iron wills that have not been broken by the inevitable I From the Sunday Magazine. Thanksgiving Fable. An aged Turkey, once upon a time had occasion to read the Riot act to a Grandson because the latter was a Glutton. "It Behooves you to Fast for a few weeks," said the Wise Old Bird, "for Thanksgiving draweth apace that season when long-legged Bipeds Swoop down upon Us without Warning Warn-ing and give it to our Family in the Neck." "Oh, go to!" exclaimed the Young Glutton. "You think because Old Age has made you Gouty and rendered you Unable to Partake of the Good things of Life that you can Stuff me. I'm Dead Next. See?" "Very well," answered the Grand-sire. Grand-sire. "Keep right on getting Obese and you will be Dead Next for keeps; then You'll see who does the Stuffing." And the late November returns showed that the Old Turk knew Whereof he Spoke. Moral If you would Live Long and Prosper, Don't get Gay. i&&6-&66&g-&:&6g-:666&66&:&6&&il 1 THANKSGIVING DAY I a -a $ That we're at peace with all the world g Safe in our cities and our homes, That unto this, our favored land. Such gift, with all its blessings, comes, jJ That men go not to war and death, Hj That women do not fearful brood w By anxious hearths for dear ones gone, 'jjj j We thank Thee, Giver of all good g That no ambitious strife is ours, That lust of conquest does not thrill 'tj This mighty nation's inmost heart, is That we abhor to burn and kill jjjjj That weaker nations we protect, Fight but to make their wronging cease, -;j And only comes to make them free, $ We thank Thee, God of love and peace. $ $ . tf? That in the stress around us now, ii! We feel our hearts with pity throb, & And haste to heal the wounded man To hush the child and "Woman's sob. J That we are eager still to share $ The goods that heap our stores again, ft ? With those who have but us to help, ft We thank Thee, Father of all menl ft & iV Is an Old Institution. Despite popular opinion to the contrary, con-trary, Thanksgiving day as an institution insti-tution Is not peculiarly American. For history shows that all ancient nations na-tions used to celebrate some feast of a thanksgiving nature, while most of the tribes of our American Indians had a big gathering and a harvest feast years before the white man ever set foot on the shores of the new world. By the Greeks and Romans the festival fes-tival days In honor of the goddess of agriculture were times of rustic sport, of processions through the fields and the decorating of the home with fruits and flowers. The people of Egypt enjoyed en-joyed a time of feasting after gathering gather-ing in their harvests and laid the fruits of the year on the altar of the Goddess Isis. Feast of the Tabernacles. The feast of the tabernacles in the Old Testament times was also a harvest har-vest celebration and took place on the seventh day of the month, which corresponds cor-responds to our November, sometimes lasting for a whole week. They gathered gath-ered in the temple In great processions, proces-sions, holding palms, and In the streets were booths decorated with the flowers flow-ers and fruits of autumn. Among the Indians of America the custom of having a Thanksgiving feast was practically universal at least among those who had any amount of planting. As corn was the main article arti-cle grown, their dances and feasting were generally in honor of the harvesting har-vesting of that food. The writers of several hundred years ago 'Who first studied the Indian on his native heath all speak of these festivals and the elaborate ceremonial with which they were attended. While most of the tribes have vanished ns such, there are still some left on government reservations reserva-tions which observe, though possibly in a modified degree, the ancient custom cus-tom of their race. The Thankful Spirit. Cultivate the thankful spirit. It will be to thee a perpetual feast. There Is, or ought to be, with us no such thing ns small mercies; all are great, because the least are undeserved. unde-served. Indeed, a really thankful heart will extract motive for gratitude from everything. J. It. Macduff, j |