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Show 7V rJ&JWT2&0Fm?7Z4y&02hi t'ra'&j-Htooc 1 Jrternootf 7 By JOHN DICKINSON SHERMAN 4LL VISITORS to Plymouth Rock and they numbered something like 250,000 last summer manifested great Interest in the memorial to VVrj "Women of the Mayflower", J-VfW which has been erected by yw the Daughters of the Amer-Vf Amer-Vf lean Revolution. The feature fea-ture of this memorial is the statue of a woman clad with the severe simplicity that tradition has handed down to us as the hall-mark of the women of "Plimoth Plantation." This figure Is intended to represent "The Pilgrim Maid." Anyway, the woman is comely and distingue. The woman and her costume seem to go together a natural combination. Altogether Al-together she's so easy to look at that he might be the counterfeit presentment present-ment of the fair Priscilla Mullins herself her-self the damsel who brought John Alden to time, when he went courting lis proxy for Cnpt. Miles Standlsh, by archly remarking, "Why don't you speak for yourself, John?" It was noted that none of the visitors vis-itors was more Interested In "The Pilgrim Pil-grim Maid" than the extraordinary young woman of the day the so-culled so-culled flapper. And the Happier she was, the more she seemed to be Interested That's no wonder, for a greater con-trust con-trust can scarcely be Imagined. It's much easier to believe that "Julia O'Grady and the Colonel's lady are sisters tinder their skin" than to realize real-ize that the flapper represents three hundred years of development by the American woman from the Mayflower woman. A symposium of the thoughts of the flapper visitors would be exceedingly ex-ceedingly interesting and doubtless Important for the looks of the flapper flap-per are at wide variance with her mental processes, which are often many and shrewd. It Is exceedingly fitting that this memorial to the Mayflower women should have been erected by a latter-day latter-day nation-wide organization of patriotic pa-triotic women. The "Fighting Daughters" Daugh-ters" seek to keep alive the spirit and deeds of their forbears of the Revolution. Revolu-tion. Tribute by the D. A. R. to the Mayflower women is "praise from Sir Hubert, indeed. " And who can doubt that the hard-won success of the I'il-fxhn I'il-fxhn Fathers was largely due to the Pilgrim Mothers? In times of stress !UHl privation It is ever the loyal devotion de-votion and heroic seif-snoriliee of loving lov-ing woman which evoke the admiration admira-tion of mankind. And they are bard to learn in detail from the pages of history. It is the men whose deeds ure set forth. Capt. Miles Standish, for example, lias a much larger statue at Duxhury than "The Pilgrim Maid" has at Plymouth. Ply-mouth. Hut Captain Standish was the Indian lighter of the colony, though lie was not even a member of the church, and Priscilla turned him down. So his statue is fourteen feet high and Weighs several tons. Incidentally, It lias been struck by lightning and the heiul and left arm knocked oil. Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday holi-day peculiarly our own. It is the day n which we Americans as a Christian People give thanks to that Divine I 7 I VOMFM , '-'rr? yiy liUZ - - i yv I' -liTv. - -fts-U .'4 ' 1 - n & --v f ;-''.tz.Ci - -vr . ' 1 ' - ,W " 1 ' Y i ilTffH?zr':- tt Ml ' -i---W ' J , kit , " t -j Y I'i.V;,; -'Ys u-;' ' " ' ,!Y; - ' " ; . ,: ' ' r ' ' V; ; - C ' s u r ' i v:: : 1 - ;; s'; ; -pi ' w ' Y ;;. '; - , y- " h ' S , C v-v" - f Ht'r- &? h j t i ? YtfY.'r ;;V-'V By JOHN DICKINSON SHERMAN A ' -f s ! , A ?v i'"C ' 4LL VISITORS to Plymouth ,t "'r-' t J Rock and they numbered JVv I s v'' Y'J-V ' something like 250,000 last f s Y c,1' " , S summer manifested great jX1' ', Y 1 " Jf ijv' J Interest in the memorial to f t ' wA -- iitAAttvK' V "Women of the Mayflower", f,v "'l c 23 which has been erected by li IsiSfc, , " '''lPa2tfj ' SSHWIrSffliVjriZnft the Daughters of the Amer- f f--;-.. ' i TTP?' 7 lean Revolution. The fea- J f. M . Ij-Zl -pf Ji S2S ture of this memorial is . ''izilSi'i'S fSS. Air'i' the statue of a woman clad with the tpl;Ml!lfftilB lllllYfl ttfS-kyS15 severe simplicity that tradition has vSfiWMMMSMBMif-aC handed down to us as the hall-mark ''M&iSfMpm V?"?4?1m'. J V?..fv-' of the women of "Plimoth Plantation." , " ' sr jtfjvb "YSyl This figure Is intended to represent I J fs.. j-j'YjCi 'sw3,,xi;p2' "The Pilgrim Maid." Anyway, the Z-l' 7-25'.' Providence which has- so often Interposed Inter-posed to assist our progress as a nation. na-tion. And surely no people have so much cause for thanksgiving. Today the United States of America is the most happy, prosperous and powerful nation of earth. So it is most natural that at Thanksgiving time the national thought should go back to Plymouth Rock where three hundred years ago the observance of Thanksgiving Day had its origin. But Thanksgiving is a day of feasting, feast-ing, family reunions and jollity, as well as of thanksgiving. So it is In keeping with the spirit of the day to make review of the Mayflower women from witchcraft to pumpkin pie. The Pilgrim woman was evidently a woman of common sense. And, like "a good deed in a naughty world," a woman with the saving grace of common com-mon sense Is a "joy forever," whether or no she is a "thing of beauty." How do we know that the Pilgrim women had any unusual amount of common-sense? common-sense? Well, there's the witchcraft craze, for one thing. Salem and Boston, you know, were at one time obsessed by a witchcraft frenzy. These were Puritan settlements. settle-ments. This frenzy was so violent that women were hanged for being witches. And if the records of the time do the fair sex no wrong, it was usually a woman who brought the accusation ac-cusation of witchcraft and testified in court to the most extraordinary details of witchcraft. The Plymouth women refused to have any part in the witchcraft craze. There were, if memory serves, but two witchcraft eases in the colony. The first case was that of Dinah Sylvester, who accused Mrs. Holmes of witchcraft. witch-craft. She told in court how she saw her neighbor plotting evil with the Devil himself, who had assumed for the occasion the form of a bear. Evidently Evi-dently a terrible case of witchcraft! The court, nevertheless, refused to believe either in the witchcraft of Mrs. Holmes or In the Devil-bear. It ac-(initted ac-(initted Mrs. Holmes. Moreover, it decided that Dinah Sylvester's charge was Just slander, plain and simple. So it gave Dinah Sylvester her choice between paying Mrs. Holmes live English Eng-lish pounds as damages for that slander slan-der or being publicly whipped. And the women of Plymouth approved the verdict. Several years biter the second sec-ond case came to trial and was laughed out of court. Then, too, the Mayflower women were a cleanly lot. And cleanliness in a woman Is high among the vlr- tues. The authentic records of tha Mayflower's long voyage do not reveal how these Pilgrim women kept clean at sea. For they had some very rough weather and the Mayflower, though seaworthj, vns not much of a ship. She was of oitrr 180 tons. She had 102 passengers mei women and children chil-dren and of course a crew- And she was loaded to the last inch of yail-able yail-able space with household goods anr the wherewithal for the new colony. The records set forth that some of the Mayflower women were seasick. And seasickness the real seasickness, when you are not afraid that you will die, but are afraid that you will not will play havoc with the Ideals of us that American Institution. Anyway, what was the very first thing these Pilgrim women did aftei the Mayflower had anchored Inside, Cape Cod and they had upon their knees given thanks to "the God In Heaven, who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean, and delivered de-livered them from all the periles and miseries thereof, agalne to set their fete on the firme and stable earth, their proper elemente"? Why, these Mayflower women proceeded pro-ceeded to have one grand wash-day 1 And the "punkin pie" and why anyone should say "pump-kin pie" Is one of the mysteries, even if one feels obliged to write it that way. It would never do to lose sigtit of the fact that it was the Mayflower women who gave us that American institution. When the Mayflower women arrived they found the Indian practicing a wonderfully Simple and logical kind of agriculture. He or rather she, for the squaws did all the work made a hole, dropped in several grains ol corn and a climbing bean. Between the corn rows the squaw planted pumpkin pump-kin seeds. When the pumpkin was ripe it was stewed and eaten, either by itself or mixed with corn or beans or dried berries. And it was out of this Inspired pumpkin that the genius of the Mayflower May-flower women evolved the pumpkin pie. And what would be Thanksgiving Thanksgiv-ing without pumpkin pie? It would be much like "Hamlet" with Hamlet left out. Oh, yes; 'most pie Is good, but along about the last Thursday In November the Mayflower woman's contribution to the upbuilding of the nation is a sure-enough beadliner on the bill of fare. Millions of Thanksgiving Thanks-giving feasters who don't know that there's any difference between. Pilgrim and Puritan will rise up and call her blessed. |
