Show alsy V we x flat haave ve th ig turkey WO times a year at THREE thanksgiving christmas a and n d new years the people of the united states advance upon a certain huge golden bronze fowl cut its throat strip it of 0 its plumage and convert it into a savory dish which fairly makes the old table groan und under cr the extra burden since we have raised this bird into a national significance which parallels to an almost equal degree that of the eagle symbol of 0 the government itself it has a special interest to all americans although many folks may still be as poor as jobs turkey says a writer in pathfinder magazine they somehow manage and contrive to have turkey f for or 1 Thans thanksgiving giving whether they can or I 1 cannot afford it in years gone by those families who could not afford turkey turned tamed t to chicken duck beet beef rabbit or even pork and were glad to get it but row lets get back to the question of why we have hava or try to have or would like to have or imagine we would like to have turkey tor for thanksgiving dinner the tha answer of cousa is that he turkey is 15 b strictly t U atly an american bird and serving it at feasts 0 of thanksgiving Is an old and ancient amer american i can custom some authorities will fell you that we eat turkey on thanksgiving day because after the first harvest in the fall of 1621 the pilgrim fathers at plymouth set aside a period for feasting and offering V 77 M j rr the turkey Is regarded as an american bird thanks to provide food for this feast hunters were sent out by governor bradford and they returned with a large supply of game hospitality pita lity was extended to the indians 91 of whom attended the festival which lasted for three days conspicuous among the game on the tha tables were numerous wild turkeys then common in the woods of massachusetts from this circumstance they say arose the popular association ot of these birds with thanksgiving days this of course is the true origin of 0 the custom so far as white man has been concerned with it but the origin of turkey feasts goes back aruch farther the millions of families who plan on enjoying hearty thanksgiving turkey dinners this year will in reality be observing a custom clista that prevailed ages before the pilgrims first gathered around their festive board in new england smithsonian institution records now bridge the years that vel vea the aboriginal civilizations and show that the indians of the southwest domesticated turkeys and fattened them tor for their ceremonial feasts while the pilgrim fathers grateful for good harvests and a year of prosperity in the now new world decided on a day of thanksgiving to be celebrated at a banquet ol of roast turkey really gave posterity the spirit of thanksgiving the practice of such feasts had been established long before by the cliff dwellers who actually got their birds from a pen as we do today and not from a thicket as the pilgrims did according to smithsonian records the turkey of the aboriginal indians more n nearly c a r I 1 y approximated the thanksgiving turkey of today taday than the scrawny wild fowl felled by the blunderbuss of the pilgrim huntsman most of our domesticated varieties of af turkeys today are really descended from the mexican wild turkey that ranged over arizona western new mexico and southern colorado virtually the dooryard of earliest american civilization the pilgrim turkey was merely the wild variety of the same bird which roamed the eastern part of the united states i just as the turkey was exclusively an american bird in the time of the aboriginal indians 0 10 o it is today wo no fowl from any foreign country approximates it in fact wherever turkeys are raised today and they have been introduced to many foreign countries the ancestral stock came from america and so far as is known turkeys are never imported to this country contrary to popular opinion t the h e turkey did not get its name from turkey the country of that name the first turkeys taken from the new world america and sold in spain were handled largely by hebrew merchants since the turkey was frequently confused cont used with the peacock it was quite natural that the hebrew trades should apply to it their name tor for the peacock or tukki l more or less common use of 0 this name followed which easily became in english our present name turkey |