Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1858-11-25

with the return Of this festive season. We have
never been accustomed TO look forward to it as the
time when all the scattered members Of the house
hold viii gather in under the paternal roof and again
sit around the family fresds as in the days of child
hOOd-s happy and united band. To US it is as yet
cold ceremonious Observance. Bullet US celebrate
the day notwithstanding Lei Us make it day Of
thankfulness and rejoeing let US eOusecrate it 10
innocent festivity and renewal Of those holy af-
eetions which we're born in the sacred circle Of our
homes, and it win thus be to our children what it
may never be to US a memorial Of past pleasures,
halloEed BY the fond recolleciions Of their child
hoods home. The following from one Of our con-
temporaries is appropriate and suggestive;
We believe, without making any special historical
research that the festival Of Thanksgiving may be
pronounced an institution Of New England origin, in
the simplest-and most natural way established by
those great men who not ashamed TO ask favoTs
Of Divine Providence, and not ashamed to be thank
ful for them after they had been vouohsafed Little
enough indeed had these sturdy bHt sorely tried
Purians to be thankful for, If Wemeasre their OBJ
legation by worldly Standards or even by Standards
which modern Faith may consider more than worldly.
Ii was for seauy harvest. for home rude and I'M
adorned, for privileges the value OF which are in
no position to estimate that tie Puritan thanked his
God His Jubilee was, indeed, negative one. His
heart outpoured his gratitude, and his lips sent up
theirjubilaut Offering Of song and prayer, because
his fields had not been utterly bigbted; because
Famine had not done its perfect work and left in his
cabin enc sole with but enc to burYit; because
SORROW and bereavement had net utterly broken his
spirit and utterly shaken his coah5cuce Ia Jehovah;
because he had not been awakened in the watches of
the still night by the yell of the savage and had not
seen the wife of his bosom and his children dying
around him. But it was not, we must remember
only for earthly faTors and for the preservation of
the bOiy that he publicly WOrshped It was for the
protection which the Omnipotent had vou.hsafed to
his faith-it was because upon these rugged shores
the wandering witness had not been wholly cut of
but remained testimony to the world of the power
and kindness Of God. All stated Festivals must in
time lose their Significance, well as all stated
Fasts As the great event grows dim in the twilight
Of the ages its conservation becomes less and less
peroeptibe element Of is observance and it lapses
into rigid Journalism or a careless and customary re-
oognition. We may, however, well believe that the
hold which Thanksgiving Day has taken of the New
England heart, and, through New England influence,
Of the national heart, something Of its strength
to perennial recollection of the services Of the Pu-
ritans, and in this selling and buying and besoued
age to a reverence for the Eternal Right Upon
point We may indeed be reasonably certain. That
form Of worship will not day be wholly forgotten
and contains within itself the guaranty Of is own
sincerity, which is clearly exhibited in the home
love and tenderness which can never grow old-in
that yesrning which so few Of Us, thank Godl out
grow for old scenes for the renewal Of old influences
for the purity of childhood, for the eager courage
and the indomitable conscience of yOuth-fOr
glimpse if it be only glimpse, at the sunrise offe,
and ct the pure pleasures Of that hour which, alas
can never return. In this great Weltering city full
it is of human wreck and ruin full as il is of low
strife and ignoble enterprise full as it is Of degra-
dation and shame, how many soul, prompted by
we know not what halOWed "reminiscences, will half
resolve, may, will wholly resolve upon spurer life
upon WOrthier aims, upon more stalWart eBde8vori
The old mother who lies in her humble grave, far
far away under that brown New England hill-the
old father STERN and yet so tender sleeping there
after the struggle and victory, awaiting the triumph
the little one who came with sgch welcome, and
departed amid such Wailing-the dear, dead brother
the dear, desd sister-al the lost and loved will
speak to those who yet linger to-day! How the old
home memories will thicken! how the old home
scenes will reappesr! how the old home avocations
will be recalled! The homestead, the church and
the school-hOuse-the meadow and Wood-the sports,
the loves, the aversiOns Of childhood with its great
joys and its greater griefs Of these it will surely
be unwise or unmanly for Us to take come little
thought to-day.
And in such recollections and reflections will
certainly be found safeguard against those degrad
ing indulgences which this Thanksgiving Festival is
too often thought TO sanction. Let US hcpe so If
coarse appetites and untamed passions must assert
their chartered and keep their saturnalis,
with meditatioDs lawful let it not be when we have
invoked the special blessing and observation Of Pro
violence. This Thanksgiving Day may be wortbily
and wisely kept. Let US hope that it will BEL Let
US hope that not always in intelligent America, will
leisure be the signal for license. May even to-
day. show that weoan be festive without being fools
a THANKSGIVING DAY SCENE IN New YORK;
HEARTIEss sHoAx.-On Thursday, the 18th inst,
thanksgiving day hundreds of the poor of New
York were made the dupes Of some wreckless, I'M
feeling wretch, who secured the publication of a
notice. to which he forged the names of several re-
spectacle citizens announcing that on that day 5000
lbs Of bread and 200 lbs. of beef would be dis
tributed to the poor at Union square. The Tribune
after stating that the notice was a cruel hoax,
says:
Before A. NJ the poor folks began to assemble
in the square, and a. 10 O'Clock We were informed
that there could not have been less than LOCO per-
sons present. When we arrived many hungry and
heart-siok people had gone away. Among those
that We saw we're many men, evidently mechanics
out of employment, whom winter had found wholly
unprepsred in clothes or purse. The women, and
they were by far the most numerous wore on their
CAREFUL cad faces, untold tales Of suffering and |
privation; and the little children, whose cotton |
rags scarce served to cover their nakedness, were
terrible to look upon-they seemed to lose their
youthfulness and shrivel up into little cid men and
women before the sharp November frost.
So far as we could learn from conYersing with |
.hese people, they had come from far and near
some Of them several miles-aDd many had not eats
N during the day. One poor American woman
who sat on bench in the Park, with two sweet
title children nesting under her scanty shawl told
rs she had walked from near Grand street ferry,
and that she and her little had not tasted food
since the day before. She was widow, dsoenly
but scantily dressed and told us with tears in her
eyes, that she found it hard task keep the wolf
rom the door One of her children was a bright
airhaired little boy of six years, the other girl of
our. We told the poor woman that she need not
wait any longer, the notice in the newspaper was a
loax. As she turned to 60 home she said, Pity
he man that could do so heartless thingl" There
we're many such groups in that assemblsge.
We left the square about l o'clock several half
ipsy men we're then amusing themselves By scatter
ng small change among the crowd and watching the
rantic eagerness with which the famished Wretches
crambled for the coins.
Extensive Forgery of Austrian Bank Bills.
Within few days past an extensive forgery Of
austrian Bank notes has been discovered in this city
be particulars of which are as follows as near as
ur reporter could ascertain: 1t appears that about
* months or more ago, GUstavus Speyer, banker, |
Ding business at No. y Broadway, called upon
man. apparently foreigner, who desired to sell
i'm some Austrian bank notes OF bills. The stanger
reduced the bills, and Mr.. Speyer, considering them
enuine purchased about 500 worth Of the money,
hich was in one hundred guilder notes the /
ational Bank of Austria Subsequently, MIR. Speyer
mt the notes to Europe for redemption, but his
tonishment can be better imagined than described
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