Dayton daily empire. [volume] (Dayton [Ohio]) 1850-1865, 1862-11-26
Thanksgiying.

Thanksgiving.
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day. "Come
TO think" there was no necessity for telling it
There is no school, so the children all know
It; no paper, the editors and devils all know
it; the Governor has proclaimed it, and sreTy
body knows it. Some people have visions OF
turkeys "about these days" don't Some
people have turkeys; haven't But no mat
ter for that; love Thanksgiving Day for the
memories il brings with it Do tell me, if
you can, what has become Of those old days,
and why don't they make them so now Has
'the clerk Of the weather lost the recipe, or
what in the name Of scyihes and 6reloeks, is
the matter2 Ii used to be, that Thanksgiving
wasn't Monday, or Tuesday, or Wednesday,
or any other day Of the seven, but day by
itself, put in by special act to make people
happy aud friendly, and human, and all that !;
but some how or other, it has changed -
Almanacs have changed, or zoe have and
greatly do we fear it is the I'VE"
Kind reader, never saw you, don't know
you, but here's my hand, and there's chair;
aud now for a tete-dtete about old times. The
last time you were at home Thanksgiving day
do you remember When the boys came
home from college, or some where and the
married sister Ann, or Jane, or something
else, came too, as proud Of the little white
flannel bundle, With bls,e eyes, that made un-
cles, aunts grandfather grandmother with its
first glance, as even QUEEN was Of her CROWN
And wasn't that baby novelty in the old
homestead And was Il you or me, that rum
maged the gsrret for the old red cradle they
lulled US in, when fast to the strong moorings
Of mothers love, we rocked on the hither
shore oftime2 And who brought down ''the
high chair that in turn, had heen the throne
for half dozen of us, "more or less, in turn,
as we grew large enough to WELD the weapons
Of table warfare2 And who doesn't remem-
Der where that chair was tucked away in the
garret aforesaid Over behind the little
wheel, that used to hum to the sweet song
mother sang, years and years ago And
there's the dstaf now, in the chink of raf.
ter. Do you remember the fac morning we
went to the woods after it, and bright, black
eyed boy, just turned Of four went too2 There
he sits now, on the opposite side of the table,
sin the old place, with whiskers and beard,
and voice that would mock nor wester.-
That song How we tried to get mother to
sing the old song we loved so we'll
Boys, | cant sing, says the old lady;
my singing days are over" But she was
over.persuaded, as she Gl,Udys was-for to
which of us did she ever refuse boon 2-and
how still it was when she began Her voice
was like fast.failing fountain. She fatered
as the old memories came thronging back
upon her, and some how her glasses we're a
little dim, and she took them of to wipe them
and some how all our eyes were q little dim.
God bless the old-fashioned mothers for ever
Who Of US didn't say it then2 Who of us
does no. breathe it now
Wall than oarna tha l;nnon Al
giving Dinner. How the pantry and the poul.
try had suffered to furnish forth" that mar.
riage table--the marriage of the present and
the past II was the old table with the fall
leaves, that had succeeded the little predeces-
sor, when there were only father, mother, and
one baby. The old strife ito set the chairs"
up, is renewed. We are all seated--every
chair filed Filled2 Ecery chair2 Ali
but one, or two, or three God araat it be
but one God grant it be not one That
one vacant place All see it, all remember.
There is a pausei thought and a sigh for
the absent and the battle begins How old
"reminiscences are revived and we all get
years nearer the purer realm of childhood and
Heaven
The afternoon wears away. Apples from
the trees that were planted when each of us
was born, are brought from the cellar, that
aiortime was the very "blue closet of unm.
aginable terrors to the timid Of u.s. And
among them is an apple from Freds tree,
and Fred is - Nobody can say il, so every
body is silent
One looks at the rooms; the north room, {"
and the south room" and the "east room :"
Here are So-andso's initials on the window
casing They look dim, but maybe the dim.
ness is nearer the eyes, after all
The sleigh-bells (there used TO be sno,O in
old-fashioned ThanksgiVings,) chime impa.
tient at the door Such bundling and muf
fling and good-bying-the old lady urging us,
every one in turn, to keep warm, and tying
our "eomforters that's the word-oyer
again and all that Away we 90, one after
another, and the old homestead Is quiet again.
The branches of the old oak rustic audibly
over the roof, in the November wind, and a
family is again scattered over the world
Maybe now, some "mghty man" like those
OF old who has put away childish things,
and has forgotten he was ever born, ny deem
this purile Well, well, have no more to say
than this we can all do much worse than tc
be children again,
"For Of such as they are, the Kingdom OF Heaven.
B@- More than half the line officers Of th,
army OF the Potomac are sleeping in shelter
tanta with thair mas -, IL. l.. Is