Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1875-12-03
Thanksgiving.

No other festival of the round year
Christmas possibly, of late years, excepted
has 50 wide and hearty observance, in this
country, as this of the New Englan Thanks
giving. No other has such formal procla-
nation, from the highest officials OF State
and Nation. No other is more cherished by
all who revere the memory of the Pilgrims,
and are proud to trace their lineage to the
stern and stout old Puritans. Even those
who give little thought to the religious
character of the day, delight TO observe 1t
in its not less true and hardly less sacred
character Of a festival of the family and the
home. For DAYS, the trains have been load
ed with the happy freight of wanderers
from the old roOf-tree returning to its shell
ter On Thanksgiving Day, the hard-driyen
man of business, whirled through the year
| by the cares Of his business, like shot from
a rilcl gun, calculates to stop to take lull
from care. The grinding wheels of labor
and Of trade stand still. Greetings and
smiles and good cheer are current coin.
This has always largely been the character
Of the day. In many things the times have
changed since the old days, when, hun
1 drei or two hundred years ago, the hour OF
worship was proclaimed by sound Of horn
or beating of a drum from the hilltop near
est to the meeting house-if the house Of
prayer was not On the highest hilltop in
the settlement-anl the people, one and all,
the sick and decrepit alone excepted, many
! of whom had risen before the sun in order
to reach the meeting house in time, gather
ed in the cold and stoyeless church and
sat out the sermon from firstly to fourteenth
! ", without the thought that it was I.ossi-
bic thing to shorten the service or abate a
| jot from the tail rigor Of attendance and at
tention. But the social characteristics Of
the DAY have changed little Then, as now
/ when church was done, there was the feast
OF tat things and the joyial gathering Of
kith and kin and merry games and telling
Of tire,iIe tales. $, the day has come
down to Us, with brightness and cheer and
/ grateful emotions wrought into and through
all is texture.
OF course. the day cannot be one Of I'M
mixed JOY 10 all. la many 4 household the
gathering at the feast vii bat emphasize
the absence of the faces. bright with the
| light Of youth or crowned with the sivered
locks Of age, which used to beam across the
board There viii be many who look back
on year Of financial disaster, or who can
not look ahead without lorej,dings The
winter promises to pinch the poor with un-
wontei de,tituton. As well rs with uncom-
mon cold Bu. God sends compensations
with every burden. Sorrow has its minis
tries Of good and its hopes OF meetings
hereafter, where there shall be no rartings
and NJ tears There i a near prospect of
sounler prosperity -when business shall
abandon it, treacheraa- paper foundation
for one OF solid and honest coin. Poverty
can be. and ought 70 be. for to-day al least,
relieved from the stores Of those whom
fortune has more favored The times
are not a. hard. or the outlook
a doubtful or the de~tiution as great,
as they were for the Pilgrims, whe they
instituted the New England Thanksgiving.
Let us, then. observe the DAY in its true
intent Le, US gather ia the churches. and
,fior the incense of truly grateful hearts
Let a~ dismiss care for a DAY, ami cultivate
the acquaintance Of our families, and enjoy
the iull dow of pure and kindly human alice
ton. As well a. the full bounty @! the Thanks
giving feast. And may the heart Of every
reader be the larger and better for the fes;i-