The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1876-12-07
light MEAT AND DARK.

The custom of thanksgiving has rip
| ened with the progress of our national
| life-has grown into that life until it has
become q landmark In each year looked
forward to with bright anticipations,
chung to with caressing persistence, re-
membered with comfort and satisfaction.
It is our great national home-day-the
festival of the family-the mothers day
of all our holidays and here it Is again,
as it was last year and the year before,
with its family reunions, its turkey
gobblers, its cranberry sauce, its good
things of the table. of the home and the
heart
Here it is again, and all the people
know it. Will you have light meat or
dark?
Light? The day is one of pictures.
one of comforts. 1t is day that brings
people together, a day whose presiding
genius looks after the outer man, as well
as the inner. 1t is historically pictur-
esque and practically day of good
cheer. Long lines Of tables run back
with our family trees into past genera
tons, and the things we talk most about
cluster around Thanksgiving. Has a
housewife a favorite dish, triumph Of
skill and cookery? It is on dress parade
good friends, he is at your table that
day, or you are at his. Have you chill
dren and grand children, they are, or
ought to be, elbow to elbow, close seat
ed IN clustering neatness about your
headstone.
To the master of the house, to the
owner of the turkey, to the dispenser of
tidbits and comforts, it is a day Of days.
The associations, the Suggestions, the
facts and present conditions are all in
harmony. Just look back for ten or
TWEEN -
[ beg your pardon. Did you say dark?
You miss one at the table. His haXen
curls rise UP in the place made famous
by boyish pranks and bumptiousness
last year. His baby face pushes in be-
tween the two that are left you, claims
place, and has it, and-there is a sob ard
heartbreak. Never since the fatal day
has his face been as plain before 20 Has
this day; never have you missed him SO
much; never has the little chair, off of
| which be kicked the foot-rest, seemed
so CHASTITY never has his presence seem
ed so near never have your arms SO
ached to open wide and take him to your
heart. We all know it. Thank God,
| the old gray heads and great grandmoth-
| erly hearts know how you feel, and feel
with YOU Thank God, there is with us
all the memory of angel faces, and we
can turn tenderly to vacant chairs and
listen this day over your idealizing rem
1niscences of the promising deeds of one
who is never to grow Older. The very
memories are precious. Thank God for
them and for this old fashion of thanks
giving, and ''for that older fashion yet
of immortality"
Light meat, did you say?
Yes, let it be Light. There's variety
on the table OF the household, bless the
good Oliver, as well as on the table of
| life. And this is day in spite of tear
cheerful faces. a day of much talk and
hazy dreams.
What a Jump it was from the cramped
spirit of the old New England church
men to the national fatherliness, the
humanity of Abraham Lincoln. Thanks
giving meant much in the ante-war days;
how much more it meant when the ma
ton struggled for life, when cur nerves
were at highest tension, when our hearts
were sensitive as they had never been
before. What a glorious time it was
when our smooth-faced boys, strangers
in the family circle for four years, came
| back whiskered soldiers and one armed
heroes. How we gloried over them, and
Toasted them, and rejoiced over their
triumphs. Those We're days to mark
with flowers then, and to remember now.
Dark meat? So be it. These are
| troublous times, you say. Clouds lower
as they did four times four years ago.
Is it day for comfort and thanks giving?
Trouble threatens, but the people turn
in simple trust to an overruling Provi-
dence and to servant of that Provi-
dence who has never failed them; to a
man whose deeds will be talked over for
hundreds of Thanksgiving to man
whose crisp sayings have become house
hold words of inspiration. Let us be
thankful that he is where he is, and Dor
row no trouble.
Dropping metaphor, let us give light
meat for those who have taste for it,
drumsticks and meaty, juicy bones for
the boys-so goes the turkey Sober
| thoughts, sacred observances, rollicking
romps, glorious feast;ngs, tender memo
ries crowd into Thanksgiving day. It
is broad, long day-the omnibus of
resting days-and is SO by tradition and
by authority. 1t is day on which you
are to be kind to yourself, kind to your
neighbor, helpful TO the poor, cheering
to the sufferer, charitable toward your
| enemy.
1t is day for the best of everything,
from turkey to good resolve, and let us
make the most Of it.-hater- Ocean.