St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1877-12-07
Our New York Letter.

A FEW REMARKS ON THANKSGIVING
WHY ARE THESE THUS ?-THE RELA-
TON BETWEEN GRATITUDE AND IN
DIGEsTION-A DEFINITION OF MINCE
PIE-I400 TURKEYs-OUR GREAT BABY
sHow-400 FUTURE PRESIDENTS
VETERANS OF 1912.
NEW YORK, Nov. 80, 1877.
To the Editor of the CaledOnian:
Another Thanksgiving has come and
gone. All the curious phenomena have
been exhibited which, time out of mind
have accompanied the festival, and these
phenomena still remain the impene-
trable mysteries which have ever hung
over the day. The most profound and
acute minds which have ever been
hatched out by the American Eagle
have focused their powers upon the
questions which shall presently pro-
pound, and have failed, uniformly, ut
terly and ANONYMOUSLY to arrive at sat
isfactory solutions thereof.
The problems to which have refer
red are, briefly, these Why is it that
national gratitude in this republic is SC
inseparably connected with the fowl OF
the barnyard What is the hidden
spirit of annual thankfulness resolutely
sets its face against almost all of the
esculent and nutritious viands which OF
every day of the year, this one Novem.
Der Thusday excepted, are welcome oc-
cupants of the tablet
Why should the king of meats, the
time honored roast beef, the modest but
substantial corned beef and cabbage
and even the sumptuOus green turtle
soup, be sternly banished from the
Thanksgiving board in the interests o.
the despOt turkey And even conced
ing, without fruitless investigation, the
supremacy of the sylph-like gObbler
the graceful gander and the venerable
spling chicken, we are at once con
frOnted with another and no less knOtty
problem, to wit, why is it that thu
American citizen, equally with his wife
his sons, his daughters, his aunts, hi
cousins and even his mother-in-law
finds it quite out of the question tt
bring himself into a frame of mine
favorable to a suitable acknowledgment
of benefits received, without gorgin.
himself to the extreme limit of hi
capacity. Is there really some subtl,
connection between Indigestion ant
gratitude, the instructive recognition O
| which prompts the average man to stut
himself as tightly as the brown ant
savory fowl is stuffed which he yearl,
dismembers in the presence of his hi
larious and expectant family? If not
how are we to get around the pelplex
ing question as to why the day we cele
brate should be held sacred to the Sc
ductive but wOe-precipitating mine
pie, an achievement of American cook
cry most alluring to the taste, but NOR
| fraught with condensed nightmare thai
was PandOra's box with assorted evils
But possibly the consideration @
these points may not be particular
interesting to your readers and as ca
hardly hope to grapple successfully wit
the difficulties they present, will dis
miss the subject for year; at the en-
of which time, if l am yet in the Ian
of the living, presume that the newt
able recurrence of the internal discom
fort which am at this moment enduI
ing, may provoke me to something fur
Their in the same line.
The observance of the day in tn
city's public and charitable institution
was of the customary character. In fou
of the principal ones over two thousan
children were RECALLED with the tradi
tiOnal fare, beside a thousand or s
grown people who were destitute. l
the prisons the usual gloom of a rain
day was much lessened by Thanksgiy
ing fare. Friends of prisoners on Black
wells Island were permitted to suppl
them with delicacies and they and th
inmates of the charity institutions ther
and on the adjacent islands were plen
tifully fed on poultry. The turkey
bought by the city for the purpose mum
bered IA 900. No visitors were admit
ted TO the City Prison, but the inmate
had Thanksgiving food.
Thanksgiving, however, is not tn
only occasion which has lent lustre t
the week just past. We have had, anC
in fact, are still having, grand an
unparalleled baby show, an exhibit q
sprouting humanity bewildering to be
hold. Four hundred of these littl
"well-springs of pleasure noe
turnal music-are congregated in a hal
on Fifth avenue appropriately christen
ed for the occasion midget Hall; an
here the proud and anxious mother
keep watch and ward over enough .sfu
ture Presidents" to govern all the re
pnblics of the world for centuries t
come. This show is not only an exhi