Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1877-11-30
THANKSGLELNH DAYS.

THANKSGITING DAYS.
There is a popular delusion in America,
not to say popular superstition, that
Thanksgiving Day" which in its present
form is undoubtedly an American insttu-
ton, is purely American invention. We are
popularly told that the Puritans invented it
that they might thus easily escape the neces-
sity of keeping Christmas. This deluson is
like good many kindred delusions, with
which we hatter ourselves that because we
like cakes and ale, and have cakes and ale we
invented cakes and ale. So there is popular
impression that we invented free schools.
The truth is, that at least as early as the time
of CharondaS, who legislated for the States of
Sybaris, or of Sicily, more than five centuries
before Christ, he introduced the system of
universal public education. "He made anoth-
er law better than these, and neglected by the
older legislators, for he enacted that all the
sons of citizens should be instructed in letters,
the city paying the salaries of the teachers.
For he held that the poor, not being able to
pay their teachers from their own property,
would be deprived of the most valuable disci-
pline. For this legislator rated the study of
letters above all other science, and very fifty
for by this most things, and the most useful
things in life are adjusted letters,
wills, laws, and everything else especially val
liable in life."+
The truth is, with regard to Thanksgiving
Day, that the authorities both of church and
state. in England and in Scotland. were accus-
toned to appoint them long before the Pill
grims landed at Plymouth. They did not,
however appoint them annually, nor for the
gathering in of the harvest especially. Nor
did the Pilgrims at first suppose that theirs
was to be permanent festival. They tried
it, and they liked it so well that they perse-
vered.
The idiom, little peculiar, in which we
speak of giving thanks" is early In the Bi-
BILE of 1851, the Samaritan leper gave him
thankes" In Wiclifs Bible "he did thank
yngis. Almost as early as the first of these
two dates, the queens proclamation for a
thanksgiving day may be found in the Eng
lsh calendars. On the 22d of january, 1864,
the Bishop of London sets forth "A short
form of thanksgiving to God for the ceasing
of the contagious sickness of the plague, to be
used in common prayer, in the city of Lon
don and the rest of the diocese" OF course
this is not a provision for a special day of
thanksgiving, but it recognizes an appoint
ment by the government of religious service.
The next year Bishop Grindall writes to Cecil
that he has received certain advertisements
relating to Malta from the Archbishop of Can
terbury; but he thinks the Offering of public
thanks had best be deferred eight days It'll
the news be confirmed" Let us not hurrah
till we are out of the woods.
Our fathers, therefore, when they crossed to
Holland, and when they came to New Eng
land, brought with them the remembrance OF
an occasional thanksgiving day, appointed by
the authorities They maintained what was
to them a not unfamiliar custom.
The first New England Thanksgiving il
thus described in a letter, written few weeks
after, by Edward Winslow: Our harvest be
ing gotten in," he says, "our governor sent
four men on fowling, that SO we might, in a
special manner, rejoice together after we had
gathered the fruit of our labors. They foui
| in one day killed as much fowl, as with n lit
tie help beside, served the company almost {
| week"
The governor who appointed the Thanks
| giving December 10, 1921, in his own journa
| gives us further illustration in this note
| Great store of Wild turkies with venison, fl
our houses against winter,-are in health,
and have all things plenty"
| There is no finer illustration of the value o.
the modern passion for detail in archaeological
inquiry-this eagerness with which the His
| torical societies compass sea and land to tinC
| one paragraph. nay, one syllable, than i'll thii
word 'turkies.' Till 1855, no New England
er of this generation dared say that the Pill
| grim fathers had roast turkey at their Thanks
| giving dinner. Fowl" we knew they haC
| from Winslow's letter But what were tn,
| fowl? All that was left to what the theolo
| gians call con jectural emendation-until on
| happy day it was discovered that in the libra
ry of the Bishop of London lurked a manu-
script which might be Bradford's journal
| Wise men looked, and it was Bradford's journ
al Wise men copied-wise men printed
and the patient New England reader learned
| L. 1 FL h,rr fttet ,NpNp
that there were great store of wild turkies
let us for the instant, dear shade of Aldus
spell il as he spelled it!
Josselyn tells u.s. that they had turkeys II
those days of sixty pounds each. As ther
were but some fifty Pilgrims who were oil
enough to sit together at the feast-as the.
| must have had some venison and scallope
oysters-it is fair to conjecture that Myle
Standish carved one sxty-pounder, and vii
liam Bradford another-and there was enoug
for the first Thanksgiving dinner.
The contrast to this plenty was in til
spring and summer of 1923, when the folly O
Weston's Colony at Merry Mount, the delay o
the Pilgrims supplies, and n long drought
had reduced them almost to starvation. The
appointed the first day of fasting, humiliation
and prayer. Nor were their exercises on sue
occasions as brief rs ours. 'ln the morning
when we assembled together" says Winslow
''the heavens We're as clear, and the drough
as like to continue as it ever was-yet our eN
ercises continuing some eight or nine hours
before our departure the weather was ovei
cast the clouds gathered together on all side'
and on the next morning distilled such soft
moderate showers of rain, continuing som
fourteen days, and mixed with such seasonf
BILE weather, MS it was hard to say whethe
our withered corn or dropping affections weT
most revived"
At the same time Captain Standish returne
from Pascatoquack with provisions which b
had brought for the colony Having ther
many signs of Gods favor and acceptatiOn,
says Winslow again, 1--WE thought it would
great Il gratitude if secretly We should smotl
er up the same, or content ourselves with pr
vate thanksgiving for that which by priyat
prayer could not be obtained and, therefore
another solemn day was appointed for tn
end wherein we returned glory, honor an
praise with all thankfulness, to our Go
which dealt so graciously with u.s."
From that day to this there has been n
famine in the Old Colony. But when Mass
chusetts was at the end of the first year.
was in like extremity. ''The people," say
Winthrop, ''were necessitated to live upo
CLAIMS and muscles and ground nuts an
acorns-and these got with much difficulty
the winter time. Upon which people WEI
much tried and discouraged, especially whe
they heard that the governor himself had th
last batch in the oven" This is Winthrop
modest Way of stating il. Cotton Matht