Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1878-07-04
WHOLE NO. 1898.

long is it since thousands of very SO
cial and cheerful people in our times
avoided wearing white hat for fear
that it might ba supposed that they
were publicly displaying their po-
litical sympa'hies for the presiden-
,iai aspirations of Mr. Greeley How
| long is II since in coma other par 5
of The United States, loyal men were
unwilling to wear gray panialoons,
and hutternnt-nolored coats 2 Does
any body suppose they had pious
horror of u white or butternut color,
or that they supposed that their Ma
ker would be better pleased with
them 1t they dressed themselves all
/ oyer in the regulation blue The
Pnritans would not eat plum-pud-
ding on Christmas day, or engage in
| the usual Christmas festivities, for
the reason that To do so had well
established meaning, and was under
stood to be a way OF signiiying pub.
licly their appreciation of the meth
cd of celebrating what was claimed
TO be a religious festival under the
auspices Of the Abbot of Mlsrule, with
a riotous disregard of all deco ucy,
which was entirely inconsistent with
their ideas of propriets and we may
add with ideas which are held by all
respectable people to-day. The
whole history OF New England shows
that tho people were not inimical
to innocent sports or TO good living.
| The harvest feast which they iBsIi-
Ltuted at tho close of their first year
is a sufficient refntation of all the
spiteful things that have been said
about their aceticism. Winslow, in
q letter to friend, tells how the
Plymouth people kept up heir first
Thanksgiving He says: Our
| Governor sent four mon on fowing,
so that we might, after. Il special
| manner, rejoice together. after we
had IA hersd the frnit Of our labor.
They four, in ono day killed AZ much
fowl AZ, with little holp besides,
served the country almost week.
At which time, among other recrea-
y
OF the Indians coming among us,and
among The ro.i Massasoit with some
| nineiy mon, whom for three days we
entertained and fcusyed. He says !.
The Indian guests TOO went out and
killed fivo door, which they brought
To tho plantation and bestowed on
our Governor and upon certain 9TH
ers.' The beautiful festival thus in
stituteo was SO in harmony with the
feelings of the early settlers of New
England that it has continued to be
observed TO the present time and
now it may he said TO have become
national institution. The season
of gladness which il was in 1921 to
the fathers, it has never ceased 10 be
to the children's children through all
i these years It's annual recurrence
has always been looked forward TO
by all these successive generations
as time of joy, rs time for the
gathering OF families under the old
roof-tree, as time for the special
aud grateful recognition of the mer.
eies of God, as time too of sports
| and of good cheer. 1t is fragrant
to dag in the minds of millions with
memo ries of the happiest days of
their lives. While the New England
festival Of Thanksgiving continues
to throw halo around the chill
days of the eloslng year. and the
| Sports which we're instituted in the
colonial times are remembered as
distinctive of New England, and the
score of historic and peculiar dishes
of The old New England kitchen are
not forgotten, they will always be
evidence that the early settlers,
whatever else they may have been,
were rot ascetics.
Another misconception is that in
the New Haven colony in particular
tho early settlers were weak men
who had crotchets about dress and
saout the length to which the hair
| sIosld be allowed to grow, and that
they ..atrodsced into their legislation
sumptEary laws 10 which an attempt
was made 10 requisite great varie-
~ of matters which bad better be
left to indiviGnaI fancy. Now, it is
we'll TO remember that there have
been different aninions held on the
subject OF sumptSsry laws, by peo-
pie TOO who rank high in the world
history Not to spek of the old
Romans and Numa Pompilius, we
have seen il stated within q week,
that the police of Berlin are ordered
TO arrest all women whose skirts
trail on the pare. The, sfter all,
may be yoke of Mathematician.
But, not many years ago, there were
laws in force there, and in other
cities in Europe, with regard to g
great variety OF small matters. which
would be thought ridiculous if intro
duced into this country. Bat, what.
ever may be thought Of the propri-
ETY. of sumptunry lawsin Berlin OF
Liepsic to-day, or in New Haven il
the seventeenth century, it ought
perhaps to BIO understood that as 8
matter of fact, the colony of New
} Haven was emphatically the colony
of Now England, which was entirely
free from all regulations of this kind
The men who settled NEW HaveI
and gave character ito its ins.itu.
tions were wealthy London merch
ants. who bad seen too much of the
world to be alarmed at little ex
travagance in dress.
Il As for Mr.. Peters's story abou
people being compelled TO have theil
i hair cut around by pumpkin,a all
the popular ideas among a certain
| class Of persons that the Puritans had
| some special adherence of long hail
and wigs, the whole set of such sto
; ries does not need to be treated SO
berly We advise any one who il
troubled on this score to open any
j book he pleases in which there is ;
, picture of any Puritan divine or Puri
, tan layman, and we are mistaken i
he does not think their hair is far to,
! long than too short. Yet it is fac
8 that the extravaganza of dress had, il
| thu cpvnutppnth cppfnrv procaodod n