Connecticut western news., 1880-12-08
OLD-FASHIONED THANKSGIVING.
How the People Spend the Day ir
 New England.

The night before Thanksgiving, says Charles Dudley Warner, was perhaps the best of the whole, the anticipation | and excitement almost reached their eli max it was the aaocte triste of the hens the hen-roost was invaded, and the boy could indulge his natural propen- l sity for slaughter with feeling that it was sanctioned by the Christian re- igion. The squawking was music in his ears, the cutting off of the heads 8 bloody joy, the ludicrous attempts of the hens to go about without anyheads source of inexhaustible n1erriment. Neither age nor sex was spared; youth did not excuse the rooster from quitting his perch at the sudden summons in the dark, nor old age and munifcence in eggs the venerable hen.
 Whatever the breakfast was, and it was abundant. it always had one dish chicken shortcake. I still believe that nothing else ever made is so good as chicken shortcake. Whata lot of "dip' it had and how it assimilated with the brown-coated, crystal -faked baked pota- toes. Its moral quality could not convey to any but born New Englander of the old days.
 Everybldy went to meeting, every body young and old, except the mother or the trusted oldest daughter, who stayed at home to forward dinner. The meeting house was full-fuller than on Sunday. The sermon was sober politi- cal ssrouser." Was it Parson Hallock, l or Parson Grout, or Parson Field preached it? It didn't spare the Am monites, nor the Hittites, nor the other
 sites,' who had strayed away from the
 good old Federal principles. It set Ma
 tional affairs in the right track, and
 everybody felt better for it. There was
 no talk about preaching politics then.
 The town election was held in the meet. ing house, where the voting was as
 orderly and as solemnly conducted as any of the Sunday services. It was no improper there to treat of the duties O
 citizens-in Federal way.
 It was all much like Sunday, and ye
 cheerful Sunday--bright faces, greet ings, and eager inquiries about "whc
 had come." After the service and thu long, long sermon ended, we did no l stay, as on Sunday during the "mter mission," to eat our doughnuts ant apples in the church, and nobody warmed f piece of half-frozen mince pie on thu stove we went home, and went in per ceptibly gayer spirits than when w l came. Dinner was late, as late almos as o'clock. Everybody was as hungr. l as if he had lasted for year. Ther } is no modern appetizer like an old
 fashioned sermon about the Hittites
 What dinner it was, the blossom of al
 the year ! What could the boy do witt
 choice of roast turkey and roast chick en and roast duck, with chicken pie t. come? A dinner is nothing but din
 her anyway, and no person at givel time can possibly eat as much as he ex poets to eat when his imagination ha been active on the subject for som
 time. And then the dessert remem Der dinner at which an attempt wa made to serve twenty-three distinct kind !, of pie. Will anybody not born ill Ne1 England believe there are so many kind of pie?
 It was not certainly till after dime (yes, there was little cider, but it ha'
 not done much work yeti that the solem nity of the day could be fairly said t ! have broken away, and the friskiness c . the youngsters began to have play. Blu ! by evening real festive air prevailed
 and even drew the old folks into il f Apples, cider, nuts, toasted cheese, roal , ing wood fires, puss-in-the-corner, unre strained till the great tall clock in tn l. corner struck the awful hour of 10!