The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-11-29

closely allied to our day. The legend Is
pretty one. Demeter was the goddess of
corn-helds and harvests. One day
Proserpine, her pretty daughter, was
out IN the garden gathering flowers,
when horrid old Pluto, the god of
He'll, spied her, and, "smitten" with her
beauty and grace, he lost no time in carrying
her oil, OF course, her mamma sighed and
cried, and asked every one she met for her
daughter. None had seen her. But Proserpine
was having good time enough that is, she
went at once to eating. and when woman's
happy she'll eat. The way to the heart is
through the mouth. She ate a pomegranate
seed IN Pluto 5 kingdom so that she could
only spend six months with her mother.
ms made the old lady mad, and she refused
10 live longer in Olympus with the gods, but
took up her abode on earth and conferred
blessings on all who paid her court She
J taught Seleus, king OF Bleusis, the principles
OF lgrlculture-hOW to pillow, sow, and reap;
how to make bread and rear fruit-trees. Be
fore this men had lived on nuts and acorns.
She became patron suint of Eeusis, and in
her honor were established the mysteries
which were celebrated in the fall.
The Romans celebrated harvest festival
IN honor of Ceres, and in England the old
harvest home was the autumn holiday of
our English forefathers.
Ten months had passed since the little
band OF sturdy pioneers and martyrs for
wiJchcraft burning and rigid Puritanism
cember had spied the sand-hills of Cape Cod
and the rocks of Plymouth. Death had
wasted them away; one-half their number
slept the sleep that knows no waking and
| the fifty survivors, living in low posted log
huts, such as a Western cowboy would not
! corral Buffalo calf in to-day, had raised
1 twenty acres OF corn and six of barley and
peas Yet these men gave thanks. God
! be praised" wrote one Of them. I'VE had a
good increase of Indian corn, and our barley
{ av,.tsI H.
gathering" Edward Winslow tells the story
in such simple language that it is worthy OF
reproduction:
"Onr harvest being gotten in, Governor
seut fonr men ont towing so that might after
IA special manner rejoice together after had
gathered the FINN of our labors. They four in
one day killed AS much fowl as with little help
beside served the eompany about a week. AT
which time amongst other recrratiOns eXer
clsfd our arms, many of the Indians coming
amongst las ami among the rest the greatest
King Massasoyt with some ninety men whom
Tor three days We enterUalned and feSeted, and
they Qndians) went out and killed five deer
which they brought to the plantation and be-
slowed on onr Governor and upon the CAPTAIN
fMyles StandisD and Others. Ana although 1t
DC not always so plentiful as IT WAS ut THIS time
win us, yet by the goodness of God we are sn
lar from want that we often visa you partaRer
OF our plenty"
The first New England Thanksgiving was
therefore in the fall of 1921. Though no
public record fixes the exact time vet it was
been largely an outdoor festival, and lasted
a week. Perhaps the Pilgrim forefathers had
in mind the Jewish feast of the tabernacos,
but it is more probable that the harvest
home OF merrie old England that they had
left came wildly before them, and they de-
sired TO reproduce this best of all the Old
world customs
The second year after this celebration was
much more solemn and impressive one,
for the colony had been delivered from
threatened famine. The spring and snm-
mer of 1923 had been dry and sultry. From
the middle OF May to the middle of July no
rain fell. Drought parched the ground, the
corn was fired and the barley ceased to grow.
a day of fasting and prayer was appointed.
1t was on the 18th of July, and the people
! prayed nine hours. Toward evening clouds
collected, a sharp breeze arose in the east.
| and when morning dawned the rain poured
| in torrents, This rain lasted fourteen days,
and was the salvation of the harvest Gov
| ernor Bradford ordered day of thanksgiv
| ing, and the second was kept in grave and
formal manner. 1t lacked the hilarity and
| license of the harvest home, the iocund
| laughter and the merry frolcking of the
men and maidens, and the pranks of the
| Lord of Misrule, and perhaps they would
! have beer out of place among those sturdy
| pioneers on foreign and hostile shore, sur
rounded by savages and wild beasts and
| hardly having the means of living from
| year to year.
The early colonial records, which are by
| no means perfect, speak of no observance of
| thanksgiving until 1868, and in this year
| the 18th of November was observed. The
| records are silent again until 1850, when the
| Goth Of October was appointed by the court
| as a day to be celebrated by all the inhab-
itants OF the colony. Nov. 26, 1890 was
| also observed, and the next year the colony
was merged and lost its separate existence.
| The celebration of thanksgiving day had
| been observed in England on special occa-
sions long before the Pilgrims landed. When
the Spanish armada was defeated Queen
! Elizabeth ordered a day OF praise and thanks
! giving. 1t was observed with bonlires
and merry-making, gaily-drcssed crowds
| thronged the streets, and all London was
| alive with merry music and enlivening
sounds. On the discovery of the gunpowder
| plot in 1905, at least sixteen years before the
| Pilgrims landed, THANKSGIVING was ordered,
and the day was observed as a sort of gala
occasion, and still exists as Guy Fawkes's day.
/ When George III recovered from his insanity
! a grand procession of digntaries marched
| through the streets of London and a thanks
| giving service was celebrated in ST. Paurs
| Cathedral before the recovered monarch.
| When the Prince of Wales recovered from
the wellnigh fatal illness in 1872 like services
were held.
There were occasional thanksgiving DAYS
| appointed by other Governors outside of New
! England In 1914 aud 1855, William Kieft
! the Dutch Governor of New Netherlands, or
| dered day of thanksgiving to be observed,
and Peter Stuyvesant did the same III 1865,
on the occasion of the annexation OF the
! Swedish colony. Perhaps they derived the
idea from that of Leyden, in 1875, for that
| city had observed day in October ever since
! the city was delivered from the Spaniards.
| During the revolutionary war thanksgiv-
| ing day was a national institution. 1t was
recommended by Congress, but after the
! peace thanksgiving in 1874 there is an inter-
regnum OF thanksgivings until 1899 when
! President Washington recommended day
OF thanks on account OF the adoption OF the
| constitution. In 1875, when the insurrec-
! ton in several of the States was crushed out.