The Portland daily press., 1883-11-29
Thanksgiving Day.
BY ADAM NEwpEGrN.

Are we, as community, departing from the
primitive idea Of Thanksgiving Day? Are we
increasing the rejoicing and neglectng the
thanks? We must remember that the Pilgrims
were a little band of enthusiasts gathered out
of nation that went on in its old way, and
must not hold oar whole nation up to
their gauge. If we take as an example the
sbipload of Maiue enthusiasts who went to
Jaffa to found a colony, we shall find, in our
own generation, similar spirit, which will
show us that the ages are akin.
1t is easy to find, in every age and every
country, the people prostrating itself in dev ont
thanksgiving for unexpected preservation or
great victory, but can we see in any people,
at any time, continued spirit Of devotion car
rled into daily life greater than that of to-day?
The Patriarchs cannot be claimed, as they
represented only single families in the midst
of an undevout people. The Egyptians and
Assyrians of their day celebrated great Thanks
givings ON set occasions, bur were far below
the general level of to-day, aud the nations
around them were much worse. The chosen
people were ever rebellious to religious teach
ings, and harder to hold in check than our
own. We find constant public sacrifices among
the Greeks and Romans but we find also
continual decrease in actual reverence for
their deitiss, until their widely extended wor-
ship actually vanished. The early Christians
lived very strictly while under pressure, but
we see from the epistles how much of the old
leaven worked in to trouble the new commu-
mites, and doubtless we can find as many
strictly devout people among us to-day, as in
any equal number of citizens in their day.
So we shall always find mixture of zeal
and Indifference wherever we look into history,
saving that in new communities there will be
more uniformity OF belief while they continue
ious they will be strict, if founded by the law
less they will be lawless.
When Sinbsd escaped from the cave, after
being bnried alive, and having murdered lat
or conner for her scanty supply of bread and
water, on reaching open day, he threw himself
on his knees and thanked God for his deliver
ance. Society does the same, but, like Sinbad,
thinks little of returning thanks when not i'm
perilled. Yet this is an old trait and not a
new development, and our Thanksgiving day,
from being New England festival, appoint
ed at different dates in different states, has
grown to be a national festival, kept by fifty
millions of people; by all as day of rejoicing
over the gifts of the harvest, and as a family
reunion, by many as day of gratitude and
thanksgiving to God as sincere as that of the
little band of pilgrims on the Plymouth shore.
Are not this adoption Of Thanksgiving by
all the other States, and the adoption by New
England of Christmas IS a festival, striking ev-
licences of the thorough reunion Of our coun-
try?
1t is doubtful If Thanksgiving can ever be to
the other States all which it is to New Eng
land. 1t needs the New England crisp wee TIL
er When the portly city merchant nears the
old farm house among the hills, going TO spend
his Thanksgiving, he looks around to see if the
little pond is frozen. There was not always
skating on Thanksgiving Day when be Was a
boy, but he will insist that there was, and he
remembers just how hard he worked for his
first pair of skates, and he knows where the
shallow water, safe for trying the new ice, is,
and he will try it again tomorrow. 1t would
not be quite Thanksgiving without the skating,
nor without the open fire. and Grandpa has
got blazing fire in the old fireplace, with a
II dub iOS VI OtacA DAASA oPcA Aet w WOAOcA-Ao
the children. He uses stoves now, but one
must be cleared away for Thanksgiving, SO
that all shall seem as it was before the boys
and girls went away.
The merchant knows that times have
changed; that the threshing machine has
taken the place of the fail, and the moving
machine the place Of the scythe; but he looks
at old fail hanging upin the barn, ana re-
members how he first learned to handle it
without knocking his head and he takes down
a scythe to see if he remembers how he first
learned to swing it in the dooryard. Things
do not seem changed now as they ordinarily
do, for the same feeling that brought him to
spend the THANKSGIVING at the old homestead
brings back the heart of youth and the eyes of
childhood.
The glamour of Puritan days comes over the
festival; not with their hardness and their
harshness, which has vanished, bat sweet and
strong and kindly, bringing reverence for old
age, kindiiness toward the neighbor, and that
love for the place of nativity which is the in
spiration of patriotism and the strength of ma
tions.