The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1883-12-20
The Christmas Turkey.

began; and to their glory be it said
that whether victims in defense of o
principle or of an idea they have done
noble work in elevating the morals,
the mind and the manners of man
kind. Historians have sounded their
praises in solemn prose, bays have
been wreathed about their brows by
the poets, while in the popular heart
their names and deeds live on immor-
tality: and in this clarifying of their
memories is their sufficient reward.
But there is one martyr whose annu-
ally recurring martyrdom excites no
special comment of praise; who suf-
fers unstayed by the knowledge that
his sacrifice will linger long within
the memory and upon the lips of men;
who passes from us through the
flames with naught to sustain him
save the calm inward conviction that
his loss is many others gain. Need
it be said that we refer to the Christ
mas turkeyP
From his entrance into this trouble
some world, an entrance heralded by
a delicate piping and chipping at his
shell, as though in modesty he knock
ed at the door of the world before
entering, even until his exit is effect
ed midst the savory incense of sweet
smelling herbs and to the accompan-
iment of a leave-offering OF cranberry
sauce, the turkeys life is one of gen.
tie, unobtrusive excellence-that rises
to climax of self-forgetful devotion
in the act that brings it majestically
to an end. In the pleasant country,
where his youth and young maturity
are passed, he is gracious, self-re-
liant bird, the first object of whose
being, as it would seem, is to give
the least possible trouble. Chickens
are precious lot of bother to every
body connected with them, requiring
an inordinate amount of food and
also houses to sleep in-houses which
are an irresistible temptation designed
by the Evil One to wreck the moral
characters of the colored people in the
neighborhood. But the turkey is not
as chickens are. He knows how to
take care Of himself. He is good
forager, and he roosts upon trees
to the confusion of the children of
Ham. Yet INCREASINGLY he consents
to be penned as the dark days of De-
cember are at hand; with an affable
dignity peculiarly his own he eats of
the grain given him and wakes fat for
the sacrifice; and when the sacrifcial
moment arrives he lays his life down
with scarcely an expostulatory gobble.
And in his death his bounty is dis
tributed with an even claw: wealth to
his slayer; the happiness which at
tends upon him whose jerkin is well
lined to them in whose interest he is
slain.
Surely, then, the Christmas turkey
is martyr whose deeds, though hum
BILE, are yet glorious, and whose de-
serts are great. Let us not stop mar
tyring him--that would indeed be
folly, depriving him, since he but
lives that he may die, of an object in
life, and depriving ourselves of the
most succulent and toothsome of the
dainties of Christmas-tide. Let us
eat him henceforth in reverent, low
ing spirit-suffering not our appe-
tites to diminish, but ruther enlarg-
ing them by the sauce-ike tincture of
respect and esteem. Yea, Let us eat
him gladsomely, this Christmas tur-
key whose completed martyrdom in
the cause of good cheer will be cele-
brated in hundred million homes
throughout Christendom next Tues
day.