The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1885-01-31
THANKSGIVING.
A Day Peculiarly Belonging to the
Home and to Women.

Thanksgiving day is one of the two
festivals in which, more than in any
other, it seems to us, women have
peculiar right and part. Other festi-
walls, with the single exception OF that OF
the Nativity, belong to men, toindividu-
ais, to nations, to events; but Thanks
giving alone belongs only to the home,
and is celebrated there in remarka-
bly, primitive and uniform manner
when one considers how universal is
the practice of the celebration.
Sons come hoIae to their mothers on
this day; grandmothers throw wide
their doors to already visible posterity;
husbands and wives are surrounded by
their dear ones; long-parted brothers
and sisters are united, with all the
phantoms of childhood and youth about
them: and it is a home to which they
have come, home of which some one
woman is the central being, and the
doors close, and families are by them
selves, and it is there where mothers
and sisters and wives have their hour
of authority, and for the nonce are
recognized supreme. -.
1t appears, then, as q natural oonse-
quence, that the habit of keeping
Thanksgiving day. and keeping it with
a good deal of the ancient ceremonies,
is one that, as class, and for their
own sakes, women should never allow
to degenerate, its observance being
both to their interest and honor. They
should not, ia this light, be content
with simply varying the customary
dinner of the week with one of turkey
and cranberry sauce and mince pie;
they should not allow themselves, with
any disinelination they may feel for ex-
ertion, to fall back, on the general
statement that these recurring ami
versaries only serve to make one sad,
and are best when slipped over easily;
or that, with so many of the family
widely scattered, it does not seem
worth while to make much ado
over the day for the few remain
ing together; or that, with death so re-
Gently in the household, there really
does not seem to be much propriety in
making merry with gala day. II
better becomes them to. keep the day,
if they have to keep it wholly by them,
selves; to keep it in company with al
the youth belonging within the walls
by any forced construction of family
ties; to keep it as if for the making O
anniversaries that the generation tt
come may have to remember; to keel
It, however widely scattered, the be
loved may be, that all may know thu
Others are doing the same thing, witt
lowing thoughts of those that are no
with them; to keep it, thankful at leas
that death has brought surcease of suf
fering to the departed, if death it b.
that has brought the shadow to tn
house, and remembering the duty o
making life cheerful as possible t,
those that are remaining; to keep ii
Emoreover, and indeed principally, be
cause the liberysof giving thanks is i
itself something for which it is wort
while to offer thanks.
tits true that our grandparents mad
q most elaborate matter of tho eatin
and drinking pertaining 60 the day; bu
the origin of that had its excuse in th
newness Of the plenty that they foun
surrounding them in the new land, an
that they would fain acknowledge b
this sort of sacrifcial abundance an
profusien on their tables the breakfai
board loaded with vastly too much fS
dinner of any other day. the dinns
table grooming with its boiled fowl 50
oyster sauce, its.roasta turkey and Il
let sauce, lis roast ducks ANDRES brow
goose, its obieken-pie, its cold stongu
its immense ham, its shaking monll
of ruby jellies, its various pickles,
lar of celery, its uncounted vegetable
!. its minneapolis, and squash-pies, al
apple-piess and cranberry-tarts, al
-puddings and nuts and raisin
and figs and apples, and the gre
winter pears that had been wra
ped away in paper in dark dra'
ers, and the great decanters
brown sherry and Madeira, of shrn
and of all the strong and red o
liquors that flesh was heir to. And
is equally true that it is unnecessary
load our tables with half the amou
of this Hastings of good food, sin
ply in order to do reverence to the eta
on to maintain the old honors to viii