The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1885-11-05
THANKSGIVING DAP LITERA-
TURE,

Since the time Of the Pilgrim Fathers
it has been the duty of the powers that
be, whether Christian or pagan, to give
official expression of thanksgiving to
Almighty God for favors received. Very
many of our presidents and gov
ernors are believed to have called in the
assistance of the ministers to aid them
in volcing expressions they never feel,
and IN the utterance of which they would
be guilty of the grossest hypocrisy.
Still they must not shirk the
duty of issuing the Thanksgiv-
ing proclamation, either in per-
son or by proxy, and hence the Thanks
giving day proclamations are an inter
esting study. Our own Click, while
governor, did not even invite in
clergyman to do this little job
for HIM, but told his chief
clerk, Tomlinson, to do it. The
governor believed in TomlInson. He
could do anything, from leading pray
er meeting to judging horse race. But
TomIinson was lazy and got his chief
into very serious trouble by stealing
and issuing the proclamation
of the Cover nor of Ne
brasks. There mo discretion used.
If he had stolen the proclamation of the
governor of Idaho, or Rhode Island, he
would not have been found out, but
Tomlinson, while ingenious, is not COM
prehenslve, and hence this little chapter
in Kansas history.
We turn, however, from state to ma
ton, and give herewith the pith of
Grover Cleveland's Thanksgiving proc.
lamAtion. It will be read with interest:
Therefore, 1, Grover Cleveland, presi-
dent of the United States OF America,
do hereby designate and set apart Thurs
day, the Goth day of November, inst, as
day of public thanksgiving and pray
er, and do invoke the observance of the
same by all people OF the land. On that
day let all secular business be suspend
ed, and let the people assemble in their
usual places of worship, and with pray
er and songs of praise devoutlY testify
their gratitude to the Gi7er of every
good and perfect gift for all that He has
done for us IN the year that has passed,
for our preservation as united states and
for our deIiverance from the shock and
danger of political commissions, for the
blessings of peace and for our safety and
quiet while wars and rumors of wars
have agitsted and afflicted other nations
of the earth, for our Sc
curity against the scourge of
pestilence, which in other lands has
claimed Its dead by thousands, and filed
the streets with mourning-for the plen.
teous crops which reward the labor OF
the husbandman and increase our ns-
TONS wealth and for the contentment
throughout our borders, which follows
in the tram of prosperity and abundance,
and let there also be on the day thus set
apart q reunion of families sanctified
and chastened by tender memories and
and let the intercourse of
friends with pleasant Renaissance renew
the ties of affection and strengthen the
bonds of kindly feeling, and let US by no
means forget, while we give thanks and
enjoy comfort which have crowned our
lives, that truly grateful hearts are in
clined TO deeds of charity and that a
kind and thoughtful remembrance of
the poor will double the pleasures OF our
condition and render our praise and
more acceptable in the
sight of the Lord.