The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1888-11-29

beating cheap drums and whooping as
recklessly as so many young savages.
Boys in masks and outre costumes would
salute him with Gimme penny, mister. "
And he might even see squad of appar.
emily well to do men marching in irregu.
lar order and conducting themselves like
| tramps
To sum 1t up in one sentences Brook.
Ign alone of all places in the United
States, celebrates Thanksgiving Day as a
heather festival And the custom is
peculiarly local to Brooklyn. 1t has not
even crossed in full strength to New
York city, though some of it's influence is
discernible there; and it is barely notice
able in the smaller cities and towns of
Long Island And what is stranger still,
1t is very old local custom, and its orr gin
is as the historians of Ireland say, lost
In the mists of hoary antiquity"
The phrase heather festival" in the
preceding paragraph must not be con-
strued as term of reproach; it is simply
meant to imply a celebration like that Of
Christmas in the west and south. And
to explain these variations of local Gus.
tom, bit of history is in order. As all
classical scholars know, it is only by &C
cident that some sections of the Christian
world observe Christmas as the anniver-
sary of Christ's birth. The day was cele-
brated in Italy for thousand years or
more before the Christian era. 1t was the
day Of the suns return from his most
southern point in the heavens, the day
when the people closed accounts for the
old year and started on new one; so all
rigid rules were relaxed, the most austere
smiled on the general levity and it was a
day of rout and revel, of mask and num-
merry, of feasting and giving gifts and
general social equality.
Through all the changes of $500 years
the old custom has survived; and in more
than half the Christian world today
Christmas is practically heather festi
val, celebrated just about as It was In
Italy 500 B. c., except that gunpowder
has been invented and the turkey dis
covered since then. From southern Eu.
rope the custom foated unchanged to the
southern belt of the United States, and
from England to Virginia and the border
states north and south; so. while New
assembled in their churches |
for forenoon service on that day, the !
people of Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky and |
states were firing anvils, pop |
ping firecrackers, drinking eggnog, shoot
Ing at mark, having running and wres
thing matches, pitching quoits, and get
ting ready for big dinner of fresh pork,
chicken and sausage, with whisky before
It and plenty of "Jeemes river" tobacco
after It, Further south the slaves were
allowed unlimited license and revel, and
40 work was done till after New Years.
-
Well, all that Christmas is to the bow
II the southwest, all that July 4th is to
vi American boys, and good deal that
school holiday is to most boys, that is
Thanksgiving day to the boys of Brook.
yn, in the afternoon A gentleman
pending his first winter in the city in
ee7, said to me recently:
when | descended from the Greene
venue station of the elevated road at
p. m. was amazed at being surrounded
y a crowd of lf-grown boys in masks
nd fanciful costumes who boldly de-
handed the gift of a penny each and on