The National tribune., 1888-11-22
TURKEY DAY.


and the only appointment of his, by the
way, which has met with universal APP
provaI-to-day week is Thanksgiving.
For 364 days in the year the American
EagIe-may no feather ever molt from his
ever-lengthening wings-is the King bird of
this Continent. Next Thursday he abdicates
his proud position that his gallinaceous
cousin-many times remOved-may reign
for "a hours supreme The Turkey is q
worthy viceroy to the proud Bird of Free
dom. He is precisely the one to be lord
paramount on day in which the fierce
struggles of life, the ambitions, the rivalries
and strivings with one consent give way for
the gentle and humanizing social virtues
the OVERLOOKING of the fountains of kinship
and good will to men.
AS the Eagle represents strength, uncon-
querable courage, imperial mastery, wide
surveying ambition wide-ruling power, so the
Turkey represents the milder virtues Of the
home and freside. He appears at his best
surrounded by his family, leading them to
where food is choicest and most abundant
instIucting them in the etiquet and duties
of upright and respectable citizens of the
ancestral barnyard, and presiding at the
birth and introduction into society of his
offspring. The only blemish on his charac-
ter is his incurable tendency toward polyg
amy, to which he is as passionately attached
as Mormon elder, and equally disdainful
of the restraints of the Edmunds law. 1t
must be said in extenuation of the Turkey
that this is an hereditary instinct with
him, transmitted from countless generations
of many -wived fathersand plural mothers,
in the case of the Latter Day Saints I'm
like the latter, also, he is always kind
husband and an indulgent father, not re-
quiring his wives to support him, but con-
tributing his full share toward bearing all
the family burdens, even to taking his turn
sitting upon the domestic nest, while one
of his wives has little breathing spell, and
runs into the neighbors to gossip over the
tOughness of the seasons grasshoppers, and
the alarming prevalence Of pip among the
infant turkey pouts."
1t is, perhaps, well enough to keep our
eyes fixed on the great American Eagle most
of the time, and contemplate him as
He clasps the crag with hooked hands
| Close TO the sun in lonely lands,
hinged by the azure world he stands.
He watches from his mountain walls,
The wrinl1ed sea beneath him craws,
And like thundeTbolt he falls.
He is a magnificent picture as he gazes
steadfastly at the blazing sun with unwink-
| ing eye. His unquailing courage, his I'M
conquerable soul, his sweeping range, are
peculiarly American, and our hearts thrill
with the intoxication of pride when he
screams mortal defiance to the whole royal
menagerie of lions, bears, wolves, foxes,
cocks, vultures and dragons of the effete
monarchies.
But for one day in the year we take a re-
spite from this soul-inspiring spectacle and
let our eyes rest in loving admiration upon
the bronze-featured Monarch of the Barn
yard, the swelling, gobbling bright-plumed
Sultan of the bug-infested fields, who, while
he may not be so glorious in deeds and soar
ing in intellect as the Eagle is great deal
handsomer bird, and infinitely better eating
hIrcwrrnap-IN.C HIrF GrnRor MILAN,