Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-11-27

beating cheap drums and whoon;no- o., o.
recklessly as so many younp savsgas
BOYS IN masks and outre Costumes would
salute him with Gimme penny mister y
And ne might even see a SQUAD 81 annar.
, emily well to do men marching in ;rrao,,
lar order and conducting themselves lie
tramps. % iiAo
10 sum it up In one sentence. RrooL
iyn alone, of all places in the Tn;tad
states. celebrates Thanksgiving Dav az az
neathen festival. And the enstom ;s
peculiarly local to BROOKLYN. It has mo-,
even crossed in full strength to New
iprh city, though some of its influence ia
dlseernible there: and 1t is barely not;ca
able In the smaller cities and towns ~
Long Island. And what is stranger still
IL Is very old local custom. and ifs or; ~,
IS, as the historians of Ireland saw ..los+
IN the mists of hoary antiouitv
The phrase heather festiyaro in +ba
preceding paragraph must not be con-
s strueu as term of reproaeh; it is simply
meant to imply celebration like thai -
Christmas in the west and sontb' And
TO explain these variations of local ems
tom, bit of history is In order AZ al
classical scholars know. it is only hr 90
ulueht Inat some sections of the Christian
world observe Christmas as the snnivar-
ssary of Christs birth The dav was cello.
orated In Italy for a thousand wears or
glofe oelore the Christian era. 1t was the
oay OF the suns return from his most
southern point in the heavens, the day
"1eh the people closed accounts for the
oiu year ana started on a new one: so all
isiu rules were relaxed, the most austere
sLllleu on the general levity and it was a
Gay OF rout and revel, of mask and mum
merry OF feasting and giving gifts and
general social equality
through all the changes of $500 Years
the Old custom has survived; and in mora
than half the Christian world todar
CHRISTMAS is practically heather festi-
val, celebrated just about as it was in
iuSly ooo B. e., except that gunpowder
mas oeen invented and the turkey dis
covered since then. From southern Fu.
rope the custom ttoated unchanged to the |
southern belt OF the United States, and |
from England to Virginia and the border
states norm and south; so, while New |
Engianders assembled in their churches |
Tor forenoon service on that day, the
people OF Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky and |
aaJolnihg states were firing anvils, pop
ping hrecrackers, drinking eggnog, shoot.
ing at mark, having running and wres-
Ting matches, pitching quoits, and get.
ting ready for big dinner of fresh pork
chicken and sausage, with whisky before
1t and plenty of "Jeemes river" tobacco
after it, Further south the slaves were
allowed unlimited license and revel. and
no work was done till after New Years.
-
Vel, all that Christmas Is to the bow
q the southwest all that july 4th is to
al American boys, and good deal that a
school holiday IS to most boys, that is
thanksgiving day to the boys of Brook
yn, in the afternoon. A gentleman
'Pel4ing his first winter in the citv in
ISL, sad to me recently: ;
When descended from the Greene
avenue station Of the elevated road at ,
: P m, / was amazed at being surrounded
BY crowd Of half-grown bows in masks
and fanciful costumes who boldly de,
handed the gift of penny each and on ,