Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-11-28

Once Of Publication, l23-l25 West Second
styseE. Los Angeles. Telephone No. 156
THURSDAY NOv. 2S, 1850.
ThanksgAving Day.
The setting apart by official proclaim
ation Of q day in the year for thanks
giving has become fixed institution of
the United States. 1t was probably |
originally suggested by the Hebrew feast
of the tabernacles, or the feast of in
gathering at the end Of the year. The
custom was early inaugurated in the
New England States, and during the
Revolution it was annually recon-
mended by Congress. But the official
Recommendation of Thanksgiving Day
in this country was mainly confined to
Nav England, where regular annual
pfUElamations were issued by the sew
eral Governors, and the day was OBJ
served almost universally by religious
services and the social reunion
Of families around the festive
board. The custom gradually spread
to other States, the annual recommends
zion Of the day having been first started
by the Governor of New York in 1917.
At later period it began to be pro-
claimed in some Of the Southern States.
In California it has always been officially
proclaimed as holiday. President Lin
coin inaugurated it az national day in
1858, and since that time it has been
regularly proclaimed every year by the
President as well as the Governors of
States, and custom has fixed the time
for it's observance On the last Thursday
in November.
In both religious and 30.
cial point of view, the custom is
ona. that is to be heartily COM
mehded. 1t is not only recognition
of dependence on the Supreme Creator,
but it ia an exhibition of gratitude to the
Almighty for the boundless gifts we
enjoy in this life. The year may have
been one Of great calamity-crops may
have failed, casualties of great msgni-
tude and frequency may have occurred,
epidemics with disastrous results may
have visited us,-and yet, in spite of all
these adverse happenings, there may be
infinite cause for thanks. No calamity
Is 80 great that it might not have been.
worse; no war is so sweeping and 80 at
tended with suffering that we cannot
imagine still more calsmitous one.
Some parts Of country must in all
years suffer more or less from what an
old writer terms one of the three
Fs-fre, food or famine. Yet there
remains the consoling thought that in
this age there is generous and expedi-
tious relief always ready for the unfortu-
nate out of the abundance of those places
that have been blessed with good fortune.
Perhaps the humanities OF our civiliza-
tion we're never better illustrated than in
the grand and noble way in which the
people of all parts of the country came to
the relief Of the Johnstown sufferers. In
ruder age, they would not only have
been left to work out their own salvation
without substantial relief, but even the
sympathy Of their fellow creatures would
have been wanting.
Surely all-those who have suffered as
wen as those who have thrived during
the past year-ought to be thankful that
we live in an age when the finer in
stincts Of our na.ure-the sense OF SYM
psthy in sorrow, in suffering, in mis-
fortune OF our kind, and the willingness
to help all who are in distress is dis
tinguishing trait of our epoch.
1t is not many ages aimee the world
was made up OF hardness, indifference
and cruelty-when human actions were
based on the principle that every man
was for himself and the devil could take
the hindmost-when the poor wretch in
the stocks or the pillory-perhaps for no
real offense-who should have excited
public pity only excited public derision
and hate; and instead Of receiving SYM
pathy ior his hard fate, was made q
human target, and pelted with mud and
stones by every passer-by. The man or
woman who cannot thank God that such
an age is forever passed, and that we
have reached an era of good feeling and
common brotherhood-an era in which
the humanities are not only preached
but praciiced, an era in which no one is
30 low down in the scale OF manhood as
not to find commiseration sympathy,
help-we gay that the man or woman
who cannot with full and grateful heart
return thanks for the better and nobler
period is an anomaly of the times, and
ID born several centuries too late.
Notwithstanding this has been a cru
cial year with many of us, how abun-
dantly thankful ought our people to be for
the benefits they have received! Money
has been tight with us, but the season
has been propitious. We have been
hard run for coin, but the crops have
been abundant and the prcmiss for next
year is encouraging. The real essentials
to our physical well-being have never
been more easily obtained; and
surely the prospects of our city
and section for revival in business and
productive activities, in enterprises "of
great pith and moment touching our
future prosperity, are so bright and full
nf that hind of v,v<y,,iao that oivan carf;.