The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1892-12-02
THE HOLIDAY SEASON.
Noticeable Signs of the Happy Time
in the Worlds Fair City.
People Seem Better Natured and More
Obliging in Crowded Conveyances
"A Chicagoan's Observations on
Thanksgiving Day.
Especial Chicago Correspondence

Especial Chicago Correspondence
1t is common thing to hear people
express wish that there might be
more holidays. Not for the purpose of
Sinking work. although in this age and
country little less work, or a great
deal less, would be blessing to every
body. but for the beneicent effect that
holidays have upon our nature and our
relations with our neighbors.
Did you ever notice how sympathetic
people are at Christmas time or around
Thanksgiving day? At ordinary times,
If you get on street car when it is
crowded with people returning from
business or factory, all of them anxious
to get back to their fireside and enjoy
solid comfort, you are greeted with
scant and ill-concealed displeasure be-
cause you help swell the crowd and
make others uncomfortabl If you
happen to have a bundle with you it is
more than likely that you will hear
some remark that 'this is not an ex-
press wagon" or some other observa-
tion to show you that you have no
business to take up room with any
thing but your person, and even that is
grudgingly given.
But on Thanksgiving eve or at Christ
mas time you can sling big fat turkey
over your back or carry it under your
arms, or you can take along a whole
grocery store, and everybody on the
car viii salute you cheerily and help
you get on and save the bundle from
being crushed. You are at liberty to
poke every one in the ribs with the
turkeys feet and will not even be
abused if you are careless with your
own feet and step on those OF others.
Everyone has his own prospective COM
forts and pleasures in mind and is glad
to assist others to enjoy their share of
the worlds good things. 1t is on such
occasions that mans sympathy for
man blossoms out, and the crust of
ice that is formed around the heart in
the course of everyday business life
melts away before the sunshine of uni
versal happiness.
These reflections are suggested more
forcibly the larger the community one
lives in. / could not help thinking
about these things as was going home
Thanksgiving eve in this big city of
Chicago. The bigger the city the more
it is true that one-half of the world
does not know how the other half
lives, indeed, one-tenth does not know
how the other nine-tenths live. The
contrasts of wealth and poverty are
greater, the extremes are brought
closer together, making the distinctions
unnaturally glaring; there is less
sympathy for one another, ordinarily,
in the hustle of life. On a universal
holiday, however, these distinctions
seem to fade away and the spirit of
fraternity comes uppermost. 1t is in
such little things as l have indicated
that TRAITS of this kind become mani
fest better than in any display of
charity where one knows that the eyes
of the public are upon him and one
always feels more, or less, as if on
dress parade.
Passing by nv window l see a wagon
on which is a pile of boxes fifteen feet
high. They are of the shallow kind,
with q solid bottom but sides and top
of laths. They are empty now. A
short time since they contained each n
dozen or more geese, ducks, turkeys or
chickens. Wagonloads of them arrived |
in the city the days before Thanksgiv- |
ing filed with screeching population |
of fowl protruding their long necIs be-
tween the laths and filling the neigh
borhood with their shrieks. The whole
sale slaughter has been finished. There |
are several hundred thousand fowl less. |
The people of the city have once more |
given thanks for bountiful harvest.
For that is what Thanksgiving day |
signifies. With all the artificial mean
ing that has been carried into it in the |
course of time, with all the patriotic |
afterthoughts, with all the touching |
story or history, if you please, about |
Gov. Bradford and is hunters in Vir- |
ginia, our Thanksgiving day is the old |
harvest festival which our ancestors |
celebrated a thousand years ago in |
England and hundreds of years before
that time on the continent of Europe. |
All nations do it, for they all have |
secured their harvests at this season |
and feel grateful for the blessings re- |
ceived.
What better morals can there be |
than to endeavor to make our fellow |
beings happy?
Look in at the various charitable in |
stitutions of great city like Chicago |
on Thanksgiving day and you will be- |
gin to think that the stories about the |
moral depravity of big cities are large |
lv the inventions of pessimists who |
resolutely close their eyes to all the |
good about them. And then, think of |
all the acts of charity done privately, |
of which an occasional instance leaks !
out and gets into the papers! At the |
hospitals, public and private, the pa
tients are made happy by gifts of flow
ers, are entertained by gentle music |
and regaled with such delicacies as |
their physical condition can bear. The |
unfortunates at the asylums of all de-
scriptions receive their share of the |
pleasures, little though they may be
capable of appreciating them. Even 1
the outcasts of society held in our jails |
and state prisons are not neglected. /
And the people never object to an ex- /
penditure of public funds for such pur-
poses. The waits of our streets are
gathered in big hall and given a feast /
which they enjoy with all that ca /
pacity for pleasure which youth pos
sesses. Private charity often looks !
more to the substantial needs of those /
whom 1t succors and supplies them
with the necessaries for winter. for the /
day ushers in season of privation to |
many family unless assistance ar
riveS
And the churches inculcate the great
lessons OF charity. gratitude and
patriotism. Society is out in force.