The Bossier banner., 1893-11-30
Thanksgiving Day.

Another Thanksgiving! The young
sters have grown little older and
the boys of larger growth and
former generation have a deeper
snow drift on their heads. A good
many of us are getting ready to hang
our harps on the willows and are
watching the disc of the afternoon
sun as he approaches the western
horizon. There are plenty to take
our places, however, and the world
will Jog along at the old gait whether
we are here or there. To the opti-
mist, and no one has right to be
anything else, this is pleasant
thought. A little more turkey and
cranberry sauce, few more jovial
reunions of long separated families
and we shall dip our colors in honor
of the brave and athletic youth who
will unstrap the burden from our
shoulders and bend their own to re-
Geive it. We shall become q reminis-
eence, and if we are an agreeable one,
that is all that any one can ask.
This is peculiar day, and we have
ample cause for the gratitude which
is blazing jewel in the setting of
hilarity and exuberant enjoyment
Our fathers made the forenoon rather
sombre, but they brought up the
average of fun with feast of young
pig, done to turn, and a roast tur-
key that had been fatted for the oc-
easion, all of which was rendered ap-
petizing by long draught of hard
cider. In the evening thousand
games filed the air with laughter,
and in the delights of "Hunt the
Slipper" and the mazes of the dance
no waltzing, however--the swift hours
sped away.
There is no more beautiful custom
than that which sets apart one day in
the year as day of national thanks
giving to God for His mercies, and
one when all the people acknowledge
that ''every good gift and every per.
feet gift is from above and cometh
down from the Father of Lights
with whom is no variableness, neither
shadow Of turning" 1t is peculiarly
M appropriate that this national festiva
should be held in the autumn when
the fruits of the harvest have beer
Il gathered and when we should be full
of gratitude to the Bestower of al
mercies.
lis we'll to have one day thus sci
apart for the giving of thanks. In
the mad rush for wealth and honor
and in the scramble for the prizes Of
life, men too often lose sight of God
and Of their obligations to Him. Let
introspection and retrospection mark
she day, as well as that gratitude
which should be the prevailing senti-
ment.
A holiday and time of rejoicing
latter theingathering of the harvests
of the field and the fruits of the Or
chard," have been observed among
many nations of the world. As far
back as history goes, the people of
Europe kept a holiday at the annual
recurrence of the season when Nature
pours her gifts into the lap of man.
kind. The Greeks observed the fes-
tival of tho Thalysia, which was q
feast to Demeter, the tabled goddess
of corn-fields and harvests. The
Romans celebrated the Cerealia, or
festival of Ceres, who presided over
agriculture, and to her men were sup
posed to be indebted for the gift of
breadstuffs; hence, our term cereals.
The Hebrew festival of tabernacles
was their harvest feast, held after the
ingathering of the crops of the year.
In Germany and throughout Scan
dinayia, kindred customs obtained.
and the origin of the old English