San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1895-03-01
THE PROCLAMATION.
WORKING UP SENTIMENTS APPRO-
PIRATE TO THANKSGIVING.
Rough Draft Goes the Rounds and
Picks Up Additions In Inks of All Col
originally Engrossed on Cream Col
ored, Gilt Edged Paper and Signed.

| Iichs Up AuultlOns In INKS OF All Col
| originally Engrossed on Cream Col
ored, Gilt Edged Paper and Signed.
The cOncOction of that time honored
document, the Thanksgiving proclama.
ton, which sails forth annually as the
impromptu expression of the national
executives religious gratitude, is the
terror of the state department.. Every
year il is called upon to produce some
thing new in that line, and its efforts to
say the same thing in a different way,
to avoid if possible verbatim copying
Of last years letter, is one of the veneer
able jokes of the diplomatic greenroom.
About the first or second week of No
vember, everybody knowing that the
day falls on the last Thursday of that
month, the chief clerk or some assist
ant secretary suggests that it is time to
think about the proclamation. Z"
The chief clerk accordingly runs
down the list of drafting clerks, ascer-
tains which of Uncle Sans servants is
at the time basking in innocuous desue-
tude and dispatches to the delinquent
by messenger an order to get up a draft
for the proclamation.
This rOuses the clerk from his lethar.
gy. He rises to the situation with alac-
rity. His first inspiration is to turn out
paper different from its predecessors.
The second arrests the divine afflatus.
What on earth can he say that has not
been said?
He writes the word whereas" and
pauses. In despair, at length, he turns
for help to the classics-that is, he con-
suits what Van Buren,, Tyler and Fill
more have said in past years and makes
that groundwork for a draft. This
embryo proclamation is then sent,
through the chief clerk, to the assistant
secretaries.
The first touch up the document re-
ceives is the insertion of lot of capital
HIS for deification, which the clerk has
forgotten in the throes of composition.
Then an assistant secretary, finding it
remiss in pious fervor, proceeds to in
sert piety with red ink marginal notes.
Thus the word prayer is followed by
''songs of praise, I" and tribute of graf
itude" is bracketed after worship. So
long, so faithfully has this servant of
the people discharged this self appoint
ed task that he is known in Office par
lance as the ''divine invocatOr "
Thus revised the draft proceeds to
some other grand mogul of the diplo-
matte greenrOOm, who finds that now
that the Deity has been duly attended
to something complimentary is due the
nation at large. So carrots, in blue pen
Gil, insert ''Our prosperity and great
ness" the ''labors of our people" or
"our marts of trade and traffic"
This tricolor draft is now handed
around again and encounters an official
in new vein. His lunch did not agree
with him. He is in penitent mood.
Selling a pencil, he ACIDS that we have
not been visited with swift punishment
for our shortcomings.
Another handles the document and
finds that it is too general, fails to iden-
tify the year, so he brings in a few
master strokes in purple indelible pot
hooks abiding to the deadly march Of
pestilence," "atfiictive dispensation"
and fury of the clements.
The document now seems to meet the
requirements. 1t is sent to an engrOss-
ing clerk who proceeds to ''fecit secun-
dun artem," like a drug clerk making
up a prescription. There are rules to be
observed, rules as inviolable as those
governing the Bank of England. A GER
tain cream COlOred gilt edged paper is
used An elaborately-orn title
is fourished half way down the page in
old German capital script announcing
"a Proclamation by the President of the
United States. " The original whereas
has met with many vicissitudes during
the travels of the draft.
Restored to its proper dignity, the
chief difficulty now is to disentangle the
many colOred insertions which crawl
like caterpillars all over the sheet. By
standing ON his head, squirting on the
bias or humping his guessing bump to
its utmost the engrossing clerk at last
turns out highly respectable and dec
orous looking document.
If the engrossed copy Is approved, ~
is taken to the White House. The exec
utive may or may not read it. It's pref
ty safe to say he does not, but he never
fails to sign it. With the presidents
signature it returns to the state depart
ment.
A Autograph copy is struck off and
sent abroad to our ministers and con-
suls.
The original is filed in the Book of
Credence, a somber, venerable volume