The Mt. Sterling advocate. (Mt. Sterling, Ky.) 1890-current, 1896-11-24
OFFERING THANKS.
PURiTANS DID NOT ORIGINATE THE
THANKSGIVING IDEA.

in New England loses none of its inter
est as time rolls on. With each ami
versary new charm beckons in persua-
sive power to old colony days in Plym-
outh. 1t is land of lingering visions;
of scant stock of pilgrim fathers, sur
vivors of the hundred souls and more
washed by the May FLOWER on the bleak
New England coast when winter pre-
vailed against them so that their clothes
froZe, many times like coats of iron.
But bark TO a clank of cutlass and
corselet of STEEL What, no! Miles Stand
ish, "Clad in doublet and hose and
boots of Cordovan leather" striding
again with martial air, and yet once
more doth the hurrying pen OF the strip
ling, John Alden, with the dow of
his youth and the beauty thereof, f" in
dite epistlcs filed with the name and
the fame of Priscilla, the 'loveliest maid
in Plymouth" .... ....
Two hundred and seventy five years
have passed since the faint line of the
Atlantic coast shimmered before the
straiuinc eyes Of the Puritan forefa
theirs, but it is not hard TO picture their
first THANKSGIVING in the gGn.den autumn
of 1921. The cruel, hungry winter
(there was row Of graves, and their
number was almost half of the entire
company was passed. Summer smiled
on their corufelds, and autumn brought
abundant harvest. 1t is a joyous de-
scriptiOn that Edward WinslOw, the his
torian Of the Plymouth colony, writes
of the pioneer Puritanical Thanksgiving
that followed:
"Our harvest being gotten in, our
Governor (WiIliam BTadiord) sent four
mon on fowliug, so that we might after
a special manner rejoice together after
we had gathered the fruit of our labors.
They four in one day killed as much
f0ulc as, with q little help beside,
served the company almost a week. At
, which time, amongst other recreation, we
exercised our arms, many of the Indians
coming amongst Us, and among the rest
their gruGrcst king, Ma5sasoyt, with
some 90 men, whom for three days we
entertained and Toasted, and they went
out and killed five deer, which they
brought to the plantation and bestowed
on our Governor and upon the captain
(Myles Standish) and others. "
Governor Bradford completes the
picture by enumerating the blessings
which induce the Thanksgiving cere-
mOny:
'They began DOW to gather in ye
small harvest they had and to fitte mp
their homes and dwellings against win
ter, being all well recovered in health
and strength, and had all things in
good plenty, for as some were thus en-
ployed III affairs abroad others were ex-
ercised i'll fishing about Codd and bass
and other fish OF which yey took good
store, Of which every family had their
| portion. All ye Somer Their was no
waste, and now began to come in store
of foule, as winter approached, Of which
this place did abound when they came
first (but afterwards decreased by de-
grees) and beside water toule Their was
great store Of wild Turkies, Of which
they took many, beside venison, &c.
Beside they had about u peck of meal a
weeke to person or now since harvest,
Indian corn to yc proportion.
Not one Of the American holidays is
so suggestive Of tho love Ct home which
is dominant il the national mind as
Thanksgiving, but II III. tory the fes-
tlyal does rot ind us exclusive home
here, The Thanksgiving idea is an old
one. The New LIH.a.d Purirans, in
commemorative day Of thanks, were
only following IL the footsteps of the
Hebrews, " no annually observed feast
of taDernacles or of ingatherin2. Thanks
giving lives in the classic authors in al
lusiOIs to the feasts Of Demeter. Har-
vest homes We're held by the Saxons and
the Celts, and what more beautiful pic
ture of an aboriginal autumn festival
could there be than the story of Hia-
watha's feast of MOndamin:
Homeward then went Hiawatha
To the lodge of old Nokonis,
And the seven days of his fasting
We're accomplished and completed.
But the place was not forgotten
Where he wrestled with Aondamia
Nor forgotten nor neglected
Was the grave where lay Mondamin,
Sleeping in the rain and sunshine.
Where his scattered plumes and garments
Faded in the rain and sunshine.
| Day by day did Hiawatha
| Go to wait and watch beside it:
| Kept the dark mold soft above it;
| Kept it clean from weeds and insects:
Drove away, with SCOTS and shoutings,
| Kahgahgeo, the king OF ravens
Till at length the small green feather
From the earth shot slowly upward,
Thon another and another, ~.
And before the summer ended
| Stood the maize in all its beauty, ...'
! With its shining robes about it,
And its long, soft, yellow tresses,
And in rapture Hiawatha
Cried aloud: at is NloEdamin
| Yes, the friend Of man, Mondamin"
Then he called 10 old Nukomis
And laguo, the great Doastcr;
! shOwud them where the maize was grow
ing;
Told them of his wondrous vision,
! OF his wrestling and his triumph
or this new gllt to the nations,
| Which should hc their food forever.
! And still later, when the autumn
Changed the long, green leaves to yellow,
And the soft and juicy kernels
Grew like wampum hard and yellow,
Then the ripened ears he gathered,