The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1896-11-27

Ever it is true that the great peoples
are those who give open thanks to the
Power they recognize for the good
which comes to them. Something in the
strong heart has made thanksgiving
an instinct of forceful civilization. 1t
has been so since the time when Miriam,
the prophecies, played upon the timbrel
while her handmaidens danced and the
daring Israelites praised God because
they had safely passed the sea. The old
Greeks made thank-offerings to their
gods, and the bearded Norsemen ex-
pressed their ciamorous gratitude to
Odin and Thor. To the world-dom-
mating Anglo-Saxon, with his religion
of Christ, came the same i'm
pulse, and it has chung to him in each
vast wilderness he has invaded. Not
only has he been giver of thanks, but
he has dignified and glorified the duty
and made it a feature of his national
life.
1t was almost matter of course that
there should suggest itself to the Puri-
tans, rigid and God-fearing as the
most earnest of Cromwell's roundheads,
the idea of a thanksgiving that should
be formal. but it was from the fiux OF
new natures munifcent influence up
on their lives that there came mellow
ing to the character of the days observ-
ance, that a certain hardness disap-
peared, and that the occasion became
one of open joyousness. The little shrub
of observance planted in 1921 by the
good Gov. Bradford has grown into a
mighty tree with flowers amid it's fruit.
1t was good, all that happened about
the time of the first Thanksgiving day.
| The Pilgrim fathers were in particu-
| larlv iubilant mood-for them-on that
| occasion. Years of scanty crops and
| threatening starvation had been fol-
| lowed bv bountiful harvest and there
was an absolute genialty in the pre-
| liminaries to the famous dinner. 1t was
to be a game dinner, dinner fit for any
| epicure who ever lived, and none so
mean in all the colony but should be
present. So were opened the hearts of
| those rugged worshipers that they were
rot content with even this but sum
moned old Sachem Massasoit and all
his swart retainers. and when the feast
was spread red man and white sat down
together and were brothers. Here was
Christian spirit; here was an exhibition
of that broad humanity and care for the
other man taught by Him who walked
the strand of Galilee. Here was prac-
teal Christianity. and who shall say
that from this hour, when such kindly
hospitality was shown, when the good
things God has bestowed upon men were
eaten Approximately and jOyously, and
when thanks were given more sonorous-
" than in the past, there was not given
birth to the germ of that broadness and
joyousness, even in worship, which has
become a trait of the American char
acter.
So we have made of Thanksgiving a
day of gratitude all untrammeled, day
the Accomplishments of which are mer-
~, as they should be. The reunion Of
families and of friends, the feasting
and the laughter, even the legend of the
ennobled American bird, all combine to
make of the day something genuine and
religiously beautiful. There is the
strain of the timbrel. Never was a
greater national holiday, never one
more perfect in its spirit. 1t is in itself
one of the things to be thankful for to
the Power which has so blessed so vast
! q land