The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-11-21

Az nv friend remarked-it us easy
.,,anoh far fine fellow who has everything
he wants to give thanks-lts the other lei
loyv--tba chan who thinks he falls down
two feet every time he jumps up one.
This chan begins sometimes to think ne
Is Hoodoo. | heard man remark the
other day that in the general cosmogony
Of things the world couldn't be run Wlth-
ont hoodoos-there had TO be hoodoos-
each town had TO have hoodoo ceatrai
office and that he was IN charge Oh tue
Raleigh Central Office. | reDuked iaiii
mot because / was any beitef lian
be-but there is subtle ana silent van
;tv about MS that makes one feel better
for having met an unconSentioiial uli-
orthodox remark with standard goods
arswer-and so after / rebuked him
for his wicked observation, | felt less
wicked for a moment,at least. and tnen
tho feeling suddenly vanished. Another
chan who had been broken up some way
showed me a letter he had Just receiver
and in it was this sentence: be OF good
cheer-when you feel like the hand or
God and of man is against you, brace
M dress UP, look up, thank the Lord,
.pa all will be WELL There IS no doubt
ahout it. dressing up does help one TO
thank the Lord and sometimes vice
versa. I wonder what is the distinctive
quality of Thanksgiving Day-to be sure,
they tell us-it is thanking the Lord.
Is this in contradistinction to pralslng
the Lord as on Christmas-maybe so ana
maybe not. Any way, the two days are
II would certainly seem distinct as TO
their atmosphere. Would it be proper to
denote one as specially colored with the
human. the physical and the other with
the divine, the spiritual? 1t is not every
body who joins in Christmas celebration
from the same motive-but IN InanKs-
giving Day men seem somehow TO nave
q common share. 1t has not been until
recent years holiday universally pre-
yalent in the South-but it is getting to
be, and the day seems TO get more and
more observance as human sympathy
widens in it's horizon. For there is one
thing on which there would
seem at least to be no diff
ference now and that is the First
Cause as author, and producer Of what
ministers to the wants Of man. Those
who do not believe in the Divinity OF
Christ probably, therefore, do not enter
into Christmas with its meaning as full
" comprehended as is the spirit OF this
day of human obligation to the Great
Giyer. As an indirect construction OF
the meaning of the day, it has, more
over, come to be not so much time
for thanking the Lord that it is no worse
with us as of making others thank the
Lord for having sent somebody to make
things better for them. This interpreted
ton has the aroma that is grateful to
every heart. We go to see melodramas,
and the gamin from the top gallery
shouts anathemas and even m anger
throws peanuts at Jacques Frochard,
but the million scenes that are enacted
on Thanksgiving Day often hang like
companion-pieces only on the walls of
two human hearts unseen except by that
One who sees all things. 1t
may be better so: hearts as they are
made in this world would not hold them
all-"for," says Dickens" it's word
full OF hearts and serious world with
all its folly" What a tender glow comes
upon the check OF humanity-no matter
who the people be-when they run MP
against one of these little scenes fresh
and warm from life. that kind OF an
tumn glow of the oak-leaf somberly dip
ped in sunset-with that deep silent ar
ter-sigh Imprisoned in the heart of No.
vember agnoons. l know number of
preachers 49, have enough such
material in them to furnish
forth Rip Van Wrinkles or
Old Curiosity Shops by the thousands.
/ happened to be talking to one Of them
whom a noble woman in this town thus
described to me: "he Is at his best in