Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-11-25


sonal charity on the one hand nor on the
other of the obligation of membership in
Gcd-1earfng commonwealth. The domestic
side OF Thanksgiving is well enough; but 1t
is trivial in comparison with the public side
OF IL. and only so far as this is recognized
can the day be made of any real impor-
lance or profit either to the individual or
10 the state.
From The Philadelphia Public Ledger
We have our national troubles. but they
are removable by wise craftsmanship
Fisher AmeS, over an hundred wears ago
made an always quotable comparison be-
tween monarchy and a republic which
still holds good. A monarchy is a man-of-
war, but single shot may send her to the
bottom. A republic is a raft. Your feet
are always wet, but you cannot sink her
Our quadrennial presidential contests NAV
cause the timid to fear for the republic
but these fierce political battles are fol-
lowed by the acquiescence and the national
repose which augur well for the perpetuity
of our free institutions
For this national stability we cannot be
too grateful. This year the nation has
been signally blessed with abundant har-
vests We have been saved from the
pestilence that walketh in darkness" The
signs OF contentment prosperity and happi-
ness are observable all about us, and he
must be very querulous man who cannot
discover cause for national rejoicing.
From the Philadelphia Press.
A country in which the press is free. the
pulpit is free, the platform is free, the bal
iot Is free. can blame no one for the ills
which itself can remedy, and it has this en-
couraSement that it need but make up its
mind. and keep it made up, to see the evils
disappear. But it must be considered that
all tnlS, which is our encoura cement and
our opportunity, may be our reproach and
our calamity. All this gives seriousness to
life in republic. The people Who are the
victim OF causes which they carnot remedy
hat
come from sense of irresponsibility, but
he who lives in free state has something
else to do than to laugn and sing IL he
would escape the reproach of his own con-
science and the reproach of pcsterity.
Let.us be thankful that along with our
broad land with its infinite diversity of
climate. its boundlesness of production, with
our immortal ancestry, the best ever grant
ed to man, there has been given oppor-
tunity, opportunity, opportunity; that we
may make our present and our future just
what We will; that all the experience of the
past Is ours to use in building up the most
prosperous country on which the sun ever
Shone.
From the Philadelphia Inquirer
AS people We have much to be thankful
Ior To-Day. Seldom In our national history
has there been a year in which Nature
showered her riches as she did last sum-
mer. The horn of plenty was filled and
running over; the plumed and tasseled corn
niied The fields like mighty army; the
golden wheat nodded in the sunshine and
the ocean was crowded with ships carrying
our yellow grain to other lands. The clang
OF the hammer, the ring Of the anvil and
the whir of the shuttle have made welcome
music; grim-crowned Want threw down his
scepter and in his place came strong
limbed Industry, and the smoke from fac
tories went up to heaven like incense and
the skies took on a deeper blue and the
earth seemed fa'rer, and the sun of pros
perity illumined the cold and the darkness
In which so many had dwelt. The shadows
hang thick over Euripe, at any moment
the tocsin OF war may sound, the teeming
hordes of the orient are restless. kings and
kaisers are dreaming of fresh conquests,
the old order Of things is changing, and
yet we rest peacefully and there is moth
ing to make us afraid. On last Thanksgiv-
ing day We had the promise Of the dawn
of better times; now We have the reality;
the wisdom of our statesmen has borne
fruit. and the foundations Of our republic
are tmbeoded in the earth stronger and
deeper than ever. and fit to Withstand
shock or assault.
From tie New York World
AS the Fourth Of July is our national
holiday Of patriotism, SO THANKSGIVING is
our national holiday OF the hearthstone.
On the one we seek to express and renew
our devotion to the republic and to the
liberty it SO well guards; on the other we
celebrate and cultivate that family unity
and affection on which after alLour institu-
IlOuS rest
The day has greatly changed its sig
nifcance and its character since the time
when Puritan New England established Il
in gratitude for a good harvest in a time
of great need, and in bigoted protest
against the observance Of Christmas.
There is not less of devout gratitude to the
giver Of all good now than Of old, but there
is more generous happiness, a gentler
and more cheerful mind displayed in the
celebration. The day has become another
Christmas in ITS joyousness and in it's
stimulation of human kindness.
From the New York Tribune.
1t has been a year of wonderful benefits.
So great have been the material gains that
multitudes think rather OF these than of
more enduring causes for thankfulness
The crops have indeed been bountiful, but
the country has been blessed with greater
crops when there occurred not a 1.-THE OF
the glad change in the condition of the
people which has been realized this year.
Rarely in the nations history have condi-
tons in other lands been more favorable
TO the material welfare Of the United
States. and the discharge of q vast body of
depressing indebtedness by the people Of
the farming states has given them q safer
basis for the future than they have known
since the devastating deiuge Of land specu-
lation swept oyer the country nearly o
decade ago. But bountiful crops and hum