Oregon union. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1897-1899, 1897-11-19

| felt gratitude to be a becoming emotion
| Instead, too, of a general expression Of
! thanks, as is now the custom, they rem
! dered up thanks in detail--on one occa
sion it would be in return for much-need
ed rain, then for triumph over the Indians
| and again for the safe landing of the Eng
| lish supply ships. One time, indeed, in
July, 1921, when rain finally came after
prolonged period of drought and prayer
| they appointed a thanksgiving of one
week in duration.
Were such a peripatetic Thanksgiving
to come in vogue again it would be quite
a shock to us of this generation, with oul
pre-established notions of Thanksgiving
as inseparable from roast turkey, cram
berry sauce and pumpkin pie. Fancy sit,
| ting down to our Thanksgiving dinner in
April when we might esteem ourselves
lucky if we were furnished with aspara-
gus as a delicacy and rhubarb pie as a
dessert, for if we had been pilgrims or
even Massachusetts, Bay colonists we
would have been obliged to choose be-
tween taking what the soil produced or
going without, these present happy days
of whole Florida garden being landed
by express at our doors in midwinter not
being yet on the American program. Or
ina gine the Thanksgiving dinner of July,
1921, partaken of perhaps to the delight
full accompaniment of the patter of the
rain for which they had so fervently pray
ed and with green corn as the piece de
resistance, or that Thanksgiving in June,
1887, after victory over the Pequods,
when maybe Strawberries garnished with
roses formed the menu.
On these occasions, though, the colonists
had evidently quite lost sight of the part
that the autumn harvest plays in the OBJ
servance-the prehistoric significance of
the festival, the season being with them
purely and simply a many-voiced thank
offering in acknowledgment of the better
ing of their condition. After it became an
annual affair it supplanted in measure
the English Christmas, whose celebration
was too riotous to meet their strict re-
ligious notions-this the puritanic Thanks
giving, supplying the unalloyed devout-
ness which was the one thing they would
willingly have retained in the Christmas
of their forefathers.
As has been seen Thanksgiving day for
the first sixty years of its existence was
a hit-and-miss affair as to time and place.
and even after it had settled down into an
annual autumn festival if the people did
not feel particularly encouraged the oh
servance of it was liable to be omitted,
and it did not assume its national charac-
ter till during the revolution, when Con-
gress recommended the yearly appointing
of such a day. In spite of this, though,
in the years intervening between 1874
and 1889 there were no Thanksgiving
days. In 1889 Washington issued
Thanksgiving proclamation in view of the
adoption of the Constitution and after
that to the time of Lincoln, the example
of the first President was intermittently
followed by his successors.
But only since 1858 can Thanksgiving
be said to have been a fixed and universal
American custom, and in that year the
Governors of the different Southern
States united with their Eastern brother
officials in issuing Thanksgiving proclama-
tions, and the example set by Lincoln in
1868 of issuing Thanksgiving proclama-
ton suggesting the last Thursday in No
vember as an appropriate day has been
followed since without break by every oc-
cupant of the presidential chair.
Though long in coming to it's fulfllment,