Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1898-11-17
THANKSGIVING TIME,
Let us all Make Most Of tie Day and See if
There Isn't Something to be thankful For

Let us all Make Most Of tie Day and See if
There Isn't Something to be Thankful For
As the feeting years 90 by they 60
rapidly, and the interval between
Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving seems
to become briefer OF course this is
only seeming, and the half million min
utes, more or less, that compose the
year are just as long in youth as IN age
and any change there may be in their
apparent duration Is change in Us and
not in them. In early life, we long to
be men and women. and the years that
will make US so drag all too slowly to
satisfy our longing; in middle lite our
become too short for the events We
would fain crowd into them; III old age
the grave, and with it the end Of all
earthly things for us, approaches close
and still closer, and the natural human
regret at leaving the stage upon which
we have played our human part makes
the moments, whose succession will at
last bring that one in which life's brief
candle is snuffed out, appear all the
more heeting. Through it all, time is
the same; only the difference in our
mortal state makes it seem different
This difference in mental condition
affects the impression that all other ex-
ternal filings make upon US. The bright
est and most attractive landscape will
look somber and dreary if we view it
through glass of color that will cloud
its brightness, or, similarly. we can
brighten a gloomy one by suitable
selection Of the medium through which
we view it. Our own lives, and the
Kaleidoscope pains and pleasures that
compose them, take their tone from the
them. We can see them with the eye
Of discomfort and find in them nothing
but cause for repining; or, we can bring
to them disposition to look on the
bright side of things and they will slim
ulate our gratitude to thankfulness.
Whether life is pain or pleasure to us
very much depends on the mental state
we bring to its contemplation. The old
painter who exposed his picture in a
public place, asking all the passers-by
to point out the beauties they saw in it,
presently had the canvas covered with
commendatOry marks; when he reversed
the operation and asked that its faults
be indicated, the canvas was very
shortly hidden with the signs Of adverse
criticism. 1t is SO with our lives; we
can be DISCONTINUED with them if we
will, and be miserable in consequence,
or we can find in them cause for con-
tent and lively gratitude and be happy.
Let us approach Thanksgiving day
realizing this truth. 1t we try to find
things to be thankful for we will find
them. No life is without them, and
most lives possess them abundantly.
We all have reason to be thankful that
we are Americans and enjoy the advan-
tage of freedom and self-government;
war has brushed with his dread pinions
but has left us unscathed; our boys
have responded to the call Of duty, per-
haps. but they are coming home; we
have freedom of thought and of relig-
lous view, and can worship God as we
please, or not worship him at all, accord
ingly as we are grateful or not for the
privileges He has vouchsafed US. Our
farm homes are visions Of plenty, and
while nobody ever has quite all they
want in tits world, we suffer for no
needed thing to make life worth living
We have health, to enjoy, we hope, or
if not, we have friends to comfort and
sustain us in sickness; or if ali earthly
friends fail, we may still find a com
forter if we will. Death has left us and
ours untouched and we are grateful; or
if there be a vacant chair, the hand
that smote us also knows how to COM
fort us. The harvest is over and the
rewards of our labors are garnered and
are sufficient. Our boys are coming on
and being educated, and our girls are
growing into womanhood to crown and
bless new homes as they have crowned
and blessed ours-Wherever we look we
find cause for gratitude and reason for
Thanksgiving.
As we surround the Thanksgiving
table let it be in family reunion Nher-
ever possible, and let US do it in the
true THANKSGIVING spirit. 1t will sweeten
our own enjoyment of the day if we
bear in substantial remembrance those
who are less fortunate than ourselves.
Conditions of Trade.
The country has safely passed the
trial of loft year, elections, which for