The record-union., 1899-11-30

purchaser. the price asked for the meat.
Then, having inflicted just and right
eous sentence ION We sinful heather,
the company fell upon the meat and
devoured it.
During the Revolutionary War
Thanksgiving lost some of its local New
England character. During this period
the Continental Congress proclaimed no
less than eight Thanksgiving Days fall
ing in April, May, July and December.
Washington issued a proclamation fer
general thanksgiving by the Cont
mental army Thursday, December Is,
lt17, and again at Valley Forge May
Z, 1918. A few days before the ad-
journment of. Congress in September.
1853, motion was made in the House
that the President be requested to rec
ommend a day of Thanksgiving and
prayer for allowing them to establish a
condition of Government for their safe
ty and happiness. The motion was car
ried and President Washington issued a
proclamation appointing November
10Th as Thanksgiving Day.
The original manuscript of this pro-
clamation, the first ever issued by a.
President of the United States, is still
preserved.
Several Presidents after Washington
made general proclamations, but usual
ly left it to the Governor of the State
to determine the day..
TO woman, Mrs Sarah J. Hale Of
Boston, must be attributed the credit of
the present Thanksgiving Day. Coming
to Philadelphia from New England, she
could not help but notice how limited
We're the observances Of this day. She
thereupon wrote letters to the Govern
ors of the various States and Terri
/ tories suggesting they proclaim the last
Thursday in November as Tha nksg giving
and thus give the day a national char
acter. Finally in 1859, the Governors
of all but two of the States yielded to
her request. During the war the Gus
tom Jagged, especially in the South,
though most of the Northern Governors
continued to issue their proclamations.
After the battle of Gettysburg in July,
1868, Mrs. Hale wrote President Lin
coin, inclcsing a copy of Washingtons
Thanksgiving proclamation, issued from
New York in 1879, and suggested that
he, too, proclaim a national Thanks
giving Day, whereupon the President
proclaimed Thursday, August 9th,
| day for national thanksgiving, praise
and prayer Since then, with the ex-
ception of the date, the Presidents have
appointed the last Thursday in Novem-
Der.
The Thanksgiving of the present is
built upon the Thanksgiving of the past,
but has incorporated within itself many
Of the features of Christmas. The two
holidays have somehow cemented
themselves together until in the mod
ern Thanksgiving feast the mince shares
with the pumpkin pie the honors of in
digestion.
A few words Of how Thanksgiving
was observed in the middle of the CEN
fury in New England may not here be
amiss. The Thanksgiving of those days,
as now, was of three-fold character
sportive, festive and religious. On
Thanksgiving Eve a rattle" was held
at the country store where the tur-
keys, chickens and geese were
/ knocked down. to the man throwing
the highest dice. Among the sportive
! features of the day was a shooting
match much looked down upon by the
churchgoing portion of the population.
because it was held in the morning and
thus prevented many of the young peo-
pie from attending divine services.
| In its religious character the day was
curious hybrid. On one side was
( severe ancestral orthodoxy and a re-
ligion which kept one constantly in
fear of some awful disaster about to
take place and on the other hand was
the church order to rejoice and be
thankful. Therefore, to the severely
pious the day was a sort of paradox.
Even the severe Yankee preacher
thawed preceptibly. It was the one
time of the year when into the rigid
home life there entered few transitorv
sunbeams. The feast was prepared and
looked forward to with a degree of ex-
, element wholly unknown in these DAYS.
1t was a day when the austere Yankee
householder for the nonce dropped his
mask of reserve, and as he sat beside
his glowing hearth surrounded by his
family and his friends, with perhaps a
vacant chair, speaking more eloquently
than any words of a loved one gone be-
fore, his innermost soul was stirred
with a softening hand and its stiff
chords made to vibrate
Every table, rich or poor. had IFS
cider and mince pie and fowl of some
sort, even the tramps on the highway
We're not forgotten, while old enemies
became reconciled and friendships were
cemented anew. We who live in these
latter days of liberal theologies can
never fully realize how to these Yam
KEGS that one Thanksgiving Day was
worth more than the whole ffty-two
Sundays of the year.
In the State of New York the fret
Thanksgiving proclamation was issued
by Governor John Jay in 1895.
In the middle of the century II was
fashionable to make calls on this dav
Thanksgiving rivalling New Years in
this respect.
1t is said that when the late Ward
MeAilister was a young beau that he
never missed making an afternoon
thanksgiving call on certain Mr.
Iurner. This gentleman always kent
open house on that day and dispensed
ms hospitality with lavish hand. Among
the good things found at his house was
certain enticing eggnog which was
slipped through a straw. A box of
cigars was offered to the guest who
could drink three of these eggnoes
Tradition says Mr.. McAllister was
prize winner BESEr ,ENA
Spokane. Wash, Nov. "a, 1899.
Y. M C. A.