The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-11-26
ANNUAL HOLIDAY.
There Are Countless Causes
For Thanks
giving.

III ~
The approach of Thanksgiving sets
the housekeeper to work, thinking of
her annual dinner party. While the
religious aspects of the day have
dwindled and the patriotic have been
in part overlaid, the domestic and
family and purely personal have grown
in Importance. until they eclipse the
other. Thanksgiving day is a synO-
nym> for the annual foregathering Of
the scattered family. Then the boys
come home from the distant city,
whittier the great tide Of commercial
ism has carried them. They leave
their desks and benches and offices to
visit the old New England town of
their birth and eat turkey once more
with their old father and mother
The girls come back from college,
when the Thanksgiving vacation is
welcomed as pause in the long stretch
between the opening Of college and
Christmas. Others come from the
school room. typewriter and shop. The
boys and girls arrive from school.
Whole families visit each other The
railway stations are blocked with wait
ing groups of people, the cars are filled
with travellers.
If there is less formal THANKSGIVING,
there is
AS MUCH GRATITUDE AS EVER.
People do not pray as much in public
as they did. Perhaps they do not pray
as much anyway as they did. Perhaps
the fashion in praying has changed.
But an appreciation of the blessings
of life, health, prosperity, was not con-
people of our generation are thankful
for these and all the other benefits
that God has seen fit to shower upon
us as a nation. That there have been
very many is clear when we compare
our lot with that of other nations.
Good times" are with us, reacting up-
on every household How much hap
piness and kindness are liberated by
the mere fact of money being more
plenty will never be known. Poverty
may be a blessing in disguise but If
is blessing that is apt to leave the
character warped and hard and selfish.
Money enough for the satisfaction of
our reasonable wants and tastes is
surely a legitimate desire, and its pos
session a legitimate cause of thanks
giving.
That the nation is not engaged in a
great war is a source of THANKSGIVING
to countless households today. The
families of the
BOYS IN THE PHILIPPINES
will think of them with sadness. but
the nation as a Whole has its boys with
it, and this in itself would form the
nucleus for first class Thanksgiving.
The mothers of the country especially
know what this means.
Women, too, will find qualification in
the general advance which the world
has made along the lines of education.
civilization, humanity, refinement and
justice. II what is known as the
cause of woman" has not progressed
as it should, there is no reason to be-
lieve that most of the noble things that
women stand Cor have receded or even
stood still. The education of the chill
dren of Porto Rico, which has been be-
gun Systematically, and the crusade in
that island and Cuba for the more
humane treatment of domestic animals.
while they have not resulted in giving
the franchise to the women of anV
state or in placing any woman in con-
gress are distinct advance along the
feminine side of civilization and should
be a source of thanksgiving to every
philosophical American woman
THE PEACE CONGRESS
at The Hague is another event for
which women have reason to be CRATE
full, to speak of but one other achieve
ment of the past year, which shouId
be remembered on Thanksgiving dav.
Only the houses where death has con-
quered or where dire poverty reigns
can be exempted from the obligation
and pleasure of giving thanks next
Thursday. Perhaps even they NAV
find something to be grateful for
Death is not always a calamity, and
poverty sometimes leaves unscathed
some of the sweetest flowers Of life
1t is a good plan to give very particu-
lar thanks on Thanksgiving day, but
not to concentrate the years gratitude
in that one annual holiday. Gods mer-
cies are so Dlentifully distributed to
even the unfortunate that little time
may very well be spared straight aIong
for acknowledging them and return
ing thanks. You cannot possibly cover
the whole ground in one short Novem-
Der day, especially with such a dinner
as you are going to get and eat.