The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1900-11-27
GENERAL SHERWOOD
Writes About Thanksgiving"
In the American Sportsman
"A HOrseman's Views.

General Isaac X. Sherwood can say
some very pretty things when he takes
up his pen. His editorial in anticipa-
tion of Thanksgiving day in the editori-
al columns Of the American Sportsman
Is characteristic of the general. 1t Is
blending Of sentiment, history and horse
sense, that makes a combination as
complete as an English plum pudding
The article follows:
Before our army of patrons and
friends shall see the next issue of the
American Sportsman, Thanksgiving
Day will be here. To all who have
much or little to be thankful for we
hope the day will beam with plenty and
unalloyed joy. SO here's hoping for
boom and bounty to all our good and
hearty clientage.
"If you were too often behind the
money In the many contests of the fit
ful season, and your Thanksgiving
turkey is lean and the table too spare
Of the seasons bounty, you can be
thankful, sparingly, with the old Eng
lish poet, whose rhymes would not sell
and who dined on dry herbs and lived
in garret. Better a dinner of herbs,
where love Is. than a stalled OK and
hatred herewith
However, in the most bounteous land
under the All-seeing Eye we have faith
| that seems to say:
"The season has been kind
to the horsemen of the central
states. Most of us have had some
thing every monday Of better tone AMI
more variety, than the full dinner pail
| and have gathered some pretty pennies
| for the good wife's comfort, and the
little ones happiness, to be thankful
| for on this blissful day Of thank offer
| ing.
MANY of our horse fanciers do not
know perhaps, that Thanksgiving,
| like the Fourth of July, is an American
product. 1t was not born under the
stars and stripes, but some 275 years
| ago, when the republic of today was a
slumbering dream locked in the womb
of the dead centuries. Our Pilgrim
fathers, that most high class horsemen
| are proud of, all believed in special
providence. They believed there was
| an answer to prayer.
I'm 1923 there was a great drouth
| in New England, and it looked like a
famine. Hence day for fasting and
prayer was fixed, and while our pious
sires were praying the rain came in
abundant showers. Whether it would
have rained, Just the same, without the
prayer Is a question in moral ethics, in
which we feel ourselves outclassed, and
| shall not enter. But after the prayers,
and the rain that brought the harvests
| to the lonesome colonists Of Massa
chusetts in 1923, the governor appoint
| ed day of thanksgiving And this Is
the origin of the custom.
Thanksgiving day did not become
| part Of our national life until the war
| Of the revolution, some 156 years after
the first prayer festival and when the
Continental congress- enacted a day Of
thanksgiving whenever the ragged
volunteers Of our Georges army won
a stake race over the well groomed red
| coats of George the Third. Later on,
| in 1889, Thanksgiving got another high
push when our George, as president of
the United States, fixed day Of
Thanksgiving to rejoice over the adop-
ton of our federal constitution.
"Since that date to now this good and
bountiful day has come along regularly
| every year. without any interruption,
as one of the best in the calendar.
I And here's hoping that you will en-
| joy II more because you know its pa
| triotic inspiration, and appreciate its
| Divine origin. '-~
MAY all our patrons enjoy it's bene-
fcient spirit, and enjoy in the body the
delicious fulness Of it's modern inter-
probation" =.r
/