Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-11-22
THANKSGIVING OF 1902
Celebration of a World Wide
Holiday.
SALUTED BY OUR FLAG
IN FROZEN WASTES AND AT THE
EQUATOR.
How the Country Has Grown Since
the Thanksgiving of Half
Century Ago.

Copyright, 1902. by George G. Graham)
Written for The Evening Star.
This Thanksgiving will be such a ma
tional holiday as never was previsioned by
builders Of empire from the days Of the
Assyrian Sargons to the followers of Ma
poleon's star Of world conquest.
The flags that salute 1t will salute the
sun in its course. Great Britain's boast of
the drumbeat that circles the world will be
equaled by the record Of the American holi-
day; and 1t will be greater than any one
country's holiday that ever was celebrated,
In that it will be observed in at least a
semi-ofHcal manner, in foreign palaces
even in the palace Of the ruler Of an en-
pire the Lord of kedleston, viceroy Of Brit
ish India.
Being purely a day of thanksgiving, en-
tireIy free from references to victories over
other nations, the American day of Thanks
giving is a holiday of a kind that appeals
to all humanity.
1t is essentially home" day, and is
observed with deep sentiment by all Amer
leans in foreign countries. SO while tact
may prevent the noble families of England
whose women are American from ceieprat-
ing such days as the Fourth Of July too
demonstratively, there is every incentive
to celebrate Thanksgiving thoroughly. And
a day of celebration in manor house or
England means 1east Gay loi Lie eouii-
try side.
From the stately and spledid government
house in Calcutta, where the Vlceroy again
officiates In splendor that recalls the old
days of the British East India company, 10
matched huts in the Island Of Gaum; from
latitude fifteen south Of the equator to lat1-
tude seventy north of the arctic circle, ana
on fully one-half of all the degrees or longl-
tude, Americas Thanksgiving will be OBJ
served.
Mohammedan sultans and pagan kings IN
the East Indian archipelago painted war
chiefs of painted savages In Islands washed
by the China and Colleges seas; yellow men
in POLYNESIA; jewellers on the sides OF burn-
ing Mauna Loa; men lying half clothed I'M
der dropping palms on hot equatorial lands.
and men dressed in furs, gathering around
solitary frozen trading posts and military
stations in the arctic world. will Join in
GOOD cheer with 100000 persons "at
home" between the two oceans
The National Day in India.
Mary Victoria Letter of Chicago ruling,
as the wife Of George Curzon. over court
which Is Second to none in the world" &C
cordine to Sir Roper Lethbridge, can have
raiahs in jeweled turbans, warriors on war
elephants. troopers and foot soldiers from
more than 500 feudatory states, descendants
of the most ancient of eastern rulers and
of the bluest-blooded families of old Eng
land to help her celebrate the great feast
day properly.
When the Curzons arrived in India, al
though the occasion was purely British
affair, the American flag was as prominent
everywhere In Bombay and in Calcutta as
was the English flag itself And since then
Lady Curzon, by winning all hearts for
herself. has won them also for her country
across the seas.
Thus the Thanksgiving that will be cele-
brated by the American residents in the
city of palaces along the banks Of the
River Hooghly. will be more than a mere
will cast holiday light over a good part
of the Indian empire.
In the Philippines many Americans will
celebrate their Thanksgiving in a manner
that will duplicate the old Thanksgiving
days of the early settlers In New England.
Like the old Puritans. who attended divine
service with guns in their grasp ready for
Indian attacks. Americans In the Philip
pines will celebrate with rifles in their
hands But there will be no snow In their
air; no ntpping wind to give them keen
appetite for roast turkey and strong ale;
and instead Of a rock-bound coast with a
| frosty east wind, they will have soft, sleepy
shores laved with blue seas of everlasting
summer.
Before Thanksgiving day dawns on the
eastern coast of the United States thou
| sands of Americans in the far world will
have celebrated theirs. When folk In San
Francisco are waking up, the day will have
| been ended for many fellow-citizens in for
eign chimes.
A Flight Of Empire.
And this great world-holiday is that of a
nation which was so circumscribed half a
century ago that in the year Of the seventh
| census the President, in his message to
Congress, announced: II may add, as some
what remarkable, that among all the thir-
| ty-one states there is none that is not, to
| a greater or less extent, bounded by the
| Atlantic ocean or the Gulf of Mexico, CT
one of the great lakes"
| In that message to Congress the Secre-
| tary of War reported the arrival in Oregon
| of regiment of mounted rifiemen that had
| started from Fort Leavenworth on May 1C
/ OF the year before and reached Oregon City
| on October s. The news of their arrival
! with the report of the commanding officer
reached the capital. many months after
| that. The quartermaster who was assign