Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-11-21

Pfttsburg. and other great cities. There is
| no more striking proof of the assimilation
OF the immigrant into the American COM
m0nwealth than the rapidity with which he
catches the spirit of this national festival.
All Are Better Off.
This is only natural. he says. Have we
not cause to rejoice above all other Ameri-
cans?" asked a venerable Jewish rabbi on
the East Side of New York, who came to
| the United States some years ago to escape
the prosecutions to which he was subjected
in Russia. I'm this country even the hum
blest and the poorest of us is entitled to
life, liberty and the pursuitof happiness
The career is open to the talented. There
is justice for all. and a chance to rise for
every man who can take advantage of 1t.
In the eyes of the average American
may seem poor and wretched; but we are
all immeasurably better off than we were
IN the old lands from which we were driven
by poverty and persecution. Truly, we
ought to give thanks"
This is the feeling of nearly all the i'm
migrants who come here. If you talk to
Russians, Poles, Jews, Italians, Danes,
Firms. Irishmen, Germans. Frenchmen,
Greeks and men of score of other nation
alities you will find that all of them under
stand and indorse the Thanksgiving idea.
Out of their earnings. oftentimes scanty
enough. they save up money for weeks pre-
v1ously with which to buy the turkey, and
neighbors how to make the Indispensable
cranberry sauce and the pumpkin pie.
Among them there is many Thanksgiv-
ing such as an Italian fruit vender, with
I fa1rly good business described:
Like All Good Americans.
my first Thanksgiving" he said. twas
spent five years ago. I had only landed six
months before, and was struggling to make
living with push-cart. 1 hadn't enough
feast, but / saved a few nickels and dimes.
| week by week, so that my family could en-
| JOY the festival like all good Americans.
In the morning we went to mass. as
n~St Italians do on Thanksgiving day. |
wanted to take out the push-cart after that
and try to do a little trade, but my wife
| said no. She insisted that we must have
| real holiday for once, so we all went back
| to our house anG played the old Italian
games, as we used to play them in Naples
when we were children.
! Then in the evening / took the wife and
the bambino to cheap restaurant, where
we had turkey and cranberry sauce and
pumpkin pie, with a bottle of chianu for
the wife and myself and cigar for me aft
erward l spent all my money, bat / felt
good next morning because we had en-
joyed Thanksgiving day and done as all
good Americans do
In some cities where Their are large for
sign colonies of one nationality the new
Americans celebration of Thanksgiving
day sometimes takes on a foreign aspect,
but it is none the less hearty on that ac-
count.
A colony of Scotchmen for example will
meet together and hold their ancient Gale
DOMAIN games, as they would on st. An
! drews day, and wind up with a dinner at
which the haggiS, great chieftain O. the
puddin' race follows the turkey in the
place of the pumpkin pie. Italians, too
will insist on having spa ghetti as well
cranberry sauce, and Irishmen contrive to
rirk nd into Th.a
days festivities somehow.
Influence of Children.
The children of the new Americans are
largely responsible for their parents en-
tering into the spirit Of the day. They
go to the public schools and hear Ameri
can youngsters talking eagerly about the
fun they going to have Thanks
giving day; and naturally they go home
and tell father all about it. He turns it
over in his mind, comes to the conclusion
that he has a good deal to thank God and
the American people for, and determines
to have a feast of his own if it takes his
last nickel.
Il had never thought much about it,"
said a hard-headed horny-handed Swede.
but one day little Henrik came home from
school and asked me:
Father, what are we going to do on
give US a turkey? Are we going to go
out and enjoy ourselves. All the other
boys are going to have great times
II got mad. Nonsense" l said There
are too many holidays as it is. We've got
holidays of our own, and we have moth
ing to do with all these American holt
days
But I happened to glance over at my
WIFE and l saw she looked wistful. Then
1 thought it over. After all, we had lot
to be thankful for. Over there in Sweden
never had a dollar to bless ourselves
with from one years end to the other. We
never got any decent food-only potatoes,
rye bread and bad fish. We could never
get decent clothes, or educate the chill
dren as we liked to educate them. Amer
lea had made man of me, and given my
children good chance in life. Ought l
not to join in the American thanksgiving
as much the next man?
Il looked over at my wife again, and saw
a question in her eyes.
The Time of Their Lives.
"'AIl right, them 1 said. Wen do it
for once Well have the time of our lives
on Thanksgiving day And so we did, and
we've been doing SO ever since when the
day comes round.
There are so far can be found, only
two communities of new Americans which
do not enter heartily into the spirit of
Thanksgiving day. Those are the Chinese
and the Syrians. John Chinaman is not
much of an American anyway, new or old,
and he counts that day lost whose low-de-
Scending sun does not witness strenuous
rant. AS for the SyrianS their excuse was
given by one of the leading merchants of
their race in New York.
ut is true" he said, that the Syrians