Oxford eagle. (Oxford, Lafayette Co., Miss.) 1876-current, 1903-11-19

the times when the colonists thought
they had most cause to be thankful for
something. Sometimes it was for the
full harvest, and sometimes 1t was Tor
rain after long. dry time that they
feared would ruin all the crops.
In these early Thanksgiving days
the children were not thought OF first
and foremost as they are In q good
many homes to-day. They were expect
ed to keep in the background, and the
little girls had to help. their mothers
to keep house, and after that was kept
they had to keep right on being prim
and proper to such an extent that they
didn't always have as much fun as
their brothers. The boys used to play
wicket on the commons, and football
all over the place, so that In 1857 an
ordinance was passed forbidding the
bplaying of football in the streets on
account of the annoyance to foot pas
sengers.
At first there were no dolls for the
girls to play with. all the funny little
dolls that we see now In museums dat
ing back to the times when our remote
great-grandparents were little people,
having been brought over from Eu-
rope for the benefit of the mothers, not
the little girls. The mothers didn't
wish the dolls to play with, but for
models for their best dresses. for the
dolls, you ought to know, were dressed
by dressmakers and milliners In Lon
don and Paris and sent over here for
fashion plates, and for many years all
the dolls our great-great-grandmothers
had to play with were made of rags. And
pretty nice doll babies they made, too.
you will admit.
"Battledoors and shuttles,' which
the children used to play SO much,
came over in 1761, and marbles got
here ten years later, in October. SO
they must have been played in the
house or else with frost-nipped fingers
till spring came again.
There were no blocks of houses and
big cities then, but only separate and
often widely-scattered homes. II
big storm came the farmers had to get
out their numbering OK wagons just as
they do In the far western country to-
day and "break" the roads. Sometimes
the storms were so heavy that the ex-
pected visitors couldn't get through
the snow drifts, and the Thanksgiving
dinner had to be eaten by the family
all alone. But the family was general
ly big one, and ii the boys and girls
didn't have their looked-for company
to play with they had each other.
In one family, for instance. of which
we have a record, there were eight
little girls, who had been named Ex-
perfence, Waitstill, Preserved, Hope
still. Wait, Thanks, Unite and Supply
Wonder how their brother nicknamed
| them?
| In those early days there were no
steam radiators or furnaces or stoves.
and all the fun-making on Thanksgiv-
| ing day that was done indoors had to
be done in the big living-room, where
the huge fireplace blazed and cracked
with its great logs and piles of under
| brush, aud the turkey roasted sizzling
on a spit before the fire that burned
while you looked at 1t and froze your
| back at the same time.
Everything considered, it's a good
deal easier and jollier to be little boy
Or girl on Thanksgiving of this year
Of grace, 1903, than 1t was in 1880 or
| for a good many years after that
Don't you think SO too?