The Savannah morning news., 1904-11-25
!!~SOCIETY.~
S0CIETY'S THANKSGIVING.

The general observance of Thanks
giving Day makes the holiday one of
the most delightful of the year, as
well as one of the most interesting.
Halloween is almost obsolete; New
Years comes too soon after the
Christmas excitement; Easter, fall
ing on Sunday, has little to distin-
guish it from other Sundays, except
church decoration, and the donning
of spring apparel, and even this ira
ditional custom is falling into disuse;
birthdays are often no more than bank
and school holidays and the occasion
for military parade. But Thanksgiv-
ing remains after something like $50
years, essentially the American holi-
day and the time of family reunion.
Other festivals may be passed by,
but, in the busy hum of American
life, this is never forgotten, and, if
Christmas is given over to the chill
dren, on Thanksgiving Day old and
young gather around the family din
ner table and meet on the common
ground of family affection.
1t is this sentiment, perhaps, that
accounts for the absence of Thanks
giving entertainments. Thanksgiving
parties come just before and just after
the day, but on the festival itself en-
pertaining is not in fashion. 1t is
only the homeless bachelor and bache-
Tor girl for whom a vacant seat is
found at the family board, for whom
a tender slice of the family turkey is
cut, and a generous share of the fam
lily plum pudding is served up, and,
so general is the Thanksgiving spirit
OF hospitality in this regard that these
luckless individuals have been even
heard to un=ratefully remark upon
the number of Thanksgiving invita-
tions they received and the undue
number of Thanksgiving dinners they
Were compelled to eat.
Yet even with the Thanksgiving
dinner, whether at midday or at night,
sun the leading idea of the day, and
the spirit of family reunion its strong
est feature, Thanksgiving Day, in this
excitenlent-loving generation, Is not
spent in idleness. If the streets down
town yesterday, in the business quar-
ter, were deserted, Bull street, the
Park, and the other promenades, wore
tneir busiest aspect. In the morning,
the path was churchward, and almost
all the people one knows were to be
seen on Bull street about II, and again
about noon, thronging the Park when
service was over. The mild beautiful
morning brought out society's freshest
light gowns, or summary blotses with
the heavier skirts. and the scene was
almost springlike
With the thought OF the football
game uppermost in so. many minds,
there was much, too, to remind one
OF New York on Thanksgiving Day.
before one of the big football games.
Boys with waving knots OF coiors, or
ange and black or blue and white; at
their buttonholes; girls, carrying their
colors, chiefly, it must be said, the
plue and white, on small canes; en-
thusiastic rooters waving their BAN
l1ers from the platforms of street
cars. were seen al every turn. and
society people, young and old, were at
the game in the afternoon.
lIhere was the matinee, too, to offer
afternoon diversion, and those who
preferred the football game had the
chance again at night OF seeing the
play. Neither the Golf club. nor the
yacht Club were deserted, for there
We're quiet spirits who chose to spend
tneir holiday away from the crowd,
~ their favorite sports. And even
those, and they enjoyed Il not the
lsast who lounged at home, In easy
Snair and slippers, remembering the
SSeotch motto. to rest and be thank