The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1904-11-20

fBON
lost ship had been sighted. having escaped the
storm in which she was supposed to have sunk.
Having these many signs of Gods favour and
acceptation. another solemn day was set apart and
appointed. wherein. we returned glory and honour
and praise with all thankfulness to our good God.
who had dealt so graciously with us"
This was the first religious festival called for the
definite purpose of thanksgiving. set apart bv au-
thority of the civil government by previous proc1a-
nation. in New-England and America. The exact
date is not known; but it was near the last day of
July. 1923. for the Anne arrived in the end Of July.
and the Little James about the first of August. and
only the first ship was known to be near when the
thanksgiving was provided for. 1t was held on Il
Wednesday, probably July 80, the day before the
Anne arrived.
Our modern Thanksgiving has inherited something
from this occasion. and something from the harvest
festival nearly two years earlier, to which reference
has already been made.
The first Thanksgiving proclaimed in Boston was
on February ~, 1880. 1t is the one often referred
to enormously as the experiences of the Plymouth
Pilgrims. Here is the true story of it:
The winter had been a hard one. Food was nearly
gone. and hunger and scurvy abounded. Cotton
Mather tells lis of one man who invited guests and
had no food for them except clans, but without
apology gave thanks to God who had given them
to suck the abundance of the seas. and of the treasures
hid in the sands. " Nearly all Boston set itself to
fishing. and at low tide the women hunted the shores
for clans. Pitiful are the stories (of which fragments
are recorded by Mather) of the hardShips of that
winter. 1t was a winter in which the prosperous
shared with the unfortunate and if there were any deeds
of s~eltShncSs they are not on record. Governor
Winthrop was in the act OF giving away his own last
handful of meal to a needy man at his door when Il
ship was sighted in the harbor, bringing supplies to
the distressed little city.
This was in February. and just before the fifth of
the month. a day that had been set for fasting and
prayer. The day of fasting was not kept. Rather
the citizens counted that they honored God more
by making good Use of his blessings. They had done
fasting enough. But no one was permitted to make
merchandise of the cargo of the ship. 1t was bought
entirely from the public funds. and distributed accord
ing to every mans need. There were meal. oatmeal.
flour. wheat, peas. beef. pork. cheese. butter and >uct.
and best of all lenon-Juice for scurvy The famine
was over, and the people reloiced and ate their food
with gladneSs of heart.
But something more than this seemed fitting.
On February :, they met in their meeting houses
and gave God solemn and heartfelt thanks for Il de
liverance from famine such as ew-England happily
never faced in any subsequent year.
The first Thanksgiving Day in which feasting was
a marked feature in combination with previously
appointed religious solemnities was observed in
Plymouth County. in old Scituate. and it may have
been observed also in Plymouth. on December ~.