Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-11-25
Written for The Star.

Written for The Star.
The celebration of Thanksgiving day
! forty years ago, in 1860 was the first after
the close of the civil war.
There are some things about this country
today with which even good-natured per-
son can find fault. But cursory contrast
of the condition of the country as it was
then and as it is now shows vast general
Improvement. Even an ill-natured person
must admit that the forty years have
brought much for which we may all well
be thankful.
To begin with. Thanksgiving day, 1oGo.
found the country as yet practically unad-
dressed to the problem of getting over the
frightful struggle that had rent and torn
and wel-nigh disrupted it. Not only were
the wounds of sectional ill-feeling still
open and unheaed but most of the indus
tries of one great section were still prac-
tically Frustrated.
The readjustment of the country's busi-
ness difficult always after great war,
but daubly so after the civil war. because
of the enormous imitation to which the cur
rency had been subjected. was yet to be
undertaken.
The hospitals were still tenanted with
MANNED and diseased victims of the great
contest 1t was still hard to gather con-
siderable crowd of men that should not
contain individuals who were without ...e
full complement of arms and legs. Old,
well-worn army blue overcoats were still
common sight.
There was still felt in the north the ar
rogance coward the south that the victor
in a hardly won fight naturally feels to-
ward the vanquished. There was stiH felt
in the south the bitterness and resentment
that are almost always felt toward the
victor, by the loser.
Attitude of the Participants.
There was little ill-feelng on the part of
the men. north or south, who had done the
actual fighting. however. Though this may
seem strange to some younger readers, it
was this very good temper On the part of
the ex-solders, north and south. toward
their late adversaries that even then was
beginning TO act as a unifying force; that
was doing the initial work of forging new
and stronger bonds of union between the
recently warning portions of the land.
Today-well, even today there are ire
concilables, both north and south, but they
are few in number, comparatively and ac-
tGally-the country today is more closely
united from the sectional viewpoint than it
has ever been in all its history
There are misunderstanding among Uni
Gle Sans children some of them serious
enough, in all conscience, but they are not
sectional. Though the people of the United
states are by no means of one mind in III
among them who desire to change the form
OF government, or who think 1t would be
good thing for the country to be split in
two
And that is the one thing of all Others
that has been brought to the United States
by the forty years since Thanksgiving day.
1865, for which its citizens should be thank
full.
Most Important Agencies.
Most important agencies in the new and
stronger union which has come to the
United States since 1865 have been fur
nished by the tremendously improved
means of communication and transporta-
ton. Though plenty of criticism may be
Justly due to its management, the present
something for which the whole country
should be profoundly thankful.
Most folk accept 1t today as a matter of
course. To the younger genera ton 1t seems
like an institution that has always existed
without which, no matter how much fault
may be found with its rates. the business
of the country could not well go on. But
while there were about $4,000 miles of rail-
road In 1855. there are more than four
times as many today, or about 215,oO more
than seven miles for every hundred square
miles Of territory.
Then. as the old heads remember very
well, there was no steel highway linking
the coast of the Atlantic with the coast of
the Pacific. Then there were three ways by
which one wishing to travel from New
York or Boston or Washington, to San
land by combination of rail to the Mis-
sissippi, and stage coach and horse back
westward from the river, journey reauir-
Ing many days; by steamer sailing