The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-11-30
MATINEE TODAY AT BTJOU. Prices only 10, 20, 30 cents.
MARK TWAIN ON THANKSGIVING.
Author Declares the Deity Has Less Cause Than Mankind to Re Joyous.


 Cause Than Mankind to Re Joyous. Washington Special.
 Mary Twain took luncheon with the President today. This afternoon ne gave the following Thanksgiving sent- ment: ::-~:
 ''Every year every person in America concentrates all his thought upon one thing-the cataloguing of his reasons for being thankful to the Deity for the blessings conferred upon him and upon the human race during the ex- piring twelve months.
 This Is well and as it should be. But 1t is too one-sided. No one ever seems to think of the deity's side of it. Ap- parently no one concerns himself to inquire how much or how little he has had to be thankful for during the same period. Apparently nq one has nad have a Thanksgiving day. too. There Is nothing right about this.
 Some Things Go Awry.
 Do you suppose everything has gone to His satisfaction during the year? Do you believe He is as sweepingly thankful as our nation is going to be, as indicated by the enthusiasm which will appear in the papers on the 30th of this month, from the pens of the dis tinguished persons appointed to raise its thanKfulness on that day?
 We may be unstintedly thankful, but can that be really the case with him. If He has voice how would lie
  What would He be thankful for there?
 The servants of that Government in patriotic obedience to its commands lately have killed and wounded 6O,000 ods-butchering the men and women with knife and bayonet; hingtng them out of windows; saturating them with kerosene and setting fire to them; shut ting them up in cellars and smothering thsm with amoke: drenching children with boiling water, tearing other chill dren asunder by the methods of the middle ages Doubtless the most that He can be thankful for is that the car mage and the suffering are not as bad as they might have been
 He will have noticed that life insur- ance in New York has gone tolerably rotten and that the widow and the or phan have had sorrowful time of 1t at the hands of their chosen protectors Doubtless the most that He Is thank full for Is that the rottenness ana the briberies have not been absolutely com nlete
 Thankful for Little Reform. He has noticed that the political smell ascending from New York, Phila- delphia and sixty or seventy other mu- nicipaIities has been modified a little temporarily. and is doubtless thankful for that transient reprieVe.
 "He has observed that King Leopold's destruction of innocent life in the Con go is not as great this year as 1t was last by as much as 100000 victims. be- cause Of diminishing material. He has also noticed that America and other great Lcwers-accessories before the fact and respo1 sihie for these murdcr- especially America-are properly thankful on our Thanksgiving day and for nineteen previous thankseivinE days and without doubt He Is Himself thGnkful that matters in the Congo are not as irretrievably bad as thev might be. and that some of the natives are still left alive.
 "One is justified in fearing that the DeitV's thanksgiving dsy is not as rosy as ours will appear when the Thanks giving sentiments blossom out in our journals. and that if He now voiceless. should utter sentiment 1t would be tinged with a pathetic regret"