New-York tribune., 1905-11-20
As To THANKSGIVING
Hosc Its Significance Should Be
Made Clear to Children.

..T.o,lsei,.irg is the one holiday tha: combines
religion and patriotism, said Mrs Franklin n
Hooper at the recent child study conference at te
Brooklyn Institute Il think we should fry TO I'M
nress on the child each Thanksgiving both a Ieei-
ing of thankfulness for his own blessings ana
p feeling Of high patriotic pride. Each year some
Thing Will be found in our current history WHICH
can used that effect IL IS surprising now
much children can grasp and understand OF current
events This year should impress upon the
children the value and Importance of the Peace OF
Portsmouth. and the glory IT was that our country
and our President chosen out OF the Whole
world as The most e1fcacious effect this great
peace And TO emphasize this idea OF peace,
would pass the loving cup at the Thanksgiving din
ner table explaining its significance. although fill
ing {: with water, not wine Almost every family
has 6 loving cup, sometimes heirloom from the
early days.
~ an afraid you must be speaking for just a
little circle Of women right here, Madam Chalr-
man." said one of the audience; Il am sure the
women large, over the whole country, wculdn l
know what q loving cup They may have en-
oot,ntered the name in their reading. but 1 think
YOU would find q great many fairly intelligent
women who never even heard Of loving cup.
ITO the mothers at large, over the whole coun-
try continued the last speaker, Thanksgiving
means a big dinner and nothing else. How can
they be induced infuse some patriotic and re-
ugious feeling into the day-to impress on their
children why the only nation in the world
that celebrates Thanksgiving?'
We'll" said Mrs. Hooper, ''to any one who can
remember the old, stern ways OF living in New
England as 1 can it is wonder that the human
pendulum has swung 20 the other extreme. am
an optinist spite of all the talk OF the decay
Of home lie and the degeneracy of public morals
I believe there are people moved by lofty
impulses to-day than ever before in the history OF
country. I believe that all that is best in one
generation is carried over into the next If it
lost for time it IS recovered. or something
better comes in its place. sorry we don't
gather under the old family rooftree any more for
the Thanksgiving dinner. but perhaps that will
ccme back
some one.
1T doesn't really matter 1 think" responded
the leader, whether the floor OF the house is on
Just the same 1 am sure that to a woman used
70 a detached house with grounds about it New,
York house touching two other houses with
pocket handkeTGhief of grass in front ,, is just as
There were q number of "reminiscences or the
first national Thanksgiving Day the first NoEem-
5e5 Before that r. had seep onIV
holiday. Mrs. Hooper showed the Thanksgiving
hymn clipped from Tribune OF that period.
hymn said She and pubiished in The Tribune and
also published in sheet form for distribution among
forehand and was. believe. sung In all the
giving The old HYMN is crude, but there is a
swing and life TO it: and the people were all thank
! wish the churches would all adopt union
HYMN. America for all patriotic occasions
member Of the audience gave "reminiscences of
England ThanksgiVings which reminded one
how very present day household institutions
Il can remember Thanksgiving days in Yer
mont" said she. when there was not stove IN
the house; when there fireplace in every
room. and cooked the Thanksgiving dinner in
great brick and roasted the turkey in tin
oven before the fireplace. We had matches and
no postage stamps in those days. In our family
always had chicken pie for Thanksgiving dinner,
: and never had it at any other time. 1t was the
ehaEed fS by the yoan aRa eop ana S
w Mrs. Hooper recalled that in her chidh3od in
N NasS children Invariably
giving letters 10 all their friends and playmates,
and wished the custom would be revived.