Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1905-11-28
CUSTOMS HAVE CHANGED.

| Next Thursday will be celebrated all
over this broad land as day of thanks
giving-at least it is supposed to be a
day of thanksgiving and prayer. In
the good old Puritan days our fore
fathers, who established Thanksgiving
day, chose one day out of the 365 to
offer prayer to the Maker for the
blessings they had enjoyed and the fact
| that the playful Injun had qpared their
scalps. The Puritan, with flintlock
blunderbus over his shoulder, trudged
off to the frontier church on that day,
accompanied by his family and listened
TO the consoling and helpful words of a
circuit rider preacher, and often times
while religious services were in prog
ress he was called upon to fire through
the loop holes of the church to drive
away a band of MohicaDs that was
after his topknot.
Through the period of the revolution
airy war the people on one day of the
year offered prayers for the victories
won BY American arms over British
despots aud their hireling Hessians.
The soldiers, when they were not
shooting at a red coat were engaged in
religious communion. The men of
that day were somewhat different from
CuOoC VI IuC ploooub SNnci dIlOu III I1OIe
ways than one. There we're no Hydes,
Cages, Morgans, Crokers, Murphys.
beef scandals nor were there any post
office Investigations. The men of that
time were God fearing, honest people
with answering loyalty to their
country, its institutions and their
fellow men and who never had to lock
their doors. How times have changed,
and they say we are advancing in the
scale of civilization.
After the revolutionary war and down
to the civil war there was an observ-
ance OF Thanksgiving, which was more
in the nature of family reunions. All
the good things of the family larder
were brought forth and placed on the
dinner table. grace was said and the
victuals began to disappear. After the
midday meal, those assembled would
grow reminiscent and relate the bright
stories of the past and live over again
their youthful days They would turn
back the hands of the clock, so to
speak. These gatherings were joyful
ones for those of all ages and condi-
tons If the writer remembers history
correctly, Abraham Lincoln was the
trst president to officially designate a
day of thanksgiving. His proclama-
tons were observed at a time when
most every American home was heavy
in sorrow for the death of one or more
dear to it.
Since Lincoln's time every president
has each year proclaimed one day as a
day on which people should take an
inventory of their blessings and give
praise for same. But how differently is
the dav observed now in contrast with
the observance of the Puritan, the
cOlonlst or the people of secession days.
The Twentieth century customs are no
more like the ones of the people just
mentioned than is circle like right
angled triangle. The people of today
+ hink more of satisfying their stomachs
than they do of the observance of old
customs. They don't go to church
because it takes all the forenoon to put
on their modern day finery. If they
can afford to, they go to hotel for
their dinner and partake of the good
things with a spirit of Give paid for
it." There is too much commercialism
in present day life, too much Of a mad
race for S S S. That little U with the S
stamped over it, is binding to our sight
and will some day lead us toward the
mirage of national doom.