, 1905-12-02
oNE-sIDED THANKSGIVING.

Mark Twain, just after his visit to
the White house the other day. declar-
ed that the Deity had less cause than
mankind to be thankful. In discussing
the matter, the author says:
Every year every person in Ameri-
ca concentrates all his thought upon
one thing-the cataloguing of his rea-
sons for being thankful to the Deity
for the blessings conferred upon him
and upon the human race during the
expiring twelve months.
This is well and as it should be.
But it is too o~ne-sided. No one ever
seems to think of the Deity's side of it.
Apparently no one concerns himself to
inquire how much or how little He has
had to be thankful for during the same
period. Apparently no one has had
good feeling enough to wish. He might
have a Thanksgiving day too. There
is nothing right about this.
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 Goth
of this month, from the pens of the
distinguished persons appointed to
raise its thankfulness on that day?
1--WE may be u~nstintedly thankful,
but can hat be really the case with
Him. If He has a voice how would He
regard the years results in Russia?
What would He be thankful for there?
THE servants of that government in
patriotic obedience to its commands
lately have killed and wounded $4,000
Jews by unusual and unpleasant meth
ods-butchering the men INT women
with knife and b~ayonet; finging them
out of windows; saturating them with
kerosene and setting fire to them; shut
ting them up in cellars and smother
ing them with smoke; d%renching chill
dren with boiling water; tearing other
children asunder by the methods OF
the middle ages. Doubtless the most
that He can be thankful for is that the
carnage and the suffering are not as
bad as they might have been.
He will have noticed that life in
tsurane7-in-NeW York has gone toler-
ably rotten and that the widow and the
orphan have had a sorrowful time of it
at the hands of their chosen protectors.
Doubtless the most that He is thank
full for is that the r%ottennsss and the
briberies nave not been absolutely COM
plete.
He has noticed that the political
smell ascending from New York, Phil
adelphia and sixty or seventy other
municipalities has been modified a lit
tle-temporarlly, and is doubtless
thankful for that transient reprieve.
He has observed that King Leo
pold's destruction of innocent life in
the Congo Is not as great this year as
it was last by as much as 100000 vic
tins, because of diminishing material.
He has also noticed that America and
other great powers-accessortes before
the fact and responsible for these MUIR
ders, especially America-are properly
thankful on our Thanksgiving day and
for nineteen previous Thanksgiving
days and without doubt He Is Himself
thankful that matters in the Congo
are not as irretrievably bad as they
might be, and that some of the natives
are still left alive.
zone is justified in fearing that the
Deity's Thanksgiving day is not as rosy
as ours viii appear when the Thanks
giving sentiments blossom out in our
journals, and that If He, now ~voiceless,
should utter a sentiment it would be
tinged with a pathetic regret"