The Forrest City times., 1906-11-23

He'd from the mother country on ac- count of their religious tenets. they brooked no breach in those funda mental laws that formed the basis of their theological system. The laws of New England must be obeyed and jus tice, cruel, swift and certain, fell upon the evil-doer The genius of a Flaw thorne has painted in our minds this picture of the Puritans. The green clad mountains and the waving trees are brought before us. We sigh for poor Hester and pity the young minis ter's struggles between manhood and self, while the witch antics of Mistress Hibbins recall vividly those dark days of superstition at Salem.
 Then has another master hand con jured up for us those scenes
 In the old colony days in Plymouth the land of the Pilgrims.
 We have followed the courtship of Miles Standish and have heard the message of love borne by John Alden for another. The struggle of the fair haired youth has been as our own. We have heard him plead the cause of his friend before the Puritan flower" Priscilla while his own heart was breaking for the love he would not tell. We have smelled the sweetness of the Plymouth woods; we have heard the crawling of the brook over pebble and shallow at the ford. We have seen the bloom of the May flow CTS and We have caught the sacred an- them sung by the sweet-voiced maid en. Our hearts have gone out to John Alden and we fain would have spoken for him. Then we have laughed, too when amid her spinning
 Archly the maiden smiled. and with eyes
 overrunnng with laughter
 Said. in tremuious voice: Why don't
 you speak for yourself, John?"
 Thus has the immortal poet led us through the paths of love in that quiet New England village. But it was not always the songs of peace that he sang for he tells us how Paul Revere says to his friend.
 If the British march
 By land or sea from the town tonight Hang lantern aloft on the belfry arch Of the North church tower as a signal
 light One If by land and two if by sea
 And on the opposite shore will be
 Ready to ride and spread the alarm Through every Middlese1 village and farm oF the country folks to be up and to
 In like manner have the songs of Whittier depicted those early days in the land of the Pilgrim fathers. By the magic of his pen he brings clearly to our view the everyday life of that sturdy race. We see the old homes and the farms. In our fancy:
 Still sits the schoolhouse by the road
 ragged beggar summing
 Around 1t still tho sumachs grow
 And blackberry vines are running
 And then 1t is an easy step in our reyeries to join Ik Marvel, that prince or bachelors, in his reveries over the wood fire in his quiet farmhouse in New England. One almost can see that broad bachelor bedstead now. With the soft warm feathers upon if and hear the cracking of the oak and hickory on the hearth, between the whistling of the wind through inc broken panes of glass. Thus are W. led through sweet dream memories to better understanding and a dearer appreciation of that rugged stock which has been the bone ard sinew of this great, strong, progressive American people, and We teach with pride our children and our children's children the homage due to our sturdy ancestors on this great national Thanksgiving day.