The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-11-28
THANKSGIVING THE
OLDEST Of ALL
HOLIDAYS
Tomorrow Americans Will
Join in Offering Thanks to
the Maker.
NEW ENGLAND CUSTOM
That Has Been. Handed Down
to the Present Day-1ts
True Significance.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving day and
1t will be observed as holiday in
Grand Forks and North Dakota gen.
orally. The postofiice, banks, public
offices of all kinds, schools and COL
leges will be closed. The merchants
Will close their places of business at
noon, and all lines of work will be
stopped generally.
Mayor Duis today issued the fol-
lowing Thanksgiving proclamation:
Mayors Office, Grand Forks, North
Dakota:
Grand Forks city and her citizens
have much to be thankful for. Abund-
ant crops throughout the state have
resulted in continuance of pros
perity, and the steady development
and growth of the city, the good health
OF the community and the absence of
epidemics are all good reasons for
returning thanks to the Almighty, who
Is responsible for our condition, on
the day set apart by the president of
the United States and the governor Of
North Dakota.
1t is urged that on Thanksgiving
day (Thursday) we refrain from our
usual labors and return thanks in
reyerent manner to the Giver of all
good, for the blessings bestowed DUR
ing the year.
Geo. E. Duis, Mayor.
In the churches of Grand Forks,
Thanksgiving day will be observed
with the usual services. The congre-
cations of the Baptist, Methodist and
Presbyterian churches have arranged
to hold union service in the Presby-
terrain church on South Fifth street.
Rev. VIM. Moore of the Methodist
church will deliver the sermon, and
special program has been arranged
for.
Thanksgiving is a season of glad
some traditions. Far away as are our
lives from those of the little band of
colonists of Massachusetts, Bay who
reverently established day of thanks
giving for the merc.es which to US
seem no more than the commonplace
of meager existence, the spirit of the
occasion survives.
Through all the vicissitudes of OUT
national development, Thanksgiving
day has been preserved as peculiarly
the New England memorial. For gen.
erations it had sectional observance
and limited Significance. 1t was not
until the white heat of the civil war
fused our people of all sections into
a nation homogeneous that the New
England Thanksgiving was made that
of the whole country.
Since the first proclamation by the
president, calling for the observance
of a day of thanks for the preservation
OF the union OF the states, the custom
has been maintained; the generation
of today knows 1t in this character
alone.
This is the Oldest of our holidays.
In the early times of sectarlan intol-
erance when church and state were
joined in the rule of Massachusetts,
there was no Christmas under the law.
Observance Of the natal day of the
Prince Of Peace was discouraged, ii
not absolutely prohibited, by harsh
enactments. But the recognition of
the day of thanksgiving was enjoined
as a religious as well as a civic obli-
CATION
All this is changed in the growth of
our people. our commonwealth, our
nation to the stature which we see to-
day. Our whole people unite in the
giving of thanks; and If the religious
element is given less prominence in
the forms with which the day is OBJ
served. in the hearts of all there is
a no less reverent gratitude for the
benefactions with which the Power
which rules the universe has crowned
the life of people and of individuals in
this happy age.
We must be glad, every one of US,
that we live today. The condition of
humanity Is not perfect; there are
cruel exception to universal human
felicity; but the advance has not only
been great but steady and full of mar
velous promise for the race. And as
for the immediate present, we have
sonly to compare existing conditions
OF physical comfort of intellectual I'M
provement, of moral and social uplift-
ing, with those enjoyed by our prede-
the Lord loveth them he chasteneth,"
ton surge over our hearts.
Personally many of us may feel that
fortune or providence has dealt harsh
~ with US during the last year. There
have been disappointments, perhaps
grievous affections, whose pain is not
yet dullcd. Let such summon up the
resources of the faith that sustained
the men of the first Thanksgiving days
who felt as well as believed that "who
the Lord loveth then he chasteneth,"
and let all look forward where the sun
shines with glory and a gracious
warmth unknown to the race of man
kind at any period before this favored
century.