The Mena weekly star., 1907-12-05

M P thankful unto Hiiii, anu Di"9o iiio
 ppeeme.' Psa. lOo:4.
 mbo old New England Thanksgiy-
 runs as far back in it's history as # 1921. ,.
 ,ows of that year, when his little
 p p,,,nouth colony scarcely numbered
 as hundred people: "Our harvests
 Sa;,o p gotten in, our Governor sent sonr % men on fowling that so we
 .a;gbt after a special manner, re- ;o;ce together after we had gath
 .rod the fruit of our labors." From mcb beginning as this has grown m the national anniversary of thanksgiving Day.
 R WONDERFUL PROGRESS OF AMERICA. We thank God for the wonderful nrooress of our country. Look at North America in the 18th century. America was then contemptible in ,be eyes of the world. Glowing n;ctures of it's future greatness were sometimes imagined, but in ;ts present resources it was too fee ble to tempt the robber, or even the taxgatherer. The collection of any
 revenue from America would have
 cost more than the income. Had it
 been nation it would have held
 about the same rank among the na- lions as Greenland or the Sandwich
 Islands today. The one million of people in the thirteen colonies were gathered into few villages or scat tered in the rural settlements along the ocean shore widely separated. The colonies were not even connected bv passable roads. Glance at theml There are no regular postal or mail arrangements. It were voy- age more perilous to go from Mas sachusetts to Georgia than now to circumnavigate the globe. Wild beasts roam over most of the great region afterward to be known as the State of New York. There are only three colleges in America, and these not equal to modern village high school. There is not a school in all of the thirteen colonies where a girl can receive good English ed- ucation. There is not a machine factory in America superior to al country blacksmith s shop. Foreign commerce is almost unknown. There are no woollen mills. The cotton plant is not yet cultivated in Amer lea, and cotton cloth is almost as ex- pensive as silk-and both are prac- tically unknown. The men are mostly clad in linsey, spun and woven by their wives and mothers, dyed with different colors extracted from the leaves and roots of certain vegetables found in the forest, and the women are largely clad in the same material, and every family has dye pot as common as water pail. Many families partake of their daily meal out of one common dish in the centre of the table. The blows are wooden. Shovels and hoes heavy, and scanty are all the other agricultural implements. But if we look at this people more care fully, we shall find some gleams of light that startle us with their fash ing promise of brilliancy. The American colonies were then babe, but in all history there never had been phenomenon like this. Rome was founded in like manner, but Romulus and Remus, fabled to have been suckled by wolf, were pagan fugitives. Greece was settled by adventurers. But the founders of America were Christians desiring liberty to worship God according to their own sense of right. The United States under the protection Of Almighty God has grown from thirteen to forty-seven States, repre- SC ting a century and a quarter of terr torlal expansion, and a corre- sp1nding enlargement of the sov- sSfelgnty of the nation. The United States is today the grandest coun- try on earth. She has untold re- sources, and is possessed by free people rapidly climbing to hundred million in number.
 THANKFUL FOR OUR LIBERTY.
 We thank God for our liberty. American liberty is composite in it's character and rich in its material. And thou great bell of liberty, cast rom the chains of liberators and consecrated by the prayers of american people, take up the notes or prophecy and of jubilee by your older sister in Seventeen Hundred and Seventy-Seven, and in your