The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1908-11-13
THANKSGIVING DAY.
All Should DevoutIy Observe 1t
In Remembrance of All They
Have Enjoyed.

President Theodore Roosevelt has is
sued his annual proclamation calling
upon the people of the country to give
thanks for the preservation of the ma
ton. The proclamation follows:
Once again the season is at hand when
according to the ancient custom of our
people it becomes the duty of the presi-
dent to appoint a day of prayer and
thanksgiving to God.
Year by year this nation grows in
strength and worldly power. During
the century and quarter that has
elapsed since our entry into the circle
of independent people we have grown
and prospered in material things to
degree never known before and not now
known in any other country. The thir-
teen colonies which struggled along the
seacoast OF the Atlantic and were hem
med in but few miles west of tide
water by the lndian-haunted wilder
ness, have been transformed into the
mightiest republic which the world has
ever seen. Its domains stretch across
the continent from one to the other of
the two greatest oceans, and it exercises
dominion alike in the Arctic and Tropic
realms. The growth in wealth and pop
ulduiOH has buTpdSStu GNtIl bLlt RTOWUH
in territory. Nowhere else in the world
material well-being as high as in our
fortunate land.
OWE 1T TO THE ALMIGHTY.
For the very reason that in material
well-being we have thus abounded, we
owe it to the Almighty to show equal
progress in moral and spiritual things.
With nation, as with the individuals
who make up nation, material we'll
being is an indispensable foundation.
But the foundation avails nothing by
itself. That life is wasted and worse
than wasted, which is spent in piling
heap upon heap those things which
minister merely to the pleasure of the
upon wealth. Upon material well-being
as foundation must be raised the
structure of the lofty life of the spirit,
if this nation is properly to fulfil it's
great mission and to accomplish all
that we so ardently hope and desire.
The things Of the body are good the
things of the intellect better; but best
of all are the things of the soul for in
the nation as in the individual, in the
long run it is character that counts. Let
us therefore as people set our faces
resolutely against evil and with broad
charity, with kindliness and good will
toward all men, but with unflinching
determination to smite down wrong,
strive with all the strength that is given
us for righteousness i'll public and in
private life.
THANKS FOR THE BLESSINGS.
Now, therefore, l, Theodore Roose-
welt, president of the United States, do
set apart Thursday, the 26th day of
November next, as a day of general
thanksgiving and prayer, and on that
day recommend that the people shall
cease from their daily work, and in their
homes or in their churches, meet de-
voutly to thank the Almighty for the
many great blessings they have received
in the past and to pray that they may
be given the strength SO to order their
lives as to deserve a continuation of
these blessings in the future.
In witness whereof l have hereunto
set my hand and caused the seal of the
United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington this
31st day of October, in the year of our
Lord one thousand nine hundred and
eight, and of the independence of the
United States the one hundred and
thirty-third. THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
Attest By order of the president.
Alvey A. Adee, Acting Secretary OF
State,