Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1908-11-26
THANKSGIVING Day.

versary 1t is not a day Celebrating a
religious event 1t is q day of Ma
ture. 1t is day of THANKSGIVING for
the years history. And it must pivot
Oil the household. 1t is the one great
festival OF American life that pivots on
the household. A typical Thanksgiv-
I.fs dinner represents everything that
has grown in all the summer. fit to
make glad the heart of man. 1t is
not a riotous feast. 1t is a table piled
high. among the group of rollicking
young and the sober joy of the old.
with the treasures of the growing year,
accepted with rejoicings and inter-
change of many festivities as a token
of gratitude to Almighty God Re-
member Gods bounty in the year
String the pearls of His favor Hide
the dark parts, except so far as they
are breaking out in light! Give this
one day to thanks, to joy, to graft
tude" r..
Those are the words of Henry Ward
Reecher and they sum up we'll the
spirit Of the national festival which
falls today. In our land Thanksgiving
is of Puritan origin and it is cele-
brated nowhere as it is in New Eng
land and where the sons and daugh-
ters of New England are scattered
Yet the day is far older than the
Puritans and older than New England.
III ancient Rome they had the Cerelia.
a festival of several days duration in
no If in honor Of hn goddess
Ceres and in gratitude for the har-
vest. 1t continued several days and
was characterized by gay professions
to the fields and by rustic merrymak-
ings The poet Virgil sings to us
about them. In still earlier times the
Greeks had their nine days celebration
and feasting in honor of Demeter,
their harvest goddess; and before the
Greeks the old Hebrews had similar
festival.
Our American Thanksgiving had its
origin in the devout religious spirit of
the early days and it quickly became
q national festival which turns on
homo life AS such it has survived and
will continue, though no other country
has holiday corresponding to it.
No longer is there general gathering
in the churches on Thanksgiving
morning. as in the days of our ances-
tors, but the religious significance of
the day is by no means lost sight of.
Not only are the harvests of the fields
considered, but with thoughtful per
sons it is also a harvest season of the
heart and soul.
The American people may we'll lift
their hearts in gratitude to God at
this; Thanksgiving season. The har-
vests have been enormously large, the
people are prosperous, peace reignS,
the government is in good hands and
will continue there. the year has had
no great national calamities, the forces
tive, the hand of philanthropy was
never more lavish and. as the Presi
dent says, nowhere else in the world
is the average of individual comfort
and material wcll-being as high as in
our fortunate land
And as with the land at large, 50
with our individual lives and in our
Individual homes. What an endless
number of things we have to be thank
FIJI fhipuc nnrh1nc w
consider them-as health and friends
and employment and home and loved
ones, as food to eat and an appetite
for it, as sound sleep at night and a
zeal Cor work by day, as sight and
hearing and strength of limb. as the
moonlight on the harvest fields and
the sparkle of the morning sunshine or
the water. as the books on the shelves
and the pictures on the wall as the
sense of humor which dispels the
clouds, as the flowers which pcrfumed
the summer and the birds which
brought a message from heaven. as
the memory of things that were sweet
and the forgctfulness of things that
were bitter, as the happiness of MAX
ing others happy and the joy of Civ
ing and serving. as the glory and the
privileges of citizenship in a free land
which is blessed beyond any other land
on earth, as the wealth of all the ages
which we are heir to through the work
of all the sages and martyrs and build
ers Of all the generations that are
gone, Common things are these? No
doubt: but our appreciation of them
and Our gratitude for them are far too
uncommon. Thanksgiving is the day
of the optimst. God pity the man
who holds his hand before his eyes
and insists that the sun is darkened,
but happy and blessed is he who, like
John on Iatmos, sees an angel stand
ing i'll the sun.
The noble statue at Washington.
erected to General Sheridan and dcdi-