Arizona republican., 1908-11-28
THANKSGIVING DAY
 THE OLDEST HOLIDAY
A Yankee inheritance, Comes From Cape Cod, Where the cranberries Grow.

Boston, Mass. Nov. 22.-(Specia
 correspondence of The 'Republican)-
 Although few people interrupt their
 apprecition of turkey and cranberry
 sauce to think about it, Thanksgiving
 day is the oldest as well as in many
 respects the most typical of Ameri-
 can holidays. It is in fact 2S7 years
 old, its observance dating from the | time when the Pilgrims, a year after
 their landing from the Mayflower held a thanksgiving service for their ! first harvest in the new country It
 was Governor Bradford who officially established the autumnal day of | thanks which has been observed near | the end of November ever since that | time. Thus Thanksgiving is more | than a century and a half older than | Independence day and antedates even | farther than this our other holidays, most of which are of comparatively recent creation.
 Thanksgiving is so firmly estab- ! lished among the red letter days of the American calendar that there is
 very little prospect that it will ever lose its place. Although the method of its observance has changed greatly in two and a half centuries. and
 football has taken the place of
 church going. it still retains its New England characteristics as a day of
 family reunions and it still brings
 thousands of people from other parts
 f,f h.. fg fpft ,Tl
 homes in these northeastern states
 It is probable indeed that Thanks
 giving day will stand as a perma-
 nent monument of the New England
 Yankee. He will be in need of a
 monument within a few more years
 for the Yankee himself is passing
 away. disappearing before the influx
 of foreign population that IS taking
 place in the New England states and
 before changed conditions of living.
 Curiously enough Cape Cod, the spot
 which first welcomed him to a new
 land and the scene of the first Thanksgiving observance, is proving
 to be also his last stronghold. Here
 in fact is about the only place where there are still to be found men of the hardy type that made the Ameri- can clipper ship famous, men like those who whipped England's boasted sea fighters in the war of 1872 to the tune of Yankee Doodle Dandy"
 Not only is Cape Cod the oldest spot in the country so far as it's occupation by English speaking per sons is concerned. but it is almost the only one that looks it's true age
 I, their impressions of America in books cold visit the Cape they might qualify their patrOnizing statements about the newness and the unfin- ished appearance of everything in the United States. There is nothing new about the famous fish-hook curving out from the Massachusetts coast, resisting the steady battering of At lantic pillows on one side and of Massachusetts Bay on the other. Theer is nothing new about the ap- pearance of the inhabitants either except some of the summer visitors whi flock to this 100-mile long sand spit fo rtheir annual vacations.
 From Buzzard's Bay to Province town everything, except here and there a summer hotel brilliant in new paint, has a weather beaten, set tied look as much as to say, We've been here a long time and don't care who knows it" The houses, snug gling into hollows to escape the bleak winter winds. the ancient captains" and their wives-captains are as numerous here as colonels are reputed to be in Kentucky; even ha arIa leaning over at threatening angles | from long resistance to heavy storms all suggest that a great many tides | have ebbed and flowed since they | were set down here.
 It is in the low-roofed rambling | dwellings of the little Cape Cod | towns that we find the real Yankee | of past generations, resisting the | changes that time brings to the out | side world in very much the same | passive but effective way that his | sandy home resists the assaults of | the old ocean. The ancient burial | grounds standing close to each vil- | age contain the bones of men who | helped to lay the foundations of the | American nation, and whose descend | ants are to be found in every part |  Jf the country. Some of their head | stones contain inscriptions that throw an interesting light on the conditions Df life that these pioneer Americans had to contend with. For instance. in the long unused cemetery of the First Parish Society of Eastman on the summit of a bare hill strewn with glacial boulders and swept by he salt winds which blow in from the Atlantic on one side and Cape Cod bay on the other, there is a small, weather worn slate slab which marks the resting place of Major John Freeman. who died in 1850 at he ripe age of 9S. Beside it is mother stone, that of Mercy, his wife, daughter of Governor Prince. one of the first rulers of Plymouth colony, whose farm was nearby and o whom was granted a tract of Cape COd land nearly ten miles square.
 Lieutenant Freeman, the majors son, is buried near his father So llsO is the Reverend Mir. Treat, first