The log cabin Democrat., 1909-11-19
The foreigners connected with the


ing as being peculiarly an American holiday.
and 1t is the truth that at of the
bassies there is more marked recognition of
the day than there is in the households of
Washington Americans whose Pilgrim fore
fathers set the example of giving thanks for
the harvest home
President Taft is of New England ancestry,
and the celebration of Thanksgiving in the old
and approved style of New England is to him
not only a matter of pleasure, but of duty.
The president goes to church on Thanksgiving
day morning just as all other presidents before
him have gone to church the holiday since
custom established it that the chief executive
should urge the people in public proclamation
to get together for praise offerings 1t would
not do for president to decline to follow the
advice that he has given the people.
For a great many years presidential fami-
lies have eaten Rhode Island turkeys for their
Thanksgiving dinner. The Taft family follows
precedent in most things. 1t isn't, perhaps,
that Rhode Island turkeys are better than In.
diana turkeys or Oklahoma turkeys or the
turkeys of any other state, but a gentleman
named Vose, who hives down in Rhode Island,
has made it a practice for years to fatten
special turkey for White House consumption.
The bird that goes to the presidents table
never weighs less than 25 pounds.
About five years ago the Rhode Island tur-
key gift to the White House caused something
of a sensation. 1t was not the birds fault,
however. Before the turkey is shipped from the
Rhode Island breeding ground to the White
House, 1t is killed and plucked This fact did
not prevent the publication of story in a GER
tain newspaper, a story which aroused the ire
of President Roosevelt to such an extent that
he issued warm statement that could in no
wise be called second Thanksgiving procla-
nation.
An eastern newspaper declared in its col
umns that the Rhode Island turkey arrived at
the White House, alive and kicking, and that
Theodore Roosevelt turned it loose in the lot
back of the executive mansion and allowed his
children to run the bird to death, catching it
now and then, and pucking from it, wing and
tail feathers, only to loose the bird once more,
and TO go on again with the chase
This story of cruelty to animals charged
against himself and Kermit Archibald and
Quentin made the president mad There is no
other word to be used He forbade access to
the White House offices and to the various de-
partments of government to the correspond
ents of the offending paper. How the story
originated no one ever knew for the turkey
was dead and cold long before it left its native
turkey yard, 1t is supposed that some one told
1t as a joke and that the newspaper CORE
spondent took it seriously. At any rate, one
p
passed from life gave the country something to
talk about for week.
The White House Thanksgiving dinner is
like the Thanksgiving dinner in the homes of
most good Americans who are able to buy
dinner of holiday proportions The president
his wife and children, eat roast turkey with
stuffing cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and
other vegetables and wind up with pumpkin
pie.
1t is entirely probable that the presidents
wife has to watch the cook when the pumpkin
pie making is in progress, and be especially
watchfui if the cook was born and raised in
Washington. There is a firm conviction in the
minds of all District of Columbia people that
squash and a pumpkin are the same thing.
Ask for pumpkin pie in a Washington restau-
rant and they give you squash pie, and If you
are courageous enough to protest, you Will be
told that there is no difference between squash
and pumpkin, and the information will be CIV
en- you with an air of pity for benighted igno
rance, The wise WashingtOnian who has gone
to the capital from other sections. invariably
imports his own pumpkins. for if one is or
dered from the market man a squash invari-
ably turns up in the kitchen The New Eng
lander holds that no Thanksgiving dinner is
complete without the pumpkin pie, President
Taft knows a pumpkin when he sees it.
1t has been said that the foreigners, the am
bassadors, the ENJOYS extraordinary, the min
listers plenipotentiary and all the attaches OF
tho different legations, give heed to Thanksgiv-
Ing day. An American secretary of state who
hailed from New England once said that the
foreigners rejoiced in Thanksgiving because it
gave them chance to eat all the turkey that
they wanted to without feeling that they were
called on to give an excuse for overlooking.
The foreigners love turkey. 1t is the one ST.
mon-pure American institution to which they
have sworn allegiance The turkey is an Amer
| lean bird and while it is found in Europe. II is