The Celina Democrat. (Celina, O. [Ohio]) 1895-1921, 1912-11-29

stop to thlnk now new tillo
country is? Should you go to Rome
you would find more old walls and
monuments and buildings that have
been standing for centuries, and still
testify to the past splendor Of the
once imperial city. Crossing the At
lantic and setting foot on the shores
of England, the past greets you on
every hand You are Immediately
made aware that our friends across
the water are living among old tradi'
tions, while in their ceremonials, as
when 4 king was crowned with his
queen at his side, they are keeping
up the customs and recalling the gran
deur that have been theirs for thou
sand years.
over here, in comparison with other
nations on the globs, we are still in
our childhood and can hardly be said
to have more than reached the begin
ming of our maturity. Yet we have
eight million people, and we jostle
when we walk on the street people
who have sought us from the far east,
llOIl N4it lolullAo vi AAAN bNNtfiAt AANN'A
northern and southern Europe, and,
indeed. from everywhere beneath the
sun. To my mind there is Something
wonderful and significant and heart
stirring in the thought that man OF
our choice in Washington In the
White House presides as our chief ex-
ecutive over our vast territory and
our mighty mass of citizens. He sends
out word in November and 10! the
whole commonwealth listens and
obeys. BY one consent Americans,
native-born and adopted into our
ranks from abroad, cease from busi-
ness, observe a holiday and thank
God on the last Thursday of Novem-
ber Everyone does not go TO
church, but the churches are open.
There are services, there is exquisite
music and eloquent sermons are
preached, and the nation is thus up
lifted to a higher plane, and there is
an obvious reminder that we owe
thanks to our Creator and praise to
our Father in heaven.
Another charming feature of this
peculiarly popular and wholly Amer
ican holiday is the assembling OF fam
flies around the Thanksgiving dinner
table Again look back, not over
thousand years, but over very nearly
three hundred, and you will see how
significant was the origin of this
annual jubilee. In 1921 Governor
Bradford of Massachusetts issued a
proclamation to the little colony set
ting apart a day of Thanksgiving for
the first in-gathering harvests. Should
you ever 60 to Plymouth, Mass. and
stroll through the old graveyard there,
tears would spring to your eyes even
now when you saw by the records on
the stones that Death was very busy
in reaping the first harvest of life in
New England These hardy pioneers
who came to our bleak Atlantic coast
that they might have freedom to wor-
ship God as they chose, were made of
stuff too strong to be daunted by
illness, want, famine or death. The
attacks of hostile Indians in the night
did not turn them from their purpose
of settling in the new country, and
women and men alike were heroic in
their scorn of peril and their determin-
alton to snatch success from apparent
defeat. The first harvest was scanty,
but they assembled in church and
thanked God for it, anc in their homes
they sat down to the best dinner they
could provide. The wild turkey fur
nished the meat for the feast. This