The Liberal democrat. [volume] (Liberal, Kan.) 1911-1924, 1913-11-21

few Shall Not Ring Tonight" was high
in her repertoire, and THE Polish
Boy" and "Spartacus to the Gladia-
in an unspeakable place where the
poet would neer have sent him If he
had been better behaved. Naturally
you did not know the names of the
poems then. These you have learned
since from constant reading. At that
time you knew what she was going to
give by the gestures with which she
began, and every piece she ever spoke
struck terror to your young soul.
Even her Thanksgiving treat for the
children made you feel shamefaced
about having been so excited over the
holiday.
"Thanksgiving-for whatT"-and he NUT
tered a curse
purse?
But it is idle to talk OF a poor man's
woes.
Even after this lapse of years,
these features of the Thanksgiving en-
tertainment linger in your memory
and spring up when you pick up the
paper and read the presidents Thanks.
giving proclamation or the youngsters
come in from school and announce:
Say, pop, got to speak a piece
Thanksgiving. Do you know any,"
After a while, of course, Thanks
giving came to have other signifi-
canoe, too. There was the first year
you wore long trousers and flower
in your buttonhole. 1t would be more
appropriate to say bouquet in your
lapel, for that was the season that
men wore the most enormous chrysan-
themum they could find as a bouton-
Mere. They simply could not get the
flower big enough. Remember how
the cartoenists took it up and depict
ed the gilded youth wearing huge
cabbages in their buttonholes? But
1t was a very serious matter to you,
the selection of your chrysanthemum
the Thanksgiving you donned long
trousers, and you finally decided upon
a great yellow one that made you ap-
pear to be bearing a glowing pumpkin
to the Thanksgiving feast.
Then after you attained to the dig
nifty of sweetheart to take to the
Thanksgiving matinee. How did the
theater come to be SO inseparably con-
nected with Thanksgiving celebration?
1t is, at any rate, so that when you
present yourself at the box office as
the afternoon performance Is about to
begin the man inside is apt to ask
superiority: DO you prefer to stand
on the first floor or the second?" But
you did not stand. You sat.
Eats got showed into the back
ground around this period, and, din
ner being late, as Thanksgiving din
ner usually is, you instantly had to
ask to have your pie saved for sup
per, the clock pointing perilously near
the hour of two, and the girl yet to
be called for"
Many Thanksgivings have come and
gone since that time and the celebra-
ton for you now probably means lin
ing up your little family and marching
them down to grandmother's where
they will have long, happy day play
ing and fighting with cousins from 9TH
er offshoots of the parent tree, for
about the only distinctive feature Of
thanksgiving, save the church service
and eats" and the football game. is
the Homecoming it inspires.
Then there is hurry and hustle in
the old house that it has not known
since the boys and girls married and
left one by one. The newest baby
must be admired by all, and the family
connection is called upon to notice
that Bobs youngest no longer wears
dresses.
Then the women go into the kitch-
en-, and by and by there is waited out
aromas from cooking things that ought
never have been thought up in these
days of high prices. But for once the
householder forgets the high cost of
living. She beats up eggs as If they
were selling around cent apiece
and, honestly, the way she drops
hunks of butter into pots and pans
you would think it just most nothing
at ali. But, like Christmas, Thanks
giving comes but once year, and il
we can't be bit extravagant then,
what is the use of having the old
holiday?