The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1914-11-26
rnIA,,INkIsclvlNe.

VI
(. s58This is the day the people Of tho
Nation return thanks to the Giver OF
all good and perfect gifts and we
know that there is not living per-
son who has not something TO DO
thankful for no matter what his ad'
sSersities have been during the past
/ year. There are those who are cursed
with poverty but they have a charita'
& Die people to be thankful for; there
/ are those who suffer bodily Affections
gEuts they have life. hope and the kind
ness3of friends to be thankful fof'
there are those who have met with
i business reverses hut they have an
ether opportunity to be thankful for,
and there arc those whose homes have
been broken by the death angle. where
\ ali seemingly is enshrouded In gloom
and sorrow but there is the sweet con-
ISOLATION that there Is better home
for those who have gone. No matter
what condition confronts US we should
be thankful that It is no worse than
fits.
AS nation we have much to bH
thankful for The crops have been
bountifil and there has been no cpl
:demIc OF disease nor other great cal
3amttyF befallen the people. And now
while nearly all OF Europe Is engaged
In war, and while hundreds of thou
sands OF the inhabitants of the war
stricken countries arc being slaugh'
tered and reduced to abject poverty
and suffering, we can certainly be
more than usually thankful that We
are enjoying peace in this country.
Thanksgiving day has been OBJ
aseryedsin this country to more or less
extent since 1921 when Governor Brad
ford, ]; of Plymouth Colony. sent his
neighbors out to shoot wild fowl that
the settlers might rejoice together
over the gathering OF the first harvest
of the new world. For many years
after this first Thanksgiving the au-
tumnal feast was merely an occasion
al festival.
Thanksgiving Day had it's origin in
the custom. OF Kings Of England In the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
TO proclaim day OF national thanks.
giving for some great victory or some
other blessing or heaven.
I The first American Thanksgiving
Day was July 20. 1775. The second
was Friday, May II. 1776. The third
was December II, also in 17TG, which
thus had two Thanksgivings. Wash
inEton issued his first Thanksgiving
proclamation to his army, from Valley
Forge, III 1877. In those days the date
vas prescribed by a committee Of the
Continental Congress In IT'S tho
3Chaplains of Congress drew up the
proclamation.
ysaa There we're no national ThanksGiv.
ing Days from the presidency of Mad
tson to that of Lincoln. but Thanks
giving Day had been MI institution III
New England since the middle OF tho
eseventeenth century and quite eclipsed
1 Christmas. Gov. Jay tried unsuccess'
fully to establish 1t In New York, and
Gov Clinton succeeded. In the West
sern states that were settled by New
Englanders the day became an annual
feast.
1T was through the persistent efforts
sofs Mrs Sarah Josepha Hale. New
Hampshire widow living in Phtladel.
Ephia and editing the Ladies' Maya
zine and Godey's Lady's Book, that
the day became national, If not in law
lat least in practice. For twenty years
iishe carried on the agitation; Presi'
dent Lincoln yielded to her and set
the sprecedent OF proclaiming the last