Putnam patriot., 1915-11-26
STORY OF THE DAY
Thanksgiving 0bservances Have Been General Only a Con-
 paratively Short Time.

THE day which is now called
 \ Thanksgiving day" and which is
 a formal observance by proclama- ton of presidents of the United States, usually followed by procIama- tions of governors Of nearly all of the states. has had it's poetry, it's rhyme which is not poetry. and prosaie liter ature which is better than either po- etry or the rhyme It was in it's ori- gin really a religious observance, the first prcelamation5 being promulgated by provincial governors of very re, igious New England Bradford having in history the credit of the first proc lamation
 Observance was in the beginning desutory, that is, not simultaneous. and it was not general and synthetic really. until 1S64. when the first pres idential proclamation was issued by Lincoln for q day O. thanksgiving be. cause of the apparent approaching end of the Civil war Naturally that day was not observed by the seeded states. but now 1t has come to be rec oguized in nearly all of the states, though in many of them il is not a statutory holiday It is not. and new CT was, a national holiday by legisla- tive enactment
 Just when the turkey flew in as one of the almost imperative aceompani- ments of the Thanksgiving table is not worth mentioning, as it is an incl x,~ft fpaa or pumpkin pie as a part of the des- sert of the timehonored dinner of the day, has for long years come to be so we'll recognized that 1t has been urged as the only logical bird for blazoning on the national escutcheon. the eagle having become mighty 'skase.' and having been much missed both in this and ether coun- tries
 In 1859, the morning of June 5. frost killed all that was killable throughout the entire North. Tn October of the previous year, as will be we'll remem- bered by elderly people who were children then. the Donat comet sud denly hlazed across the heavens and for months was one of the most beau tiful of spectacles. but. to the supsr- stitious. fear and direful When the nucleus was low in the northwest in the early evening the tail dominated all other celestial phenomena. flowing far rast the zenith, The presage Of a great Civil var to come was in the air and 10 these who were in the least spperst}tious the comet was sign Of calamity near at hand. The freeze of the following June clinchcd the premoniti0n. and in the fall Of the year of the frost there was quite general " observed day ot fasting and prayer.
 IL was this sort of recognition or the omnipotence Of pejty, solemn and pro found and utterly sincere. which ii the earlier days of the nation gave lounda- tion to the origin Of the days Of thanks giving for the good things of human existence. and. when they were not as good as they might have been, that they were 10 worse than they were
 Then the whole custom of setting apart day for giving thanks to the Almighty grew gradually into that present beautiful intermingling of re- ligious services. reunion of families and friends, feasting and general re- ioieiEg. even if the times were porten- tous of adsersity for some of the peo- ples of this and other parts of the world
 It Is peculiarly an American 'insti- tution. and our fat and frivolous fowl