Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1915-11-26
HOW THANKSGIVING ORIGINATED.

While you we're eating your Thanksgiving dinner yesterday did you happen to ponder as to how Thanksgiving Day originated? Of course we all know in general way tfat the custom of giving thanks ol a' certain day for blessings bestowed originated with the Pilgrims. but here is how the custom originated:
 Thanksgiving day is peculiarly all American, institution. It is not Dor. rowed, as are so many of our holidays from ancient traditions Of the older world or from ecclesiastical calendars While it has a. basis of religious belief la the protective grace of an over. ruling Providence, it has gained it's place of supremacy because it stands Tor the ideal of the co,rmunity out .,: which our great republic has grown. At'every step in the evolution, this is apparent as the controlling impulse
 The beginning of the real Thanks giving day came from the heart and mind acf William Bradford, the frs, governor Of Plymouth. Grateful for the rich harvest of 1921, after long period ef nrivations and semi-starva- fion, this good man proclaimed day of thanksgiving for December 13- old-style calendar-,cf that year Then did the royal bird of our Thanksgiving dinner tables mak, it's legitimate entrance into the theatre of action.
 Tho good governor, having fixed upon tho day of thanksgiving for the Pilgr'rs, sent four stout warriors with guns in search Of game. These eerly hunters returned at night stag gering under the weight cf wild turkeys suffici mt 10 meet the wants of Plymouth for week. To them were added the goodies concocted by tho thrifty housewives of the colony, and when the thirteenth of December dawn1d. all was in readiness for tho first real American Thanksgiving ever known.
 And that was not all. After Elder Brewster's sermon in the church "a matter of two or three hours-dinner followed and the scent of its good ns ss seems to have been waited into the depths of the forest, for in the midst of tho fast the Indian yell was beard and party of hundred friendly redskins under King Massoit appeared. bringing with them great launches of veniscn. With all this supply of food on hand, it is not very stranga to learn that the day Of Thanksgiving heightened into three the feast being varied with psalm singing and exhtrtations: with wa" dances by the Indians; with srilitary drill by Myles Standish's soldiery and with various sports and pastimes of the most sober English kind.
 This was tho first Thanksgiving and others followed more or less reg ularly down through the years. From Massachusetts the observance spread throughout New Engiand and later obtained national recognition. Wash ington proclaimed day of thanks- giving following the successful end ing of the war of independence. and Lincoln did the same after the battle Of Gettysburg. Thereafter ahe last Thursday in November has been designated from Washington, and a national holiday has become estab- lished.
 II is So recorded that on Thanks giving Day. l713. the governor of Connecticut and the kings commits sicners were just preparing to fatl upon the viands, when i was an- nounced in horror-stricksn tones that the bear prepared for the occasion hsd been "shot on ye Lords day" At that dismal news. the entire gather ing dsclinsd to touch slorsel of the roast bear. and it was decided that tie Indian who shot the animal