Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1915-11-19
old AS THE RACE STORY OF THE DAY
Thanksgiving 0bservances Have
Been General Only a Com
parativeIy Short Time.

THE day which is now called
4 Thanksgiving day. and which is
a formal observance by proclama-
ton of presidents of the United
States, usually followed by proclama-
tons of governors of nearly all OF the
states, has had it's poetry, its rhyme
which is not poetry, and prosaic liter
ature which is better than either po-
etry or the rhyme. II was in it's orr
gin really religious observance, the
first proclamations being promulgated
by provincial governors of very re-
ligious New England, Bradford having
in history the credit of the first proc
lamation.
Observance was in the beginning
desultory, that is, not simultaneous;
and it was not general and synthetic,
really, until 1864, when the first pres
idential proclamation was issued by
Lincoln for day of thanksgiving be-
cause of the apparent approaching
end of the Civil war. Naturally that
day was not observed by the seeded
states, but now it has come to be rec
ognized in nearly all of the states,
though in many of them it is not
statutory holiday. It Is not, and rev
err was, a national holiday by legisla-
tive enactment.
Just when the turkey flew IL. as one
of the almost imperative acGompanl-
ments of the Thanksgiving table is
not worth mentioning, as it is an Incl
dent so vague. That fowl, with mince
or pumpkin pie as part of the des-
sert of the time-honored dinner Of the
day, has for long years come to be
so we'll recognized that it 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 other coun-
tries.
In 1859, the morning Of June 5, frost
killed all that was killable throughout
the entire North. In October of the
previous year, as will be well remem-
bered by elderly people who were
| children then, the Donati comet sud-
denly blazed across the heavens, and
| for months was one of the most beau.
| tiful of spectacles, but, to the super
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 past the zenith. The presage of a
great Civil war to come was in the
air and to those who were in the least
| superstitious the comet was sign of
calamity near at hand. The freeze
of the following June clinched the
premonition, and in the fall of the year
Of the frost there was quite general
ly observed day of fasting and prayer.
1t was this sort of recognition of the
| omnipotence of Deity, solemn and pro-
| found and utterly sincere, which in the
| earlier days of the nation gave founda-
| 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 no worse than they were.
Then the whole custom Of setting
| apart a 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-
| joicing, even if the times were porten-
tous of adversely for some of the peo-
| plies of this and other parts of the
| world.
1t is peculiarly an American "insti-
| tution,' and our fat and frivolous fowl
| of paradise is it's fetish. 1t is in all
it's forms and colors. wild or domestic,
essentially an American bird, our
| Thanksgiving dinner bird, yesterday
and today and forever, beloved by all
| ages and races, and for at least that
one day putting the Roman nose of
/ the eagle out of joint.