French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1916-1919, 1916-11-30
"HIS is the week of Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving day is an Ameri-
can custom started by the Pill

few can realize who are reared t1
the wealth and luxury of the land to
day.
The season had been a hard one
Many had died and the prospect o1
starvation during the cold winter with
it's ice and snow doomed large. So
when the harvest yielded enough to
keep them until another season would
produce the necessities of life, they
met that last Thursday in November
in year 1921, and gave thanks to their
God, who had Remembered them.
Thankfulness is usually in inverse
ratio to the value of the thing for
which we give thanks. This is no dis
arrangement of the things we are CRATE
full for; but humanity does not think
of thanks until it has felt the terrOrs
of distress.
The rich who live in luxury and ease
do not thank with their hearts. Their
thanks are but formal expressions of
meaningless words. How can words
mean anything when one has not felt
the things which make for thankful
ness?
But the pOverty-stricken who have
faced starvation pour out thanks from
their humble hearts for the things
that have saved their lives.
Those who live in gorgeous homes
with comfortable freplaces do not
think Of thanks. But those who live
in the little hovel with big cracks in
the walls and crevices about the doors
and windows and without fuel, give
thanks for the comfort Of fire.
We Go not prize health until we have
lost it, and we do not appreciate life
until we have faced the danger of hav-
ing to give it up.
That Which We have we are likely &c
accept as a matter Of course; but be
deprived Of it and the sudden realiza-
Lt04 0I us Talue Jars our souls like an
earthquake.
E We are thankful in the full sense of
the word for things necessary to life
and happiness only when WI have had
to do without them.
We are not thankful for that TO
which we are accustomed and accept
thoughtlessly. But when we are de-
prived of the necessities of life and
face the hardships, including death.
that come as a result, we are thankful
with all our heart.
America has more to be thankful for
yearly, than any other nation in the
world; but our thanks are tempered
by the gravity of the sorrow of u
neighbors.
The year has not been n of great
happiness, peace and prosperity. 1t is
q year of travail for humanity-the
travail of a people being born again.
But out Of it will come a disciplined
and sober people; a people who will
know the realities of life better.
We will learn that life is a serious
matter, and no silly, simpering affair.
The war has brought US again to an
understanding of the terrible earnest
ness of the thing we call life.
The earth is in process, and we still
have earthquakes and volcanic erup-
tons. r.
Humanity, too, is in process, and
strife and sorrow and death will CON
tinue to be it's lot. We must face life
resolUtely and meet destiny undis-
mayed.
This year we will. not be thankful
so much for the blessings we Have re
ceived. for the things that have been
given to u3-fOr: being p~anrDere6 by 9
prodigal Pr2yidence-aDG being re.
lieyed Of u BURDENS as we will be
thankful for the strength to- bear them
II the shrine Of our hearts our deep,
est prayer is not that we shall be re
Iieved of our burdens; but that we
shall be given the strength to beau
them, for we are great in the degree
and the manner in which we face oul
tasks and perform them. The Great
Souls are those that have suffered
and endured.
Our Thanksgiving this year will b.
no perfunctory, ~infan5ile prattle be
cause Of safety.
This is a year Of reckoning will
fate; Of being thankful if we, our
selves, have not fallen in the wreck
age. We are thankful not for wha
has happened; but for what has no
happened.
Life is not a trivial pastime. It i
deadly earnest. 1t is the course tina
destiny takes, and let US be thankful
not for less of life, but for more of il
and the courage, the fortitude, tn
strength, and the persistence to NEE
Its difficulties and continue it's coprs
undaunted by disaster and unspoile
by success.
We r thankful for Character, nd