Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1918-11-27

At the meeting OF village improve
ment society held the evening" OF Novem-
Der 4, the following instructive and en-
tertainiag paper was prepared and read
| by the president. a helpful VI. b. mem
Der, who was present, sent copy OF 1t 10
Aunt Madge with the suggestion that II
the oonseat OF the writer could be eb-
tanned, the article would be excellent for
our Thanksgiving column. After much
persuasion, .'E. NJ. T." consented to its
use in our column, and you will all join
with me in thanks that We have 1t to read:
the writer has been pronounced an Nj. b.
life member. She IS q soldiers mot her,
and would have mentioned the great
opportunity for special Thanksgiving this
year, il the paper had not been written
before the glad news OF victory for our
banners had been proclaimed.
raK OBSERVANCE OF THANKSGIVING.
"'ris in the thriftful autumn days,
When earth is overdone,
And forest trees have caught the blaze
Thrown at them from the sun,
When summer is mislaid and lost
AmoL x tnS leaHtts DEAD.
And winter, in white words of frost.
Has teiegrsphed ahead.
'Tis then good pr 'sperpus folks display
A reverential cheer,
And thank their Maker one whole day
For all the previous year
The Pilgrims landed at Plymouth. De-
cember n, 1920. During their riFst Iong.
hard winter, finy-ope II he one hundred
died, but the remai nder. filled with good
courage and faith in God, began III the
spring OF 1921 to plant their fields, aud by
the end OF the summer twenty-six acres
had been cleared, and a plentiful harvest
gathered in. indian corn was raised in
abundance, and there WAS a fairly good
crop OF barley and some other grains.
When the crops had been harvested and
a goodly supply OF fuel ana provisions
Land in for winter, Governor Bradford sp-
pointed day for public praise, prayer
ana thanksgiving Ia God for his great
goodness. One OF our poets expresses it
thus:
"Nnd now. said the Governor, gazing abroad
on the piled up store
or the sheaves thPt dotted the ciearings and
covered the meadows o'er,
It's meet that render praises because Of
this yield Il grain;
It's meet that the God of the harvest be
thanked for His sun and rim.
And, theref re, !, William Bradford <by the
grace Of the Lord to day
And the franchise of tails good peopl Gov
eruor of plymouth, say,
Through virtue of vested power We shall
gather with one acc d,
Aud hold, in the mouth of November, Thanks
giving unto the Lord
Four men were sent out into the forests
for game, and in two days about twenty
deer were killed and also great numbers
of wild .urkeys, ducks anu pheasants.
The deer aud turkeys we're roasted over
big fires built in the open sir. Besides
these, there was quantity OF fish, clans,
and HOLSTERS, uul.I one writer tells US,
lone was wesried by the sight of so much
food" There were corn and barley bres d
i'll abundance and numberless baked
pumpkins, and pumpkin pies.
This, no doubt, WAS the beginning OF
the time honored custom of serving
pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving. There is
always a honey feeling associated with
pumpkin pies, and for some people moth
ing can fill their place as a Thanksgiving
dessert.
Whittier expresses this thought IN his
poem entitled 1.-The Pumpkin" one verse
of wi ich reads thus:
"Ah! on Thanksgiving day, when from east
aud from west.
From north aud from south come the pilgrim
and guest,
When the gray haired New Highlander sees
round his board
The old broken links Of affection restored,
when the care weAried man seeks his mother
once more,
And the worn matron smiles where the girl
smiled before,
What moistens the lip AID what brig htens
! the eye:
What calls back the past like the rich Pump
kin Pi.?''
On the day before the one appointed by
Governor Bradford, Massasoit the Indian
chief, with about hundred of his men,
came to Plymouth. They brought several
deer nth them and remained TO the
feast, which instead of lasting one DAY, a.
the Governor intended, was continued
throughout three days.
We are told that IN the earlier years OF
the colonies, Thanksgiving day was not
celebrated every year, but at various IN
tervals, sometimes four or five years elsps-
ing. 1t was at first confined to the New
England colonies, and later was intro
dneeo in several OF the Middle States
and gradually throughout the Union, snc
was made national institution in 1853
Al this time, when the fortunes OF the
Civil war were in favor OF the Union