The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-11-28
A DAY OF DINNERS
Real Thanksgiving Around the
Firesides in Topeka Today.
Flu Ban Calls OF All Municipal
Celebrations.
MANY FAMILY REUNIONS HERE
Scores of Soldiers Have Been
Sent Home From Camp.
A Day of Real Relaxation After
Strain of the War.

With a part of the American army
flying to the home shores on the
wings of victory and another part
making its steady way toward Berlin
with kings resigning in Europe every
day; with the release of millions of
sufferers from peril and from starva-
ton, the great national holiday of
Thanksgiving, which originated in
America and is peculiar to this nation,
is being celebrated today as never be-
fore in its history. Former celebra-
tions have been louder. more marked
by festivity, and the consumption of
turkey. cranberries and pumpkin pie
may at times have been greater, but
never before has the spirit of thank
fulness and sincere remembrance for
past blessings been Ceeper or more
widely recognized in all the communi-
ties of the country.
In colonial days. when a New Eng
land pilgrim father Jared forth and
brought home wild fowl for dinner.
and instituted a feast of Thanksgiving
for a good harvest after a long stretch
of lean years. and the hard pull up
the hillside road, that band of Strang-
ers on a stern and rOck-bound coast"
could not have dreamed that the ray
they set aside as a special time of
thankfulness would one day unite in
one celebration, thanksgiving for the
bountiful prosperity of the greatest
nation on earth, and the coming of
world peace and the trium~l of OWL
iZatiOn.
Flu Closed Celebration.
Topekans had arranged to remem-
ber the day with municipal gathering
at the city auditorium, but the meet
ing had to be abandoned on account
of the new closing order. Likewise,
the ElkS memorial service was given
up. However. there is nothing to pre-
vent the family and fireside celebra-
ton of the festival. The annual foot
ball feast at Washburn also had to be
abandoned on account of the weather
America has more money in hand
than ever before in her history. To-
pekans are spending as freely this year
of their abundant means as they ever
did for Thanksgiving dinners. Never
before, according to commission men,
were so many turkeys sold in this city
and along with the turkeys are the
"trimnins," making for the equatorial
expansion of the pater familias, even
tho his pockets do sag for a while
I after the price of the feast has been
extracted.
With the close Of a year of grea,
| anxiety, sacrifice and loss of friends
and money, the community is just be-
| ginning to feel the relaxation from
the nervous strain permitted by the
| signing of the armistice. A grea1
many family reunions, cherished as
| they never We're before, are taking
| place today. Many families who have
| sons still in other lands, are offering
| hospitality to soldiers in nearby train
ing camps. that the family may not
| find the vacant chairs nor miss so sad
| ly the accustomed faces.
Added to the sense of exuberant
good will and self satisfaction this
Thanksgiving, is the knowledge that
America. the Bountiful, is feeding the
world at her board, and is clothing
| the world from her vast resources
The appetite is keener and the smile
| above the plate of turkey and dress
| ing is wider because the reveler knows
that the monster of hunger no longer
holds a continent in it's grip.
| The 'tumu1t and shouting" for vic
| tory and peace came on November Z
and again on November IL, when the
nation worked off its surplus energies
| and emotions in noise, but the essence
of real thankfulness remained to ex-
press itself today in a more devout
song of THANKSGIVING