Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1919-11-19
BLESSED WITH
Good FORTUNE
For That, Among the Numbers
of Other Mereies, the Ma
ton Should Be HumbIy
Grateful.

It was with large, round pumpkins
and bursting corneribs and heaped hay
mows that Thanksgiving day came to
be associated by most of those now
living. Or, reduced to even lower linz
its, turkey and cranberry sauce and
mince pie. We thanked a little and
ate much.
But there have been other kinds of
Thanksgivings in America. And there
is another kind today. We meet to
celebrate the gifts of God to the lucki-
est nation on the face of the earth
The record is long one. Let us, on
this day of all Thanksgiving days, for
get nothing Let US, in a mood of
gratitude and humbleness recount our
blessings and try to realize just how
lavish has been our good fortune and
just how deep is our obligation to re-
pay.
1t was in a time of starvation hap
PLY ended that the first Thanksgiving
was celebrated in Massachusetts, bay.
All those earliest sentiments of graft
tude for plenty we can feel anew to-
day as we have Vaguely felt them for
the past many years. We have land
that is rich beyond all the dreams of
those discoveries who sought the
riches of the East Such is America,
ours for the taking.
! But it is not upon these blessings
| that we dwell today. In fact, 1T was
precisely these material good things or
which we had become surfeited and
which we took too easily for granted
in the days before the war. Theirs Is
never the power to hold a nation fifty
humble or keen for the labor OF living
1t is rather to the Thanksgiving days
of the Revolutionary war, of the civil
war, that we turn with understanding
now. The Continental congress or
dained a number. So did Gen. George
Washington. So did President Lincoln,
i'm 1864. Here, in these events that
| made our nation and saved it, stands
the substance of old gratitudes with
which our hearts of today can feel
| akin. For Washington himself, for all
the great hearts and minds that fought
the war of the Revolution, and having
fought Ii transformed it's inchoate
ideals into a document and union
of surprising life and vigor, we can
give thanks. For Lincoln and all the
gallantry of arms that preserved Amer
fca we can give thanks. For our
share in the great war and for the
deeds of our allies we can give thanks
1t is all one record of bounty. BY
comparison, our material harvests seem
small indeed. The founding of America
the building of America, its salvation
through the years, its high post toda,
was there ever such continuous
record of luck, of the granting of grea
men, of the uprising Of fine emotions
of the wisdom of great minds to con
struct and the strength of great heart:
to uphold A thousand chances nigh
have destroyed. The least delay here
the smallest blunder there, would have
subtracted America from the world
or, brought us to the year 1919 river
or disgraced-
As it is, we know and see that VIZ
| have been blessed beyond all hope ant
belief. For q moment we may bt
i tempted to be overproud and confident
: But not for long. We cannot but bow
our heads and be very thankful and, L
= we are wise of head and sound Of
heart, dedicate ourselves with new
3 resolve to the mighty tasks which 81
2 much good fortune lays upon u.s.
Z Brooklyn Daily Eagle.