Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1957-11-28

tury, might have dropped the
whole thing in favor Of one OF
her many other causes.
Causes of great pith and
moment, Sarah collected the
way some women treasure old
china or souvenir saltcellars.
During her 40 years as edi-
tor of Godey's Lady's Maya
zine, a sort of early American
Vogue, she strobe the jour-
nalistic ramparts in behalf of
women's colleges, old sailors
homes. free public Fairgrounds,
day nurseries and missionary
funds for heather lands"
Wanted More Holidays
But no cause gripped editor
Hale like the cause Of Thanks
giving.
I'VE have too few holidays"
she wrote in 1927. Thanks
giving like the Fourth of July
should be a national festival
observed by all our people {.
as an exponent of our Repub-
lican institutions"
That was the opening gun.
For the next 35 years, Sarah
pestered Presidents and Gov
errors and members of Con-
gress with all her editorial skill
and the mounting prestige Of
Godey's Magazine. Both were
considerable.
While firing off spirited. i'm
FASHIONED letters to Presidents
Fillmore, Pierce, Buchanan
and Lincoln, she kept the cause
alive on the home front with
tempting Thanksgiving menus,
like ham soaked in cider for
three weeks stuffed with sweet
potatoes and baked in maple
syrup" but always insisted
that roast turkey and pumpkin
pie were IAN indispensable part
Of a good and true Yankee
THANKSGIVING"
Before Sarah went to bat,
Thanksgiving was celebrated
in haphazard and sporadic
fashion.
The Pilgrims, of course, got
the ball rolling at Plymouth in
1921, the autumn after the
Mayflower landed when as
colonist Edward Winslow re-
ported: Our harvest being
gotten in, our governor sent
foure men on fowling so that
we might in a more special
manner rejoyce together"
Much to be Thankful for
Of the 102 passengers who
arrived on the Mayfower, only
SIS lived long enough to sit
down to the first Thanksgiving
dinner. The survivors had suf-
fered cold, hunger and disease,
had been terrified by Indians
"skulking about" and fright
ened nearly out of their wits
by the nightly roar of lyons"
and occasional wolves who sat
on their tayleS and grinned"
at them.
Still, they had much to be
thankful for. The Indians had
proved friendly. two even spoke
English, and the harvest had
been bountiful.
Although there were only
five adult women on hand to
do the cooking. the first
Thanksgiving feast actually
lasted three days and included
dishes that ranged from turkey,
deer. lobster and clans to
watercreSs salad, baked Indian
pudding and two varieties of
wine and Holland beer. Pump
kin pie didn't make the original
menu because the Pilgrims had
not yet learned what to do with
this out-sized vegetable.
A poor harvest Cancelled
Thanksgiving the following
year, but the Pilgrims resumed
the practice in 1923 and it
slowly spread to other COL
onies. Boston observed it's first
Thanksgiving in 1880, the rest
of the Massachusetts, Bay
colony in 1882, Connecticut in
1889 and Rhode Island in 1887.
Trouble Over Dates
The Dutch on Manhattan
Island held a Thanks Day" in
1914. but had trouble setting
an annual date because British
settlers in the Hamptons on
Long Island insisted that it be
held on the first Thursday after
the cattle were driven home
from the common pasture at
MOntauk.
Thursday seems to have been
a favorite day, but most of the
early Thanksgivings were held
at various seasons of the year,
usually to celebrate specific
events like the arrival of a
ship or new baby, a victory over
the Indians, who by now had
dropped of the guest list, and
the accession of William and
Mary to the throne.
Records preserved at the
Hague tell of a rather grisly
Thanksgiving in 1914, when the
New York Dutch marched to
Greenwich, Conn, shot or
burned alive 500 Indians. then
returned for a sumptuous holi-
day banquet.
British settlers were a bit
more squeamish. When VIC
tory over King Philips tribe
ordained a Thanksgiving cele-
bration in 1876. several puritan
elders expressed much doubt
and afterward seriously in
quired whether burning their
enemies alive could be consist
ent with humanity and the
benevolent principles of the
gospel"
Custom Well Established
BY the time the IS colonies
had organized into a shaky
wartime government under the
articles Of confederation. the