Year: 1875

The Thanksgiving Season An Two


CIties-ParIs and New York.


The year which came in so angrily and lin
gered so long amid the rain and the frost and
the snow seems to welcome winter in re-
lenting mood. Society is in period OF
change. We are scarcely through with the
races and the election, and are awaiting
Thanksgiving. The skies are clear in
all directions. We have no scandals, no
political campaigns, no exciting topics. To
be sure there is the Turkish question, about
which so many are talking, but what Chris
tian soul will give thought to the Turks,
especially with the Thanksgiving gobbler fat
tening in the barnyard and everybody
coming home for the years reunion Then
we had the Cuban furry, but even the Wash
ington Sphinx is not above the soothing in
fuence of the season, and his furry has died
away in roar of laughter at his ''diplo-
macy" Let the great Ulysses mediate over
this as he carves his Thanksgiving turkey
and duly serves out the portions to his happy
home circle Our very cable, so serious
and sententious in its utterances with only
ships and cotton sales and quarrels between
the Pope and Bismarck, as general thing,
now breaks from its reserve and speaks of
the gayety of Paris and how the bright world
beyond the seas goes on and on. Even this
contains thought which is not without its
instructive features in this time of general
festivity. In our enjoyments we are cosmo-
politan. The people of New York feel as
much interest in the first Paris night of
comedy by Sardou or Dumas as in the
first night Of Jefferson or Booth. And after
all does not the cable do better office in the
bright narrative which we printed yesterday
morning all the way from Paris than in the or
dinary narratives about kings and princes and
fighting men? Do we not care more about a
comedy than battle or the reception of the
Prince of Wales Are we not more interested
in events like those which we told yesterday
from France than in the solemn absurdities
and insincerities which compose the greater
part of what the world calls ''news?" And is
the time not coming rapidly when even here
in New York we shall have to print our daily
letter from Paris and London as we do now
from Washington ? Alas! for the good old
days when stage coach was an 'institu-
tion" and when eloquent correspondents
could have time to write their brilliant dis
QUESTIONS upon everything and nothing
VIII en- Sainte-Beuve and Jules Janin could
take week for their genius to incubate, and
when the special correspondent was power
4lo he c,Naoia1 hocf with
the stages and the Conestoga wagons. His
eloquence, his rhetoric, his plans for reform
ing the universe cost too much a word, and
we who must deal with the Immediate
whether in time or space can only give the
actual news with eloquent brevity, feeling
all the same that brevity, especially in
country where advertisements are worth
forty cents line, is the highest form Of
eloquence


New York will not fail to sympathize with
the bright moods Of the great city beyond
the sea, for we are now on the eve of the fes-
tival which becomes more and more an event
in our calendar. This is our time of Thanks
giving, the festival Of home. How many
hearts that 60 forth to worship from day to
day will do so with renewed fervor, thinking
Of the season and the solemn and gracious
memories which surround it, memories of
home and friends and youthful associations,
when life seemed to be always morning and
the days an everlasting springl Let US trust
that this feeling will be with all Of US when
we celebrate the home festival, when we
gather in person, or in spirit, about the family
hearthstone, when we consecrate our
thoughts to anticipations Of that still
brighter home, which, after all, should be
the one hope that embodies all hopes and
the ever present thought in all hearts during
this Thanksgiving season.