Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 282, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 November 1910 — Decorative Conceits and Favors For the Thanksgiving Festivities [ARTICLE]

Decorative Conceits and Favors For the Thanksgiving Festivities

The pious, hard-driven, worn-out, but thankful Puritans who sat down at their tables one November, a few centuries ago, and made the first Thanksgiving Day, never knew to what lengths they were to drive the ingenuity of their poor descendants. But it wasn’t their fault after all, that the preparer of the Thanksgiving feast today has to attend just as much to the turkey’s surroundings as to the turkey Itself. It was good enough for them to have, a well-stocked larder from which could come the turkey, the celery, the pumpkin pie, the cranberries and all the other goodies which history puts down to their credit. Even the comparatively recent New Englanders were content with all these as long as they Ipoked tempting and tasted good. But today, even the important fowl Itself is hardly more Important than the ribbons,-tie candles, the favors, the adornments of all kinds, which must appear on the Thanksgiving table. “Don’t bother about having too much to eat," an up-to-date daughter was heard to say to her New England mother the other day. “I want plenty of room for the ribbons and the candy boxes.” It’s the same way with other daughters of an esthetic turn of mind, rather than a practical one, and it looks as if their ambitions to "make things look pretty” may be realized this year, for there is a goodly array of Thanksgiving favors and table decorations of all kinds. / ' Of course the turkey reigns supreme, even if it is in paper, and is seen in all sizes, all kinds, roasted to a beautiful dark brown as the cookbook says, or standing Important and majestic with Its big fan-shaped feather tall high In the air. In most cases the favor turkey Is meant for candy, but certain new china turkeys are mustard cups. The pumpkin Is next in importance and Is seen In many of the novelties. There are large paper pumpkins for centerpieces and all \ sorts of small

ones in papier mache or tissue paper which are candy boxes. Fruits and vegetables of all kinds seem td be suggestive of the season of feasting, and many good imitations are found among the candy box collections. Goblinesque little men are made of paper fruits and fixed up to have a very grotesque appearance, and funny little figures are made, of peanuts, and mounted on cards. Nuts are tied up in ribbons and are found to be prizepackages for the receiver, for In them are neatly packed little stick-pins, whistles, etc., all carefully concealed within the paper shells. The place cards allow of a great many new designs, and an especially new feature among these is some small mirrors. The chrysanthemum is the leading flower among the paper bowers; and those in yellow or orange seem to be the most desired shades. Other Imitations which are especially “life-like” are the painted piece of the pumpkin pie, the tin of Boston baked beans, the plum pudding and the ear of corn.