Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 277, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 November 1912 — Page 3

Our First Thanksgiving

4 A »\ HANKSGIVING day aa it JrZ- is now celebrated is a composite of the ancient Harvest festival, whose £5559 origins go back to the dim pre-historic beginr nings of civilization, and % of the solemn Puritan religious ceremony of (A thanksgiving. The joyous celebration of the gathering of the year’s harvest, a day or week of feasting, song, dance and revel, is found in all ages and among all peoples. Thanksgiving days are also common to all religions, past aud present, butthey were not regular or periodical events—occurring generally after some victory of war. “The Puritans and the Pilgrims brought with them from England both the Harvest festival and the Thanksgiving days, the latter being observed whenever the deeply religious mind of the Puritan saw in their prosperity or good fortune the direct intervention of Providence. The Puritan also stripped the ancient Harvest festival of much of its rude license that had grown up around the celebration in England, and gradually through the two centuries following the setlement of New England, there grew up the practice of combining the two events and making the Thankgiving annual. The religious element has been greatly subordinated as the years passed until at the present time it is to a majority of Americans only an incident that by many is observed in the breach. To the stern old Puritan of almost three centuries ago, the Thanksgiving day of 1912 would seem little less than sacrilege so far as the thinksgiving feature of it is concerned. But he would understand and appreciate the day’s feasting and revel as a part of the celebration of the Harvest festival. The difference is apparent in the records of the early settlement of America. The first thanksgiving service held in North America was observed with religious ceremonies conducted by an English minister in the year 1578 on the shores of Newfoundland. This clergyman, accompanied the expedition 'under Frobisher, who settled the first English colony in America. The records of this significant day have been preserved in the quaint rules and regulations of the expedition as follows: “In, primus: To banish swearing, dice and card playing, and filthy communication, and to serve God twice a day with the ordinary service of the Church of England. On Monday n*ornIng, May 27, 1578, aboard the Ayde, we received all, the communication by the minister of Gravesend, prepared as good Christians toward God, and resolute men for all fortunes; . . and Maister Wolf all made unto us a goodlye sermon, exhorting all especially to be thankful to God for His strange and marvelous deliverance in those dangerous places. 1 ' The second record of a thanksgiving service in America is that of the Popham colony which settled at Sagadahoc on the Maine coast in 1607. It consisted of prayer and sermon as in the first Instance. These were thanksgiving days pure and simple, and after the settlement of Plymouth many others of a similarly solemn religious nature occurred. The first Harvest festival held in America was upon December 13, 1621. It has been called, wrongly, the first autumnal thanksgiving held in America, but it was in reality the observance of the Harvest festival, with which the settlers had been acquainted in England. It was not a day set apart for religious worship and it is not likely that any religious service was held; on the contrary, it was the beginning of a whole week of festivity in celebration of the successful gwverlng of their first harvest in

their new home. Qaintly does “Mourt’s Relation” chronicle the event: 4 “Our harvest being gotten in, our Governour sent foure men on fowling, that so we might after a more speciall manner rejoyce together, after we had gathered the fruit of our labours; they foure in one day killed as much fowle, as with a little helpe beside, served the Company almost a weeke, at which time amongst other Recreations, we,.exercised our Armes, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and amongst the rest their greatest King Massasoyt, with some ninetie men, whom for three dayes we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed Deere, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed upon the Captaine, and others. And although it be not alwayes so plentiful, as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodnesse of Gdd, we are so farre from want, that we often wish you partakers of our plentie.” While the bill of fare of this first American celebration of'the Harvest festival has not been preserved the feast was no doubt a royal one even if some of the food and the methods of preparation would seem strange and outlandish to present day Americans. The provisions must have been bountiful for there were about 140 persons including the 90 of Massasoit’s company who were entertained for three days, and all had their share of supplies. From other sources we know that the foods of the Bea were abundant and that the Pilgrims had made the acquaintance (ft the oyster. Ducks they had in plenty of the choicest species and also geese. G&me, from grouse to venison, was brought in from the forest in abundance, and there was a “great store” of wild turkeys. Barley loaf and cakes of corn meal were highly

THANKSGIVING jBy AMELIA E. BARR. “Have you cut the wheat in the blowing fields, The barley, the oats, and the rye, The golden corn and the pearly, rice ? For the winter days are nigh.” “We have reaped them all from shore to shore, And the grain is safe on the threshing floor.” “Have you gathered the berries from the vine, And the fruit from the orchard trees? The dew and the scent from the roses and thyme, In the hive of the honey bees?” “The peach and the plum and the apple are ours, And the honeycomb from the scented flowers.” “The wealth of the snowy cotton field And the gift of the sugar cane, The savory herb and the nourishing root— There has nothing been given in vain.” "We have gathered the harvest from shore to shore, And the measure Ib full and brimming o’er.” Then lift up the head with a song! , And lift up the hand with a gift! To the ancient Giver of all The spirit in gratitude lift! For the Joy and the promise of spring. For the hay and the clover sweet, The barley, the rye, and the oats, The rice and the corn and the wheat. The cotton and sugar and fruit, The flowers and the fine honeycomb. The country, so fair and so free, Thefblessings and glory of home.

prized by the colonists and played their part in the feast. For vegetables the Pilgrims had much the same as they had in England, Gov. Bradford’s list naming beans, pease, parsnips, carrots, turnips, onions, melons, cucumbers, radishes, “skirets,” beets, coleworts, and cabbages, in addition to wheat, rye, barley and oats. Besides these they had the indigeous squash and pumpkin, and it may be taken for granted that a careful Pilgrim housewife had preserved during the summer by drying a quantity of strawberries, gooseberries and “raspis.” Take it altogether, the food basis of the first Harvest Thanksgiving day celebration in America was much the same as today. But if the good housewife of today was obliged to prepare the thanksgiving feast with the utensils and inconveniences of the kitchen of three centures ago she probably would throw up her hands in hopeless despair. The kitchen with its great glowing fireplace was the housewife’s domain and the general living room of the entire family. The walls and the floor were bare and the furniture meager and comfortless, while the kitchen furnishings were odd and strange. It was in this great cavernous chimney that the Pilgrim wife cpoked her thanksgiving dinner. Placed high up in the yawning chimney was the heavy backbar, or lug-hole, of green wood, afterwards displaced by the great iron crane. It was beyond reach of the flames, and from it hung a motley collection of hooks of various lengths and weights. They had many different names, such as pot-hooks, pot-hangles, pot-claws, pot-cleps, trammels, crooks, hakes, gallow-balke, words that would puzzle a housewife of today to define. From these were suspended the pots and kettles in which the food was cooked. At both sides of the fire-

place were large ovens in which baking and roasting were done. There were no tin utensils in thosp- ■ old days and brass kettles were worth sls a piece. The utensils were mostly of iron, wood, pewter or lattern ware. Glassware was practically unknown and bottles were made of leather. Wood played a great part in kitchen and tableware. Wooden trenchers from which two ate were used on the table for a century after the settlement at Plymouth. Wood was also used for pans ahd bread troughs and a host of other things displaced by tin in the modern kitchen. Of wood were made butter paddles, salt cellars, noggins, keelers, rundlets, and many kinds of drinking bowls which were known under the .names of mazers, whiskins, piggins, tankards and kannes, words many of which have disappeared from use. The dining table of these old days was the old Anglo-Saxon board placed on trestles, and the tablecloth was known as the “board cloth.” Thus we have the origin of the time-worn phrase: “Gather around the festive board.” And the furnishings of the “board” were simple, inventories of that period mentioning only cups, chafing dishes, chargers, threnchers, salt cellars, knives and spoons. The table fork was an innovation not yet in use; the fingers of the eater were used to thrust the food into the mouth. The Bpoons were of wood and pewter mostly. Silver spoons were rare. There was no chinaware on the tables of the early thanksgiving feasts; for no chinaware came over on the Mayflower That and the lack of glassware and silver would make a thanksgiving table of the seventeenth century look impossible to a housewife of today. Complete the picture by imagining large trenchers, square blocks of wood hollowed out by hand, placed around the “board” from each of which two people dig their food out with their fingers, and you have an idea of tha manner in which our ancestors celebrated Thanksgiving three centurier. ago. But If the kitchen and table furniture would appear strange to a housewife of today some of the dishes served would appear even stranger. How many housekeepers of today can cook “suppawn” and “samp” from corn meal? Or bake manchet, simmels, cracknels, jannacks, cocket bread, cheat loaves, or “wasel” bread? The colonists did not take kindly at first to the pumpkin, which in the pie form has become a distinctive feature of the modern thanksgiving feast. They called them “pomions” then, and this is awe-inspiring recipe from which the colonial housewife made “pomplon” pie: “Take a half pound of Pumpion and slice It, a handful of Tyme, a little Rosemary, Parsley and sweet Marjoram slipped off the stalks, then the cinnamon, nutmeg and pepper, and sit cloves, and beat them. Then mix them and beat them together and put in as much sugar as you see fit; then fry them like a froiz. After it is fried let it stand until it be cold. Take sliced apples, thinne rounde ways, and lay a row of the froize and a layer of apples with currents betwixt the layer while your pie is fitted, and put in a good deal of sueet butter before you close It. When the pie Is baked take six yolks of eggs, some white wine or Vergis and make a caudle of this, but not too thick. Cut up the lid and put It in. Stir them well together whilst the eggs and the pompions be not perceived and serve it up.” Thus saith the old cook book, and the modern housewife who faithfully follows this recipe can have at least a unique concoction, fearfully and wonderfully made, to grace her Thanksgiving table.

WIT and HUMOR

HER MEMORY FINALLY FAILED "' «-v. Sally Sweeny, Young Peasant, Resorted to Novel Manner of Recalling Message of Mistress. J. M. Callwell, in “Old Irish Life,” tells a story of a young peasant woman, Sally Sweeny, who ÜBed to do shopping for her family when they lived in the country. She could neither read nor write, yet she never made a mistake with any of the messages that were intrusted to her. Once, however, her memory did fail her. One of the ladies of the family had ordered her to bring back a yard of some color of satin, and the unaccustomed word slipped out of Sally’s recollection. But she did allow herself to be beaten without an effort to recall the word, so she went into the principal shop in Galway still thinking hard. “What is’t that ye call the divil,” she asked, “whin it’s not divil that ye say to him?” 1 “Is it satan you would be meaning?” asked the astonished draper. “The very wan,” said Sally delightedly. “An ye’ll give me a yard.”

A Happy Outlook.

In Detroit they tell of a young man who, although he made a great deal of money, was always in debt because of his extravagance. Not long ago, however, he wooed and won a young woman of great wealth, and immediately things took a roseate hue. During the honeymoon the bride ventured sto ask hubby whether the fact that she had money made any difference to him. “To be" sure it does, my love,” was the unexpected response. Whereupon wifey was a bit alarmed. “What difference?” she asked. “Why, darling,” continued the husband, “it is such comfort to know that if I should die you’d be provided for.” "And If I should die?” added the bride. “Then, darling,” was the reply, “I’d be provided for.” —Lipplncott’s.

Empty Plates.

A well-esteemed preacher in a New England compunity that was rather notorious fox' the stinginess of its inhabitants suddenly announced his resignation, and the deacons immediately sought him out for his reasons. • “My decision has , been brought about by the negligence of my congregation,” announced the divine. “Why, sir,” protested one of his hearers. “I can’t see how you can accuse us of negligence. The church is crowded every Sunday.” “Oh, yes,” agreed the preacher; “but what I accuse them of is contributory negligence.’’—Lippincott's.

Working the Change.

“Do you make a different speech every time you are called upon for an address?” asked the beautiful maiden. “Yes,” replied the political candidate, “I always shape my remarks to suit the audience I am- addressing.” “How in the world can you think of new things to say every day?” “Oh, I don’t get anything new. If I did, the people wouldn’t understand what I was trying to get at I merely blame my stories on Lincoln sometimes, while at other times I let my hearers understand that Mark Twain was the author of them.”

QUITE A DEAL.

“There’s a lot in that girl if it can only be brought oatj” “Yes; she has a quarter of a million In her name.”

A Sordid Affair.

“Dlgby, you are worrying about som - woman.” “Biffels. I am.” “I knew it! She is constantly in your thoughts.” “I can’t get her out of my mind.” “I wouldn’t dream of asking you to tell me her name.” “I hare nO objections to letting you know he:* name. It is Mrs. Pruner, my landlady. I owe her for six months board.”

SHOPPING IN THE USUAL WAY

While Wife Matched Some Ribbon# Husband took In Cricket GamS and ; Ride in Motor Car. ' Jack and Kitty have not been man* ried very long. A few days ago they! went together on a shopping expedt-i tion—to the land of frills and frocks., “Now, dearie, I shan’t be long,” said! Kitty, as they entered the emporium.) “You sit in this comfortable chair and! wait while I match these two sample* of ribbon.” Jack duly sat in the ful*nishing de* partment, and Kitty disappeared iw the nether regions. “Have I kept you long, my poor dear?” asked Kitty, airily, on her return. _ "Oh, I haven’t minded a bit!” cam* the reply. “I Just Jumped on a car and went to the gricket match; then Ii had some tea and went for a ride ini Fred’s new motor car. Did you match your ribbons?” “One of them, dearest But it's so provoking! I shall have to come again,, for they’re just closing the shop.”—-Tit-Bits.

She Needed Proof.

It was after ten o’clock at night and* the jury had Just been discharged. A stout Juryman came over to the 1 reporter’s table. He had a worried! look. “You’re an Evening News man,', aren’t you?” “Yes.” "Are you going to report this case?”! “Yes.” “For tomorrows paper?” “Yes.” “Would you mind putting in a linei Saying that the jury was out until teni o’clock?” “I'll mention It, if you wish.” “I certainly hope you will. Youj have no idea how much I want you to. You’re a young man and probably l you’re not married yet, but some day' you'll have a wife and then you'll un-t derstand.”

MEAN.

Dick —When Harry eloped with Mar Scads he rubbed it into her father. Tom—How? Dick —He telegraphed her old man that they had been married — and sent the message collect. —'

No Place for Prayer.

A Chicago! woman was arrested the other day charged with praying too loud. This recalls the story of the verger In Westminster Abbey who had a foreigner arrested for kneeling and praying in the main aisle of the bonding. “But,” said the Judge, -why do ybu object to the man's devotional actr The verger was amazed. “W-why, your honor,” he stuttered, “if I d-didn’t make an example of this man people would be praying all over the place!”

A Cruel Girl.

“Mr. Simpers, do you believe love makes the world go round?” “I cawn’t say really, Miss Kutely, but, deah me! It makes my poor head go round.” “Well, there may be a certain analogy between your head going round and the earth going round.” “Please be so kind as Jo—aw —explain.” “Some scientists say the interior of the earth is hollow.”

The Infant's Might.

“Saw a wonderful sight at a circus, last week.” "New sensation?” “Midget trainer made up like a j baby, put a big elephant through aty i kinds of tricks.” "Just a make-believe baby did that, you say? Come down to our house some night I will show you how a real ' baby can put all the members of a big family through their paces.”

What Makes Us Weary.

"What is the most depressing right on earth?" "That is a question hard to answer, hut I can tell you one of the most do- I pressing rights on earth.” “Go ahead.” 111 “It’s the .near-comedian in vaudeville who pretends that he is a policeman, seizes himself by the collar and says, '■ ‘Come along with me, now!”*

A Symptom.

Crawford —Do you think he’s hen- • pecked? Crabshaw —He never mentioned ft, : but I’ve noticed that the portraits over his mantelpiece are those of his wife’s folks. —Judge.

Sure Guess.

"Are those women sqjferfgettesr’ “Yes.” “What do you suppose thayY* talk- 5 ing about so earnestly? 1 * “It’s one of two things—millinery; or politics.”