Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 280, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 November 1914 — Page 3

Thanksgiving Day One Hundred Years Ago

M CENTURY ago, the celebration of Thanks\jY\ giving day was confined to New England. Even had it been the national holiday it is today, the struggling young republic of the United Shat.es in-the

year of grace 1814 wotUd have feasted on turkey and trimmings without enthusiastic thanks, for the nation was In the gloomy midst of the second war with Great Britain and it had mighty little to be thankful for. The capital had been captured *by the invaders and the* public buildings at Washington had been put to the torch. While the little American navy had won wonderful victories against great odds and written a chapter in history that makes our blood thrill with admiration, yet Great Britain, with its big fleets, was still mistress of the seas and American commerce ceased to exist. On land the American army, rent with dissentions and generated by political incompetents, made a record of humiliating defeats, the sting of which was to be removed in 1815 by the signal victory of Jackson and his backwoodsmen over the tried veterans of Pakenham at New Orleans. Political animosities flamed at a white heat unknown today. Sectional feeling was high and' bitter. The national treasury was practically empty. Grass grew in the streets of the cities and shipping rotted at the wharves. Busi- 1 ness and industry were paralyzed and the nation tottered on the verge of bankruptcy. The collapse of the young republic with its five or six million people scattered over an immense territory, was freely predicted, now that England’s hands were loosed by the fall of Napoleon. Only in New England in 1814 was Thanksgiving day observed, and even In the ancient birthplace of the holiday it is safe to say that the celebration was far from being the joyous feast of the past For New England as a whole had a big, bitter grouch and didn’t care who knew it. The New England states were fiercely hostile to the war and had been hardest hit by its effects. Its commerce, the chief source of its wealth, had been completely destroyed by Jefferson’s embargo law and the blockade of its ports by the British fleet. Its militia were not permitted to serve beyond the borders of New England, and the leaders and a great part of the populace openly and warmly advocated secession from tlie Union either as an Independent republic or as an English province or colony. Under such circumstances, Thanksgiving in New England in 1814 took a somber and more religious cast while the Thanksgiving sermons, once a significant feature of the day, were shadowed by gloom and saturated with pessimism. It was under conditions as inauspicious as these that the homegathering feast of old New England was ushered in. How profound the change wrought by a century in the life of the Republic! Thanksgiving day, this year, will be observed by almost if not quite a hundred million people, the citizens of a great and prosperous nation, the richest in the world and the most powerful ever conceived in the loins of time. A century ago, the day was observed by not quite a million and half New Englanders

Bell Threatened Destruction

An alarming occurrence took place ■when the congregation at St. William’s church, Rochdale road, Manchester (Eng.) were assembling recently for service. During the ringing of the bell, which is said to weigh about fifteen hundredweight, a dull, heavy thud was heard in the vicinity of the belfry. An examination showed that the bell, the tone of which had been suddenly hushed, had broken

alone amid gloom, uncertainty, apprehension and poverty following the ravages of war. A century ago, the Federal Union was an experiment in government that, in the minds of many, was foredoomed to failure. There was no nation 7 ; rather a loose confederation of hostile sections and jealous states. It was out of the struggles and sufferings of this very war that the American nation was born. Today, 100,000,000 Americans, in identity of political and social ideals, language and institutions, present a picture of the most thoroughly nationalized country of which history has record. But in a hundred other ways did the Thanksgiving of 1814 differ from the one to be celebrated this year. Of course there were the fundamental essentials of turkey, pumpkin pie and cranberry sauce; there were the homegathering of relatives and the reunion of the family around the old hearthstone. But beyond that all has changed with the passage of the fleeting years. Could a boy or a girl o's today, by some of time, be transported back to one of those old fashioned Thanksgiving day of a century ago, he or she would think they were being robbed of their holiday rights. Even the wealthiest people of those old days could not have on their Thanksgiving table many of the things found today on the tables of the humblest citizen. In fact, there was a great poverty of vegetable variety on the Thanksgiving table a century ago. No asparagus, no sweet potatoes, no string beans, no corn, no green peas, and so on down the attractive list that constitutes the appetizing trimmings of the Thanksgiving table of today. The tin can era had not yet dawned, and its possibilities of; smashing seasonable monotony were undreamed of even by epicures. And there was the same poverty in Thanksgiving fruit The list practically started and ended with apples—-and-Of a kind that most farmers now feed only to their hogs or leave to rot on the ground. Grapefruit was a word not yet invented; oranges would have been worth their weight in gold; and the banana was to await many years for its .introduction to the American housewife. Nor would it have been possible for the voracious youngster of that day to gorge himself with luscious grapes and delicate raisins. Pineapple was another unknown word. Of course there were njits, but only of native varieties. Almonds, Brazil nuts, pecans and the English walnuts, without which no Thanksgiving table of today would be considered complete, were then unknown luxuries. The farmer of that day was a slave of the season and the produce of his toll was governed strictly by the calendar.- There were no hothouses to force fruit and vegetables out of season. The good people of those days would have considered it almost sacrilege, an attempt to improve on the divine plan of things. A request for strawberries or cucumbers at Thanksgiving would be equivalent to an application for admission to an asylum for the Insane. But the difference does not end with a comparison of the eatables of the feast a century ago and today. It is even more startling when we com-

away from its bearings, and was resting upon a wooden beam, which prevented it crashing through the roof into the church. The church was quickly cleared, and the fire brigade was summoned, with a view of restoring the bell to its fastenings, and so remove the threatening danger. With the aid of the fire escape they reached the belfry, but were unable to render the services sorght, noth withstanding

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN. RENSSELAER. IND.

pare the task of preparation now . and then. The good housewife of 1914, if called upon to get up a Thanksgiving feast with the utensils and under the kitchen conditions of 1814, would throw up her hands in despair, and if the task was put up to the average servant of today would jump her job in an instant The hardworking housewife of a century ago, had neither range nor cook stove. They had not yet been invented. Her turkey and her pies were baked in the great fireplace, and her fuel was wood, for coal was not yet used. If relatives were to be invited to Thanksgiving homegatherings in those old days, the invitations would have to be dispatched weeks and perhaps months in advance -of the event, for it required the best part of a week for a letter to travel from Boston to New York, as long a time, in fact, as it now takes to cross the continent. Were it addressed to Chicago, a mere trading post at that time, it would be sent the previous July. And the invitation itself would be written with a quill' and blotted with sand, ijor in thqgie days there were no steel pens, no typewriters, no blotters, no gummed envelopes, no postage stamps. And the son or daughter in the city who wished to return to the old homestead for Thanksgiving in 1814 faced an ordeal before which most of us today would quail. For traveling a century ago .was a hazard and a peril. The railroad was at that time undreamed of, and all inland travel was by river or road. If a man on his way to a Thanksgiving feast at the old homestead in the country was thrown from his horse in the road, breaking a leg or arm, his case was one to be pitied. For most of the doctors of those days were ignorant and careless. If amputation was necessary, the victim was generally held down by main strength while saw and knife cut their agonizing way through the tortured flesh and bone. For 1814 was before the days of anesthetics. Ether, chloroform, cocaine and morphine were as yet unknown, and as for antiseptics, the protection against germ infection, of the wound, that was to wait for more than fifty years. There was no quinine, no strychnine, no tincture of iron, no carbolic acid —in fact, there were scarcely any of the common and familiar drugs of today! There was no pepsin for that Thanksgiving indigestion, and a cold or a toothache was a thing to be dreaded.

In literally millions of homes on Thursday, the Thanksgiving dinner will be preliminary to a visit to a football game or a theater, things impossible to the sturdy stock of 1814. In fact, the religious feast of our grandsires has become to a-large and, growing extent a part of a sporting and amusement holiday in,which real Thanksgiving, in the sense of the origin of the day, is conspicuous J>y its Absence. Nevertheless, when a person stops to think about it, comparing the material comforts of today with those of a century ago, considering the marvelous growth of the republic in wealth and prosperity, the wonderful advancement of education, science and knowledge—there are many profound reasons why this annual feast of ours should be preceded by a moment, at least, of solemn and reverent thankfulness.

that the merit spent considerable time on the task scaling the steep roof and adopting other methods of reaching the bell.

Inspiration.

Half the difficulty of fighting any severe battle or accomplishing any hard task vanishes when a man feels that he has comrades at his side fighting in the same cause, or that the eyes of those he loves are upon him, and their hearts praying for his vlo> tory.-O. X.Pjjjtjl

MADE PREY OF TIGERS

RAILROAD EMPLOYES THE VICTIMS of Man-eaters. Elaborate Precaution* Necessary In Nepal to Secure the Safety of Workers Who Dwell In District* That Are Isolated. When, for the first time, the long, straight, eteel ribbon of rail penetrated the jungle of Nepal, an independent kingdom situated at the foot of the Himalayas, the explosions of dynamite cartridges used by the engineers caused the total disappearance of the hordes of man-eating tigers which had hitherto rendered the district absolutely uninhabitable. During the first two years of the railroad construction pot a single coolie of the 6,000 employed in the work fell a victim to tigers, and hunters were convinced that there was not a man-eater within a radius of 150 miles.

During the third year 15 workmen disappeared. The engineers surmised that they had been carried off at night by tigers, but were careful not to voice their suspicion, for fear of causing a panic among the coolies. The noise of the dynamite apparently no longer scared -4he man-eaters. ‘ At last the line was opened, and during the first year everything went smoothly; the whistling of the locomotives filled the tigers with a wholesome fear!

In September, 1899, a train was derailed some miles from Bankipore because the pointsman was not at his post. Attacked in the signal-box by a tiger,'the unfortunate man had been carried off alive into the jungle, and the peasants heard the poor wretch’s cries fade away in the distance. The whistling was no longer terrifying to the tigers. During the following month four workmen were devoured on the line and five gatekeepers met the same fate. Then came the turn of*a stationmaster. For two hours-he and his family had to defend themselves against a tiger and his mate. The unfortunate Hindoo telegraphed for help, but it arrived too late —the ferocious beasts had succeeded in entering the house by an insecurely fastened window!

Finally the railroad company decided to rebuild the little isolated stations and to screen the doors and windows. For the signalman and gatekeepers, veritable fortresses in miniature were Constructed. These refuges are of masonry; the door is large enough to admit a man, but narrow enough to impede a tiger's head. Inside is a telephone, in communication with the two nearest stations, and the rules insist that these shelters shall always contain a jar of fresh water. Thanks to these measures, the number of victims has considerably decreased during the last five years. Rut even now, all over India, numbers of railroad employes are caught on the line and killed by these terrible man-eaters. — Wide World Magazine.

Fissures in Steel Rails.

Concerning the prevalence of transverse fissures in steel rails, not referring at this time to those microscopic, of such dimensions as are menacing to the safety of railway travel, they are believed to be numerous. . Forty-six transverse fissures of recent occurrence have been reported in 32 rails. Instances have been reported in which five transverse fissures have been found in the same rail within the limits of three feet. They are present in both open-hearth and Bessemer steels.

In their maximum state of development they have been witnessed in 100-pound rails, having attained a superficial area of 3.3 square inches, leaving practically only the web and the base intact Our investigation shows without question that these hidden fissures in some rails reach such a statq of development before discovery as 'to destroy nearly the entire head of the rail, therefore it is not reassuring that other rails of similar composition, working under similar conditions of service, are not free from these Interior defects. The continuance of conditions which have resulted in derailments, attended with loss of life and injury to passengers and employes, places a great responsibility upon all who can in any manner aid in the inauguration of measures which will tend immediately to ameliorate these grave conditions.

Railroad Economy.

The yardmaster and yardmen are responsible for a lot of losses that were formerly overlooked. The cost of a freight car belonging to another railroad is from thirty to thirty-five cents a day when held unduly. Railroad economy as well as railroad efficiency demands that all cars shall be dispatched to their destination as quickly as possible, unloaded, and returned to their owners. The system of handling these foreign can differs on the various roads. Some apparently have no system, or at best a very clumsy and involved one. , Yean ago, through lack of system, many freight can had the disagreeable habit of disappearing for long periods, and the different roads had to employ car tracers to hunt them up. Some roads, either intentionally or through lack of system, retained borrowed cars Indefinitely, and then sent them back home by the longest route. —Sunday Magazine of the Chicago Herald.

FIRED ON RAILROAD GUARDS

Unusual Case, Interesting to Men of the Rails, Put Up to Jury for a Decision. ■ !■■ II I ft _An unusual case of negligence against a railroad company was heard by the United States circuit court of appeals, Sixth J circuit, in McCalman vs. Illinois Central Railroad company. The action was brought for Injuries to a railroad guard who was hurt during a strike as a result of collision with a poese of deputy marshals sent to * crossing where the guard was stationed, as the result of a telephone message' that there was trouble at that point. The marshals mistook the guards for strikers and fired on them, and the court held that It was a question for the Jury as to whether the company was negligent in falling to notify the marshale and guards of the presence of the other. The court said:

"We conclude, upon the whole, that the instant case should have been submitted to the jury under appropriate instructions, and consequently that it was error to grant the motion to diAny presumption that the defendants notified the deputy marshal* of the presence of the guards at the road crossing was overcome by the clear tendency of the evidence. The telephonic,message sent and received for'the marshals fails to show any allusion to the railroad guards. The language of the deputy who opened the firing at the crossing was totally inconsistent with the idea that the marshals thought the men found there were railroad guards, and, moreover, it cannot be assumed that deputy marshals would have opened a murderous fire upon men they understood were there to aid them in suppressing trouble at the yards.”

EASY TO PLACE TORPEDOES

Fork Enable* Person on Rear End of Moving Train to Lay Them Without Slacking Speed. The device shown in the sketch is known as the torpedo fork. It allows a person standing on the rear end of a train to place torpedoes on the rail while the train is in motion. The tines are spaced wide enough apart and are so shaped that the rail head will pass up between them. The ends of the tines are flattened and

Fork for Holding the Spring of a Torpedo to Place It on a Rail Behind a Train.

bent, as shown, while the whole fork is fastened in a handle of suitable length. In, operation the torpedo spring is opened and slipped over the clips on the tipes. The fork is then lowered over the rail, When the torpedo strikes the rail it is knocked off the clips, and the spring grasps the rail head. These forks can be made single if desired, but the double fork is.more convenient where it is required to set two torpedoes close together.—Popular Mechanics.

Locomotive Cab Signals.

At a meeting of the Institution of Mechanical Engineering, at Paris, recently, the subject of locomotive cab signals was discussed, and the opinion was expressed that such signals should always be of the audible kind, as these would not distract the attention of the engine man /from the road in front, and the regular road signals. In support of this suggestion, the evidence of an engine driver at an accident inquiry was quoted as follows: “You must realize that when you are rushing along at sixty or seventy miles an hour you are seldom out of sight of signals, and In the daytime there are always men about the road; and but for the vigilance of drivers I think a number of men would be injured, such as linesmen and others, who are absorbed tn their work. A touch on the whistle first announces your approach, and I do think that everything that can be done to liberate the driver from anything that takes his attention off the road when he is running should be done. The driver should always be able to devote his sole attention to looking out and to. the manipulation of his regulators.".—Scientific American.

Railroad Pensions Woman.

A woman who has been in the employ of the Pennsylvania railroad system longer than thirty years—Ellen Grady, a matron, of Chicago—has been placed in the road's “roll of honor,” the pension list She is one of fifty-three employes whom the road has retired. Heading the list were Henry T. Rambo, a tank repairman, of Philadelphia, in the road's service -for, 50 years and 5 months, and Cornelius Kennedy, extra gang foreman, of' Cleveland, employed for 50 years and I months.

Home Town Helps

GARDEN CITIES OF ENGLAND Two of the Most Beautiful Are Letch> worth, Near -London, and Port Sunlight. Letchworth is the "Garden City" of England—the garden city, if you please; first-born, we may be very sure, among many sister cities. Port Sunlight, all but an ideal little place, came Into existence by the will of one man. It was born of the fertile brain of Sir William Lever, and of his big and brotherly interest in the men whose labor helps to create his wealth. Bournvllle, too, with its fine streets, beautiful cottages and homes, noble educational and recreational buildings, represents private enterprise and philanthropy. The brothers dadbury are the builders and makers of Bournvllle. Letchworth is situated 34 miles from London. The site is well chosen. Ton must plan your garden city near enough to the centers of population to enable industries to flourish; deep enough in the country to secure space, air, light—and all that a garden needs. It comprises an area of 3,800 acres. The land was purchased by a corporation registered as "First Garden City company,” with a capital of 11,500,000 (common stock, without preferred stock or bonds) in $25 shares. . At no time, now or in the future, cqn stockholders take more than five per cent interest upon their investment All profits in excess of- this must be devoted to the improvement of the town. The central portion of the estate, -what may be called the urban area, takes 1,200 acres; the remaining 2,600 afford' land for all the "garden” features essential to the scheme. The city is planned for a population of 30,000. —Chicago Examiner.

VINES ON UNSIGHTLY POLE

California Man’s Use of Morning-Glo-ries Might Well Bo Copied In Other States. How to make trolley, electric light, telegraph and telephone poles anything more than eyesores is a problem that many an advocate of the “city beautiful” has pondered over In vain. Possibly the best solution is the discovery of George W. Long, park superintendent of Long Beach, CaL Five years ago he planted a few morn-ing-glory seeds at the foot of a guy line to an electric light pole In front of his property. His morning-glories are now one of the sights of that beautiful little beach city. In the genial climate of southern California the morning-glory is a perennial, growing and blooming ..winter and summer. Consequently, the vines he planted now form a mass of bloom and foliage from the foot of the guy line to the summit of the pole. By actual .measurement this morning-glory skyscraper is 20 feet in circumference, and Is still growing. Naturally, the success of Mr. Long’s experiment has resulted in imitation, and guy wires all over the city are being similarly transformed into real things of beauty. Several have obtained a good start in Los Angeles; and It now appears that the morningglory is likely to become as characteristic of southern California as the rose and poinsettia.

City’s Physical Director.

Many cities might well profit by the example set by Ishpeming, a city of about 13,000 people. The state law now in operation requires the board of education to employ a physical training director for the schools. The plan. Introduced by the association’s field secretary, Includes the employment of a permanent worker tq handle the physical training work in the schools and also take charge of the recreational activities of the community. As the system Is developed, a full time worker will undoubtedly be required, but the present plan is working out successfully for the first year of the recraj ation program.—Chicago News.

Dangerous Corners.

In rural districts, where all road machines are allowed to clip along at 25 miles an hour, corner gardens should not be planted so that drivers may not see across a small triangle next to the road intersection. With the coming of the automobile It has been found necessary to modify many of our ideals in home building, and the up-to-date designer or planter should have an eye to avoidance of accidents at rural corners. Plant low-growing material back for at least 20 feet from the corner and then a cluster of trees is quite permissible and quite what one “auto” have.

How Indians played Ball.

Ellery B. Crane, librarian of the ’ Worcester (Mass.) Society of Antiquity, possesses a baseball which was used by the Indians. It is the size of a quarter ball, perfectly rounded. Their glove was usually made of cowhide and was shaped Just like a pocket. This pocket the fielder would attach to a forked stick in such a way that it would always remain open., Then when they wished to catch a| fine drive they just got in its way and| allowed their bag or glove to do thOj catching.