Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 21, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 November 1899 — SUBJECT OF THANKSGIVINGS. [ARTICLE]

SUBJECT OF THANKSGIVINGS.

Extensive and Highly Interesting Volume Might Be Compiled on It. An extensive and highly interesting volume might be compiled on the subject of Thanksgiving and the events which have signalized them. For instance, on Thanksgiving day, 1783, the British army evacuated New York, while Washington and Clinton marched into the city at the head of the continental army and took formal possession in the name of the young republic. Festivities and a grand display of fireworks closed that memora-

ble day. Thanksgiving had fallen that year on Dec. 25, and the combination of evacuation day and that festival were long jointly honored in New York. The Thanksgiving day of 1816 is memorable as the occasion upon which an American theater was first illuminated with gas. This event happened in Philadelphia. The experiment was a complete success, and the manager of the affair was Dr. Kingler. During the war, of the battles and skirmishes fought on Thanksgiving, the most notable was that of Lookout mountain (1863). A few odd and distinctive methods of celebrating the great holiday still survive in different parts of the United States, although the tendency is toward a uniform manner of rejoicing. In sections of Connecticut, for instance, the “Thanksgiving barrel burning” is a timehonored institution. For a month before the day Connecticut boys diligently collect and store in a place of security all the barrels, old or new, which they can find. All barrels are regarded as the property of whomsoever can carry them away. On Thanksgiving night the barrels are piled in a huge heap and ignited. Boys and girls then dance around the bonfire until the very last barrel has gone up in smoke.