The Syracuse Journal, Volume 20, Number 30, Syracuse, Kosciusko County, 22 November 1928 — Page 2

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By ELMO 3COTT WATSON S THANKSGIVING time approaches and our minds turn back to the origin of that holiday—that is, if Twentieth century minds, accustomed to making it a day for consuming roast turkey, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, cider and other eatables and drinkables to a painful degree, football games and for innumerable othei' forms of celebration far removed from the original purpose of the day, can be easily turned back for a consideration of

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historic origins—it would be Interesting for each of us to make a mental Inventory and try to determine If we know much more about the people who gave us this holiday than we seem to know about observing it in the spirit in which it was conceived. Thanksgiving, of course, brings up a mental picture (which Is usually a reproduction of some painting—or cartoon—that we have seen) of a grouj of sober-faced men and women walking through the woods to a little log church. The outstanding ‘features of the sober costume of the men are the tall-crowned hats, the big shoe buckles and the clumsy-looking guns, with their hell-shaped muzzles, over their shoulders; of the women—the white Dutch caps on their heads and the dark capes hanging from their shoulders. If it is the cartoonist, rather than the painter, who gives us our mental picture of the Puritan inventors of Thanksgiving day, we’re pretty sure to see a man holding a turkey by the neck in one hand and his gun in the other, while an Indian arrow decorates the tall crown of his hat. Or the arrow (an Indian arrow is by now an almost indispensable symbol of Thanksgiving) may be flying through the window of a log cabin home ..nd plunking into the turkey on the table, much to t he consternation of the Puritan family, all ready to eat the “noble bird” when the unexpected garnish arrives. Or if we are asked to characterize the Puritans In a few words, those words are pretty likely to be “stern” or “noble” or “godly” or “pious” or “well—well —puritanical —you know what I mean." But aside from the ideas, as given by these mental and word pictures, how much do we actually know about the Puritan fathers and mothers? Do they exist in our minds ns “people." as “human beings” or as images recreated from myths? Were they all, and always, “pious” or “godly* or “stern,” or din they have their lighter moments when they were “people” or "human beings,” as we know such Individuals today. Let the author of a book,' recently published in Boston, the home of the Puritans, by Little, Brown and company, answer that question. The name of the book is “The Not-Qulte Puritans,” which in itself is something of an answer. But lest it be thought that it is the work of an iconoclast, Intent upon shattering some more idols, an outsider who wishes only to poke irreverent fun at a people and tradition near and dear to most A moricans, let it be said that the author of the book Is Henry W. Lawrence, a native New Englander and a professor of history at Connecticut college, who has only to examine his family history to know whereof he speaks. For two of his ancestors among many others have “records” in that they were haled into court for deeds which were "notquite puritan.” In the Introduction to his book Professor Lawrence says: Nothing flew could possibly be uttered about the austerity of the Puritan, but there is still much to be said concerning his frivolity. During more than a century, tireless orators have stupefied their reverent hearers with Undiscriminating praise of the stern virtues that were the glory of early New England; and when the image breakers of our own Irreverent times have risen to reply, they have usually seen and smitten only a figure of unhuman sternness, made awful by his worshipers. It is high time that justice be done to the humanity, the frailty, and the frivolity of our formidable ancestors. For example, all we loyal New Englanders have known from our youth up of Cotton Mather’s views on witchcraft and his discussion of the “nature, number, and operations of the devils”; but why bgve we not been as freely Informed of how he narrowly escaped a breach-of-promise suit while courting his second wife? We shall not love them less, these forefathers bf ours, if we see them gay as well as grave; and we may cease to think of them as largely the creatures of a moralized and provincial mythology. New England in the Seventeenth century was probably no more wholesome than it is in the Twentieth. Then, as now, a few great and good men and women tried in vain to “sell” godliness to the multitude, but there were few buyers, though at that time everybody was compelled to attend the sale. Judging by the acts of the vast majority, rather than by the words of a very small number, these early New Englanders were spiritually akin to our present generation. Some few of them were saints; a few more were hypocrites; but most of them were neither. Their amount of true holiness was, per capita, about the same as ours, but it took a different form, and they talked about it more than we do. Their normal human cantankerousness was often so camouflaged in pious phrases that It was, and still is, mistaken for godliness. Probably they were as bewildered as we are about how life should 4>e lived. Certainly they were often discouraged their efforts to regulate it, and they had many private doubts as to whether the method of sitting on the lid was, after all, the best way to deal with human feelings.

Famous Thanksgiving Dinners

Turning from cookbooks to histories, Nell B. Nichols, New York cooking expert, jfias discovered the menus for Thanksgiving enjoyed by the greatest American epicures and reproduced them in the experimental kitchens of Farm and Fireside. The first is a famous Thanksgiving dinner given at the home of Daniel Webster in 1842, tn which a special cbestnm stuffing va« the feature.

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The Seventeenth century specialized in repression. We of the Twentieth have a right to demand that history tell us the truth about how the repressionism of Puritan New England really worked among the masses of the people. It seems to have been no more than indifferently successful even in that age of lean adversity. A large fraction of the population submitted to, rather than shared in, the religious and moral fervor which . has made the period notorious. They hardly qualified as belonging in the company of the saints. They were “the not-quite Puritans.” That these “not-quite Puritans” were very much like the people of today in their faults and frailties, Professor Lawrence then proceeds to demonstrate in mis book by quoting from contemporary records. Then, as now, the elders had the “flaming youth” problem on their hands. For the boys and girls of Massachusetts Bay and other New England colonies DID pet, they DID go In for “new and Immodest fashions" and wicked apparell,” there WERE*. “flappers," or their equivalent, who bobbed their or the equivalent, the college students of those days WERE addicted to riotous night life and there WERE breach-of-promise suits, family rows, back-fence quarrels, fights, intoxication and any number of other offenses which brought them, young and old. Into court. These are not merely opinions. They are facts taken from court and other records and here is evidence of the truth of the above statements, in the order presented, as given in Professor Lawrence’o book: Young men there'were forbidden “to inrveigle or draw the affections of any maid” without the proper permission, and the law enumerates the current prohibited methods: “whether it be by speech, writing, message, company-keeping, unnecessary familiarity, disorderly night-meetings, sinful dalliance, gifts." In 1660, Jacob Minline and Sarah Tuttle of New Haven were haled to court for violating the law, and the record shows that the purpose of their unlawful meetings had by no means been prayer and fasting. “They sat down together," says the testimony, “his arm being about her, and her arm upon hi* shoulder or about his neck; and he kissed her, and she kissed him, or they kissed one another, continuing in this posture about half an hour.” Moreover, Sarah denied that Jacob , had “inveigled her affections,” whereupon the court fined her instead of him, and called her a “bould virgin." As early as 1634, “some new and immodest fashions” alarmed the authorities of Massachusetts into ordering “that no person, either man or woman, shall hereafter make or buy an apparel, either woolen, silk, or linen, with any lace on it, silver, gold, silk, or thread.” A prohibition was likewise laid on “slashed clothes, other than one slash in each sleeve, ano another in the back"; also on “all gold or silver girdles, hat bands, belts, ruffs, beaver hats." With due regard for the avoidance of, waste, however, the law allowed the present possessors “to wear out such apparel as they are how provided of, except the immoderate great sleeves, slashed apparel, immoderate great rails, long wings, etc." The remote ancestress of the present day flapper was also dealt with in the clause which prescribed “short sleeves, whereby the nakedness of the arm may be discovered in the wearing thereof." When a girl bobbed her hair, or otherwise deformed it to meet the latest Seventeenth century fashion, she had to expect not merely ■ father's wrath and mother's tears, but also some public comment from the minister on the Lord’s Day, and a personal visit from the local magistrate. . . Sometimes they were haled into court, after indictment by the grand jury along with murderers.

Charles Dickens, who was tfie guest of honor, in letters home praised the stuffing highly, but referred to the huge wedges of pumpkin pie, sweet potatoes and opposum as too Indigestible. Webster, however, was noted for his famous dinners. A second famous dinner that found its way into history books was one given by Hamilton Fish when he was secretary of state In 1852, with the 1

English writer Thackeray as his guest of honor. It was at this time that the Ice cream of The type in use today was Introduced to supplant frozen ices which had hitherto been used. Other dishes were turkey surrounded by mounds of cranberries and celery curls, another innovation; baked pumpkin, spiced peaches and pears for salad and ice cream as one of the desserts. Theodore Roosevelt, while President, received a request from the Japanese ambassador to permit his chef to pre-

THE SYRACUSE JOURNAL

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thieves, and others who, like themselves, were dangerous to the community. Thus, the records of the Essex County Quarterly courts show that, during the session held at Ipswich in 1682, several such perilous females were dealt with: "Warrant, dated April 14, 1682, for the appearance of those presented by the grand jury on Mar. 28 for folding their hair, frizzling and knots, and for wearing silk scarfs, Martha Rogers. Mary Brownexx and Elizabeth Browne, the glazier’s daughters, Abagaill Metcalfe, Elizabeth Perkirs, wife of Luke Perkins, Martha Watton, John Webster’s daughter who lives with Mr. John Rogers and Pricflla Carrell, Capt. Appleton’s maid.” By 1713, disorderly night life in Boston seems to have been well started, to the extreme annoyance of the Rev. Cotton Mather, who comments on It thus in his diary: “There are knotts of riotous Young Men in the Town. On purpose to insult Piety, they will come under my Window in the Middle of the Night, and sing profane and filthy Songs. The last Night they I did so, and fell upon People with Clubs, taken off my Wood Pile. ‘Tis hightime to csll in the Help of the Government of the Place, for the punishing and suppressing of these Disorders.” Efforts of the early New England fathers to stop wickedness by means of strict laws met with indifferent success. They were more ready to admit this than some of their modern descendants have been. Thus are the “not-quite Puritans” revealed in a book written by one of the descendants in which for once, at least, they are presented to Americans ol today as “people” and “human beings.” But in turning our thoughts back to them as the time for the holiday which they have given us approaches, we need not hold then, in any the less esteem or reverence because of these revelations about them. The concluding chapter of Professor Lawrence’s book is an illuminating exposition of that fact He says: There is a belief, widely prevalent today, that > history should be the cringing slave of public 1 policy, rather than its trustworthy guide. According to this belief the facts which history presents should be determined, not by the historians, but by those who are supposed to understand better than they what the public welfare requires of the historic record. In particular, there are a great, number of persons, grouped tn powerful organizations, who are now insisting, even to the point of coercion, that no present-day explorer of cur national or colonial history shall bring to light, and certainly to no widespread public notice, any facts which seem to discredit the traditional and popular view of our heroic and glorious past. The authenticity of the facts is rarely questioned. The propriety of presenting them to the public, or at least of giving them so much prominence, is often sharply challenged. In anticipation of such a challenge to the facts presented in this little book, a further word beyond what has been said in the i reface seems appropriate. First, as to the belief that Clio should be a slave rather than a guide, and that her utterances should be determined, not by her faithful disciples, but by the self-appointed guardians of public welfare. This willingness to substitute mythology for history, and to cling fondly to that which is known to be untrue, is shared by so many admirable people today that the historians of this country have issue! a formal, public protest and Warning against it. This warning is in the form of a set of resolutions-adopted by the American Historical association, the national soqiety which includes in its membership practically all the leading writers and teachers of history in the United States. Second, as to the damage, if any, done to the Puritan tradition by the facts presented in this book, or by the manner of their presentation, the author’s own profound admiration for many of the leaders in early New England has not been lessened in the slightest degree because of the facts he has discovered and related about them. Rather, he has felt reassured to find that behind the myths of impossible, intolerable, unhuman goody-goodi-ness there really were men and women of heroic character and achievement, so abundantly equipped with noble qualities and noble deeds that laudatory lying about them was at best superfluous. Their fame shines all the brighter when the darkness which surrounded them is more adequately revealed. The policy of trying to conceal or to minimize their faults and limitations seems far more likely to produce, in the mind of the presentday schoolboy or citizen, a cautious but cynical skepticism than the desired patriotic reverence, and to deepen the suspicion of many that all national history is a set of half-truths, more conducive to jingoistic patriotism than to Intellectual honesty. However distressing "The Not-Quite Puritans" may be to those who insist on regarding the early New Englander as a fleshless demigod and a haloed ascetic, it may find a welcome with the followers of that eminent son of New England, Oliver Wendell Holmes, in his world-wise remark that “we must have a weak spot or two in a character before we can love it much.”

pare the prize turkey sent the President. When it appeared, its golden brown plumage, its red head and adornments and its claws had been spared. A slight movement removed all these and the bird, browned to a turn and seething in rich gravies, was disclosed. Within.the turkey had been placed a capon, within the capon a pheasant and within the pheasant a grouse. One serving consisted of four delicious meats.—Farm and Fireside. Each man makes his own shipwreck.

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No Music for Him in Yelps of the Hounds | One of the favorite stories heard ' among the fox hunters at their state meeting was that of a man who was being taken out for his first fox hunt. i For a long time the hunters sat on a damp log in the woods in the darkness, waiting for the dogs to hit a trail, and the veterans of the chase swapped stories of former hunts. Suddenly In the far distance was heard the deep, full baying, mingled with the sudden eager yelps of the hounds in full pursuit. “There now—listen to that music, will you?” one veteran announced, triumphantly, trying to engender enthusiasm in the mind of the younger man. The new man listened for a while, then turned in disgust: “How could you expect any one to hear the music with all those dogs making such a noise?”—Exchange. I ; ■ Long Trip in Small Boat. Three men in a boat have left Moscow for a 2-000-mlle voyage to the Caspian sea. They are artists from the Moscow Art theater. Their route will be the Moscow and Oka rivers to Nijni-Novgorod, thence down the Volga to Astrakan. They expect to complete the trip in a month. Huh! “Yes,” said she, "my husband is so much better I thought it would be all right to leave him long enough to come to the meeting.” “I see.” smiled the hostess, “you are leaving well enough alone, so to speak.” One can describe his Joy, but seldom his grief.

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King Grasshopper Has Great Leaping Power? Giant hunting grasshoppers nearly five Inches long, that prey on small animals such as mice and the young of ground-nesting birds, are found in the Congo. They rival the kangaroo as Jumpers and can leap a considerable distance onto their prey. The hunting grasshopper is not so great a leaper In proportion to its size as the king grasshopper, the young of which, even before its wings are developed, can Jump a hundred times its own length. Very fer men can cover more than twice their own length in a Jump. The hunting grasshopper is the largest of all grasshoppers. Its great front lip hides a pair of Jaws as effective as a hay-chopper, and its appetite makes It a plague to mankind. Just say to your grocer Red Cross Ball Blue when buying bluing. You will be more than repaid by the results. Once tried always used. —Adv. Too Late. Earl Carroll, the New York producer released from Atlanta, where he had been imprisoned for violating the prohibition law, said sadly in an interview : “Experience, some one has remarked, is a. hairbrush given us by Providence after we have lost our hair. “How true that Is! Let me illustrate it in another way. “ ‘How,’ a lady asked her grocer, ‘do I open this tin of plum pudding?’ “ ‘Directions Inside, ma’am,’ said the grocer." Millions seem to think that the pursuit of happiness can only be made by automobile.

Moat Important of AH. Billy Wood submits the following * famous rocks: y — bottom; — pile; — a-bye baby; I — the boat; —of Ages; —of Gibrab g tar; — and rye. i But. Billie, why overlook those famous rocks that make your way s through life less rocky? e Or, are you like us—not familiar • enough with ’em to remember them K are any such?—Cincinnati Enquirer. >- i Mother Tells How Milks ■ Emulsion Saved Her Son's Life t “In November, 1918. I wrote you in „ reference to my son’s condition at » that time. He mid just gotten over " the flu and double pneumonia and it looked as if he would never be a well boy again. His lungs were very 3 weak and he had an awful cough. We > thought he was going into consumption. He had pneumonia four times. , This had taken all of his vitality and left his lungs in a very bad shape. “I saw Milks Emulsion advertised In the Birmingham News, got a large bottle and gave it to my son. It did ! him so much good that I kept on giv- ! ing him Milks Emulsion until he had taken 125 bottles and now I am very proud to tell you that my boy is a . well, strong young man, 18 years old, r and in excellent health. I give Milks r Emulsion the credit and praise for having saved his life. “You can publish this letter If you like, as I am very grateful to you for what your Emulsion did for my son. . MRS. J. A. BRADLEY. 1927% Ave- ’ nue D, Apt A, Birmingham, Ala.” j Sold by all druggists under a guarantee to give satisfaction or money refunded. The Milks Emulsion Co, . Terre Haute, Ind. —Adv. World’s Illiterates. Dr. J. F. Abel, a specialist of the bureau of education, says that 62.5 per cent of all the world’s Inh.oltants, despite the educational progress of the last two or three centuries, are still illiterate. Doctor Abel calculates that the world’s population now is 1,829,000,000. Os these 455,000.000 are deducted on the ground that people under ten years of age are illiterate. This leaves 1,365,000,000 above the age of ten, of whom Doctor Abel finds that about 850,000.000 are illiterates. That’s the Question. “Anyway.” said the aviator, “when you are in an airplane you always are sure of getting back to earth.” ‘And how?" retorted the captain of a submarine. Not Prominent. “Prominent gangster?” “Only ten trucks of flowers.”— Louisville Courier-Journal. I RHEUMATISM For 35 Years TRUSLER’S RHEUMATIC TABLETS HAVE GIVEN RELIEF AU Druggists- Two Sites, 50c and SI.OO. Trader Remedy Co. Cincinnati, O. $425.00 PAYS in FULL tor a Bungalow and Lot in Florida. THE NOBLES CORPORATION NOBLETON - FLORIDA. HAIR BAJLSAm Removes Dandraff-StopsHairFall Ing Restores Color and Beauty to Gray and Faded Hail soe. and SI.OO at Drujnriste. Htooox Chem. Wka Patchogue, N. Y. FLORESTON SHAMPOO—Idee! for use in connection with Parker’s Hair Balsam. Makes the hair soft and fluffy. SO cents by mail or at druggisto. Hiscox Chemical Works, Patchogue, N. X. FLORIDA Drive direct to your own home site or winter camp on East Coast.) Fishing and bathing, fresh or salt water. Lots 60x130 high and dry. Have your own oranges or grape fruit or winter garden. (Prices S2OO to $325. AU $1 down 75c a week. No interest or taxes for 2 years, l-n jcity limits, electrio light, school bus. Send for map and price list. Agents wanted. / N. P. DODGE. Dept. W„ Hyde Park, Mass. MEDITERRANEAN S" •s “Transylvania*' sailing Jan. 30 . Clark’s 25th cruise, 66 days, including Madeira, Canary Islands, Casablanca, Rabat. Capitol of Morocco, Spain.- Algiers. Malta, Athens, Con- i stontinople. 15 days Palestine and Egypt. Italy. J Riviera. Cherbourg. (Paris). Includes hotels. fl guides, motors, etc. I Norway-Mediterranean, JuneZg, 192g> MOO m» FRANK C. CLARK, TUncsßMg., N.Y I