THE SONG OF THANKSGIVING. We're thankful for a host of things Too numerous to mention; For sweethearts rue and hearts to woo, And all things worth attention For all and everything that gives Our lives so much of pleasure We offer thanks, Loong may we taste Thine overflowing measure OUR THANKSGIVING. other with It came as had and sunlight, and The me Thanksgivin fresh, frolicking winds rning came, I mornings come blue skies: with merry voices, with cloudless faces and happy hearts, I remember Just how yellow and murky the sunshine lay on the floors that morning, | and how I thought the wind the corners of the house—to me it had no frolic. The children came in from play while I was at work, all flushed and eager, and happy, jostling and pushing each other good naturedly in the entry. y Dinner time came at last and they gathered | round the table gleefully—just as gleefully, I | thought, with a half bitterness, as if thoy | had all been there, “Why, what's stopping. mAnY. “Hosh, Harry—I know-—-don't you see!” and then Lucy finished her sentence whisper, Why bad I donelit; I hardly knew. lay the plates and set the chairs, and this for™ asked Harry, To pas that one plate by—that place that always | It was a very | little thing; but yon know how dear these was by mine—{t seemed hard. little things become to women sometimes S01 had put it there—the empty chair; | and with its pitiful, appealing blankness be- side me, I sat down to the festival meal. | resnember just how everything looked, as in A picture—my husband's face, with its peace ful smile, and the children grouped around in the old places; and a fleck of yellow sunlight that had fallen in through the warm south | window upon the table cloth. I rememix everything 1 know that John had just bowed his head to ask a essing on our food, and the children's eyes wern closed, when | saw] saw as distinctly as I seo this paper upon which I write the words—a shadow fall across the empty chair I turned my head, and I saw h boy Willie. 1 know it was Willie not doubt me, for I tell you I cannot | taken Should not 1 1} mother? 1 looked deep, d saw the old, rare touch bright curls upon his forehead; I smile; 1 Lis rl him: he spoke to me “Willie “yl Bhd The “Willie! o was breathless, but it was Wi wy i LEN COMING IN FROM a the shades wi to fall hesvily | drew toward by the frost window. Ho stooped and kissed me took me in his arms and said, as he had sald before: “Did you think I should not be with you, mother?” And then I missed him. 1 called to him, but he did not answer, [ stretched out my arms to him, but he did not come back to me. The room grew dark; my head swam; I tottered over to my husband “Oh, Jolin! I have lost him!" “Mary —why, Mary! what is the matter? and Le caught we in his arms { looked up. I vas not in the parlor by the frost bound window; the children were not beside me. The sitting room fire had did down into the ashes; the door Into the hall was open, and my husband had on his over. cont. He was holding me tightly in his Aras, ‘1 thought<oh, John! John!" And then I told him all my dream. When I had finished be was still a long time, then wee Just Leg me him ound wailed about | | on “Mother, you've got one chair too | in a | spe ke to Ho “Mary, perhaps the boy has been to you* At this moment the clock on the mantel struck 12. We listened to its strokes till tho last one died away. “It is Thanksgiving morning,” said my hus- band, solemnly. When the morning really came, with its fresh, frolicking winds and sunlight, and blue skies; with its merry faces and gay voices, and the happy children rapping at my door, 1 thought of what he said, “Perhaps the boy has been to you.” Bometimes I think he must have been, so real and sweet is, even now, the memory of his coming. All that day he stood beside me. All that day I saw his peaceful face, and felt the bless ing of his smile, and heard his low, sweet What for months | had looked upon and feared with the bitterness of a great dread, the face, and smile, and voice made almost painless, The children's merry greotings did not hurt me; my fingers did not tremble when they twined the fresh green leaves about the walls The older children went with us to church | that morning. The little church was very still and pleasant, and somebow the service ] rt It heard: voice, stole away down into my hea that plain man, with God's plainest gifts Was no only a of mind to Lim, eloquent prea het wa and culture! But the day was real and I listened. A bit of Mrs music ke tself in my Browning's soul: I praise thee y days go on, ys go on; learth, through fire and frost, s and treasure Jost, I love thee while my d Through dark an With emptied arm I thank thee while my did sat there Iays go on thank him with I think that 1 last year, had side me I think that when the dear familiar words flooded the church with that other clasped hands silently the old, old ery: Lord.” We stopped after church together where the boy was lying, to let May lay down her I who, only my boy be harmony again, as morning, and John and 1 I think we utterad “Blessed be the name of the | little green wreath, and I was glad that she do tears would be profanation just then, Bomehow 1 felt as if Then could it calmly wo went quietly home It was a bappy home that day-—as happy as it could be when we did not see him. Yet I knew he was there “Did you think I should not be with yon, mother? I heard it over and over; I hear it over and 1 shall hear it the next Thanksgiving sun brightens his grave. [He wished us to be happy: | know he was with I think he always will ba Erizanetn Sruvant PusLrs Wer now, when us, Thaok rie x1 for px Thank Geox s feel the fire Ar While id and fireless go In many a cheeriess home Oh, yes, most gratefully wa ll lift Our souls ta God for every gift And trust for all to o Thus ‘round gal Hitle With ud hearts we And kee 1s the Jubilee r shall there anywhern he Within this ust 4 utn t A happier family glow many « uw ir fr hoard the Lord hess 1 I prais . found, Faxxy Peanorval THE ORIGIN OF THANKSGIVING A Purely Paritan Festival of Over Worldly Things. An if to resist the bitterness and sadness of the failing year, the most genial and kindly ReJolcing | of all our festivals occurs at the end of No vember. [ts very name, “Thanksgiving,” be trays ita pious origin-an origin unmixed with any prior tradition, The great Christian festival of Christmas stretches backward to yule logs and mistietoes, to Scandinavian and Briton besthenry, nor does it lose by the | graceful, happy association. But Thanks. ! giving is purely Puritan. It is the good, | warm heart conquering the tough bead and | ascetic manner of the old pligrima In Elliott's “New England History” you may read that In 1083, after the harvest, Governor Bradstreet sent out a company to shoot game to furnish a dainty feast of re Jolcing after the labors of the colony. ing followed the directions of the governor, and the principle of the excellent Mrs, (lass, they cooked their game and Invited Masa soft and some ninety other savages, and all fall to and devoured the feast, thanking God —-— Hav: “for the good world and the good things in | it." Think of that little shivering band clustered { on the bitter edge of the continent, with the | future before them slmost as dark as the | forest bebind them, many of them with such | long lines of happy memories in Old England flashing across the sea into the gloom of their | present position like gleams of ruddy firelight ! that stream far out of the cheerful chimney | Into the cold winter night and think of the when our niillions same festival now, govern and president of people to return thanks to the great giver of harvests; and the millions of people obeying, sacrifice hecatombs of turkeys and pumpkins sid pour out seas of cider and harmless wine, ors our invite GOOD OLD THANKBGIVING CALLING IX THE POOR AKD WEANLY It mn tation upon ght be dangerous to stake one's repu tion that Thanksgiving is a strictly religious feast. It is a day of practical rejoicing in the good things of thia world, and there may even bw people whose the aseer {| mouths are fuller of tarkey than their hearts of thanks But every year the area of the are more as n fonst enlarges Every year there people who sit down to the reporters hapy Ki f civic festivity groaning boards,” ly express it, upon ocx AN Dear old Thanksgiving! Long and long may his hospitable board be spread. Long and lung may he stand, benignant, at his door ng in the poor and the weary, the blind ritans cal ther savages Rich in in years, may good the continent the year and lig y every dark day of care and sorrow THE MIKADO'S FATE. THANKSGIVING TRAGEDY, 1, 1 AM THE GREAT MIRKADO" A poor, hard working ben who had brought ber family by stri ecomomy and most faithful industry, and who had been robbed of her last “ite again and again by the Mikado, spoke ber mind about uj the tout heartless it she said, “an outrage on a NM the res “It's an outrage,” all dest fowls to see that brute of kado ‘a el 1p to his comb while of us serateh from morning tll night merely to keep life in our bodies. Buch things are rapidly creating an arist sx. In the future when male and female are b oqual before the law there wil t's. But ity the way of the , and aiwanys bas been, The basest and least de serving get into power, because they are so coarse that they can ride right over any obstacle, having no sensibilities to wound.” Here a great swell of a cock, a monopolist ver y « be none world lof high degree, looked away and pretended | not to hear; but the others listened attentive. ly, sighed, and admitted that it was bard to rise in the world while such monsters as the : Mikado had the power to oppress. | A middle-aged anarchist sputtersd around at a great rate; but as he had always talked rather more than he should they didn't give | | him the closest attention. A fair and fat hon of good figure smiled scornfully, and said that one could expect nothing but coarse vanity from a person of really low pedigree like the Mikado For her part, come what would, she had the comforting knowledge that the blood of the Brahmas flowed in ber veins. Her an- vostors wore Asiatic kings. Then she strut. ted around to show off her figure, which "ay was perfect. i A young turkey, who was considered some- | thing of a crank because he wore glasses, | was greatly given to philosophy and meta physics, had gone so far as to lecture a little | snd was thinking of starting a newspaper, | here piped up: “It Is my opinion, friends, that we are to blame for our lack of success The Mikado is merely carrying out the | theories of the new school of Boston thinkers i andl the occultists of the east, which he Las | I verily believe, through my Heo has a powerful will, aad he | lod the g y The great dropped on, teaching secretly and persistently deman things of life | force, my friends, is have been talking about it, he { he is, bas grabbed the idea and put | them But like tho pirnte and is geting mind | operation.” An old and opinjonated eat that had been im a fence | pet now Lod Ou Are very inex peri apparently sleeping un word to say Y creatures. When you have lived a | have (which none of you are li am sorry to say, for reas delicate now to mention) what appears someting | Mikado, This is a very dramasti | man who is up today may be d | row Env Perhaps 3 is Detter " than the wealth of a the Mikad | wisely when he said He that is ds He that is b Just then the Mikado v wl opened Y ho one atl (0 roeven wi need fear no fall, none at all” sb whose doors had been tif of the be by the beautiful daughter FL to give | ! ! i Lhe | ET can Car the earth in ove In spite of the in the face of the fact that they | knew she spoke the truth, they felt shriveled | and mean in the presence of this petted and He walked near them, an® said and wings scraping whelm ing humility pride, Cals WTuoa vu admired creature | slled Atand « scorufully, wit of the way, you creatures stuall, t of the way of my shadew; ’ he king a: all, 0 she great Mikado shoud there was And here and frain from shedding tears, so deep wt of his way, though who could pet re they vue humiliation The mistress of the | a friemd, just then aj side of the fence their at He wasnt of the dis and gobblsd eT " 4 ponmipox a and the object of } or tention seemed to be the Mikado slow Ww show Lis recistion tinct either wit on, ratuiatory very men with a » ! of what conoeit will bris mnkagiving there head and his bones, wi by his des) them a ditch ante was a Jessom sad Me, LU ARE ny = ds,” ng along from havin i + ’ urorous thing t the Mikado enjoyed it while it lasted.” Poor fool, be did enjoy Could it be,” said the young turkey with | the eyeglasses and taste for metaphysics, | “oould it be that my doctrines led him tray?! Btill, he was a good {lustration of the truth of what 1 have been preaching - that if you persistently desire the best you will get it. But the best, in his case, didnt mom to be really good for him, after all, and now the question arises: ‘Is it good for any of ust 1 must admit that I am somewhat confused on this point, and, in spite of the Mikado's grave fau ts of character, 1 lament | tho tragedy in which be was the victim, For some roason, his death was the occasion of general rejoicing in the houss, and I have even picked up a word here and there which goes to show that the people who were the | conse of his death gave thanks over bis body, They actually called the day ‘Thanksgiving,’ wo grateful were they that he was gone, Por Laps they feared that in his excessive Jove of {under his | existence, depend upon it, my friends, all such while we | lo | | had learned a Jos | grea’ attention | Ainenoes whick | fae the world { Into sllencs was bis | all 0 shy y reach such eminence as | power he would rise some day, seize the refus of government, and trample them all foot. If so, 1 half excuse the murder, though I am too much of a Bud dist to sympathize with a festival which sanctions the destruction of living creatures, and the eating of them, too, In the round of things are evened up, They who kill shall be killed in turn; if not in this life, in some embodiment in the far future.” THE TALK OVER HIS The hen who was | said that the life. Bbe still held her « HEAD ANI after all re Wer in » 1h patient juslity uid be res must wail, ang wi of polit pol al w * well as talk, A very aged « leared Lis throat be Henk ticular lineage As he was generally silent, when be did “You are getting on to the true phi life ab lam Agitation doesn’t balf as muuch as people think it de res ly ve Me subtie. Your talkers they 1? t the real power « higher” — Le mn think ich wd bed higher, m “ule The noted anarchism rooster had noth hls led it enti] corners ing at for Yiew® Werle oa 3 4 id tis ! nning of “Monsters like the own gresl hey are my Mikal their own exe Had he divided bie abundance with 1 all have had a laver or so of ti i him and br MEHL have Deen sii Y mi Heres mre the sarih snatched it fr Your souls wer hed ness ™ the we ft there ie 0 For Por wl Med pray hing left hut wret be thankful? ve we fa at shall we When we sts Answer ( bow are never roal ves are lost to us” For what shall we be thankful™ may lereaved Death has robbed us and Jef noaning. Our sore hearts cannot take w ory of rojoicing, for we weep uncom forted.” For what shall we be thankful? sick “We suffer and know no ease | full of anguish night and day.” “For what shall we thankful? say the per. tex Jur enemiss outnumber us: our lone s greater than we oan bear ™ ’ 1! ll we § kTal™ say the . Hd w ded eo fervakon, the lary of beart For us there is no rest, no hap nest, 00 help, Weariness is our portion and | burdens our inheritance. We have no cause for re joi ing from the beginning of the year to the end For these, for all these, it is written: “Rest in the Lord. Oh, rest in the Lord. Walt pa tiently for Him and He shall give thee thy heart's desire.” To thesa, to all these, the promise has been given. To these, the words from a plain old sermon come with power to heal: © is wtill heaven to be thankful for, Whatever sorrows bereave us bere, whatever fatal mie takes darken our lives, whatever irredeemable Jomson hafall us, we may yet rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him in the little life that remains; for Yeyond this world's gain or Joss, high in the serene air of heaven, when ex istence ceases to be a lesson and becomes vivid life, there and only there shall He give us our heart's desire in its immortal fullness. Hore knowles \ the result of fery trial, wealth rusted into covetausness; but in heaven ix the very native eountry of pure knowledge, perfect Jove, ut tor sinlessness, and riches that neither moth mor rus eorrupt, that Lies and curw net.” ay whe n mes: when we } 1 our ”™ i ipxl: when we Jove our the us up ’ ay We are we the | is defiled, love is imperfect, parity | 1S59-1986 ° Great Reduction PRICES!! I am now Prepared to Give BIG BARGAINS, DRY GOODS, Dress Goods from bec lo $2 per yard, [owe i from 3c lo §1 per p w. GROCERIES Lower Than thelow: est. (lve 1s I ‘We Guarantee Satis- faction. Countrv Prodvce On band, and Wanted at all times. C. U. HOFFER Allegheny st., Belletonte, Pa * . q Call. * y -
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers