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1? THE
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WHICH ARE YOU?
No! the two kinds of people on earth that
I mean
Are the people who lift and the people
who lean.
Wherever you go, you will find the
world's masses
Are always divided in just these two
classes.
And, oddly enough, you will find, too, I
ween,
There is only one lifter to twenty who
lean.
In which class are you? Are you easing
the load
Of overtaxed lifters who toil down the
road?
Or are you a leaner, who lets others bear
Your portion of labor and worry and
care?
?Ella Wheeler Wilcox.
THE ORIGIN AND SIGNIFICANCE OF
THANKSGIVING PAY.
By Juliet Hite Gallaher.
This is a day set apart as a public
celebration of Divine Goodness, an annual
religious festival, suggested by the Hebrew
"Feast of the Ingatherings at the
end of the year," and originating with the
Puritan fathers, who sought refuge and
freedom of conscience on the bleak coast
of New England, landing there as we
know, on Monday, December 21, 1620.
These pilgrims, first exiled from England
to Holland in 1608, having found
men ucsneu uaveu, uy mil ana sacnnce
produced bountiful harvests the following
year; providing themselves in this
vast wilderness with the necessities of
life, if not with the luxuries of civilization,
for all of which they were most
grateful, and on the strength of it decided
to observe a day of public thanksgiving;
Governor Bradford appointed the
day, and history tells us that he sent
four men into the forests in search of
game for the feast which was to follow,
which fact is responsible today for the
turkey being our national Thanksgiving
game, "the" piece de resistance on this
menu, although our forests no longer
teem with wild turkeys like the Pilgrim
fathers ordered for their dinner.
Those fathers, after passing through
such a siege of suffering am} self-denial,
privations and homesickness in a strange
country, all patiently borne for their conscience
sake, felt their hearts warm to
ward their Creator and their new home,
when they beheld the fruits of their toil,
as symbolid of the great blessings which
the future held in store for them, and
they accordingly observed the dav as on?
in which to give thanks to the Giver of
all good gifts.
July, 1723, was appointed as a day of
fasting and prayer during the great
drought, and as rain fell while they were
praying for it, the governor appointed a
: PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SOU
special Thanksgiving day to be observed
with religious services.
In the colonies the days were appointed
upon the arrival of ships carrying sup
pnes ana me new colonists, also tor tne
autumn harvest; we find that June, 1632,
Gov. Winthrop of the Massachusetts Bay
colony appointed a Thanksgiving day on
account of the action of the British Privy
Council favorable to the colonists.
We also find the English governors
of New York and the Dutch governors
of New Netherlands holding Thanksgiving
services. During the Revolutionary
War Congress appointed the first National
Thanksgiving Day, which was annually
recommended by Congress until the general
Thanksgiving for peace, 1784; from
then it was not held again until 1789,
when President Washington appointed a
Thanksgiving Day for the adoption of the
Constitution.
The old Episcopal prayer books recom
mended the first Thursday in November
as a day of Thanksgiving.
In 1817 the governor of New York regularly
appointed a day, and we find that
Governor Johnston of Virginia recommended
such a day in 1857; in 1858,
Thanksgiving was publicly observed in
eight of the Southern States.
A number of proclamations were issued
by President Lincoln during the War
between the States, and from that time to
the present day the proclamation has
been made by the president of the United
States; the governors of the States, and
the mayors of the cities; the date selected
being the last Thursday of November.
A A ^ ? ' - " ~ "
ai mis ?euson me neias Dave yielded
their grains, the fruits have been gathered
and garnered and all of nature's
bounty has been stored away for the comfort
of mankind during the severe months
to come.
Throughout America religious services
are held at the churches on this day and
they are generally amongst the most impressive
ones known; in many churches
the attendants are requested to bring or
send contributions to be disbursed
amongst their less fortunate brethren.
It is a day of thankfulness, not for the
benefits forgot, but in the fullest sense
of the word "For Benefits Received"; a
day symbolic of home and home ties, and
while not divinely appointed is a simple
expression of the nation's gratitude for all
heaven-sent gifts and a public recognition
and appreciation of them.
Waynesboro, Va.
Perfection is not produced by pruning
alone, unless there be growth after the
pruning. But pruning is intended to promote
growth by concentrating the power
of growth into the parts that need it
most. When God prunes our lives and
parts us from some unlovely trait" or
some unbecoming growth, his purpose is
that we may be brought nearer to perfection.
God's ways are good, even when
tney cause us pain.
6ood Intentions will not save the man
who, despising the warning, steps over
the precipice.
TH. November 17, igog.
STORY OF A HOMELY LITTLE
PRINCESS.
unce upon a time?only you must not
think this is a fairy story?there was a
little princess growing up in a great
palace, who was destined to occupy a
very high and important station and exercise
a great influence in life. Princesses
are always supposed to be beautiful.
but this one was not at all so. On
the contrary, she was decidedly plain,
with homely features and a small, insignificant
figure. But she was gifted
with a lot of good common sense, she
was bright, well educated, and vivacious,
and she was thoroughly good. Her name
was Charlotte Sophia, and she was the
daughter of a petty German prince, a
second son of the Duke of MecklenbergStrelitz.
' Did you ever hear of her? She is well
worth knowing for more than one reason,
one of the least being that she was ?
Queen of England and the mother of a
great family of English princes and princesses.
The story of her marriage to
George III of England has a touch of
romance in it, and is one of the "bits"
of history that will interest young people;
for it is almost as simple and delightful
a pastoral as the Bible story of
Ruth and Boaz.
As I have said, the Princess Charlotte
was a very bright and intelligent girl,
well educated and accomplished. When
Frederick the Great was overrunning and
desolating the German provinces after his
victory at Targeau, she was sixteen years
old, Just budding into womanhood. Her
sympathetic soul was touched by the
horrors and miseries of the German land
that she knew and loved. In a moment
of impulse she sat down and wrote a
letter of protest, denouncing war and
praising the charms of peace, which was
forwarded to the Prussian conqueror. It
was a strange thing for a young girl to
do; but it was a beautiful letter admirably
written, without a single blot, and
reflected a great deal of credit upon both
the heart and mind of the little princess.
In fact, when the letter was published,
it was read by a certain prince just entering
upon manhood, who exclaimed:
"This is the lady whom I shall select
for my consort; here are lasting beauties
on which the man who has any
mind may feast and not be satisfied. She
is fitted to be the queen of any nation
upon earth." The prince was George of
Wales, who in less than two months was
f.onron Til ISi - " * ? -*
v.vU.Bv ?, mug ui ureal Britain and
Ireland. He made good his assertion,
and, like the prince in the story book,
he sent over the sea at once for his
princess.
The sixteen year old princess was playing
one day with her young companions
In the gardens of the ducal palace at
Strelitz. In some of their romping games,
the gay young girls began to kossId about
who their future husbands would be. "I
shall never marry," said Charlotte. "I
am such a homely little thing, no person
would have me."
The postman's horn sounded at that
moment "There comes your sweetheart.