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-* T ■*■ HANKSGIVING DAY has a long
and curious history and did not
originate entirely with the Pil
grims at Plymouth, for Thanksgiv-
Ing days are mentioned In the Bi-
hie—days set apart for giving
fi/ ■*■ W§ thanks to God for some special
\jL lllercy - These days of fast and
prayer were customary In England
4 before the Reformation, and later
the Protestants appointed certain days of praise
and thanks for various blessings. The discov
ery of the Gunpowder Plot in IGOS in London
jbrought the common sentiment of Thanksgiving.
lA scheme had been formed to blow up parlla
iinent house on the sth of November, the first
day of the session. Great quantities of gunpow
der and Inflammable material were found con
cealed In the vaults underneath the building. The
plot was discovered and the traitors were exe
cuted. In consequence of this deliverance the
day was ordered to be kept as “a public thanks
giving to Almighty God" every year that "un
feigned thankfulness may never be forgotten, and
that all ages to come may yield praises to God’s
divine majesty for the same." All ministers were
ordered to say propers thereon, for which special
forms were provided. This annual thanksgiving,
together with one established later on May 29,
was abolished in 1833 in England, for both had
fallen Into disuse. For several years afterwards,
however, these days were recognized In New
England by the Episcopal church on account of
its place in their church calendars. England
continued to have special days appointed for giv
ing thanks, and as recently as 1872 there was a
day selected for the public to offer prayers of
thanksgiving for (he recovery of the late King
Edward, then prince of Wales, from typhoid
fever.
t The first thanksgiving on the American conti
nent was held by an English minister named
Wolfall, and was celebrated off the coast of New
ioundland. This pious man accompanied the
Frobisher expedition which brought the first Eng
lish colony to North America. The log of the
ship gives the record of the day’s observances
and tells how on Monday, May 28, 1578, aboard
the Ayde, the men received communion, and how
Minister Wolfall in a sermon gave humble and
hearty thanks to God for his miraculous deliver
ance In dangerous places. This was the
first Christian sermon preached in North Ameri
can waters. Again in 1607 there was a similar
service held at Sagadahoc—a little village on
the coast of Maine. There is little record of
this thanksgiving except that it consumed only
a few hours of the day, after which the people
returned to their labors.
) The great American Thanksgiving day had its
origin In the Massachusetts colony In 1621, and
Gov. William Bradford, the first governor of that
little band of sturdy pilgrims, sent out the first
Thanksgiving proclamation, setting apart a day
for prayer and rejoiciug over the plenteous har
vest of that year. The Englishmen recalled their
Guy Fawkes thanksgiving, and the Dutch remem
bered hearing their ancestors speak of the great
day of praise and prayer held at Leyden, Hol
land, in 1578, when that city was delivered from
a siege. So, the entire colony began their pious
preparation for what proved to be the gayest
Thanksgiving the colony ever knew, for after
the first one, which lasted several days, the
Puritan Thanksgiving meant long sermons, long
prayers and long faces. Governor Bradford de
termined that the initial Thanksgiving should be
celebrated with no little ceremony and that
feasting should play a part In the occasion. His
tory tells us that he sent out four men, who
were to search for game for the feast. Many
fowls were shot —In fact, enough to meet the
wants of the colony for a week. Wild turkeys
predominated, so it seems that the turkey made
its appearance early In the history of Thanks
giving. The day selected was December 13 (old
style). At the dawn of that day a small cannon
was fired from the hill and a procession was
formed near the beach, close to where the
Plymouth Rock now rests. Elder Brewster, wear
ing his ministerial garb and carrying the Bible,
led the procession as it moved solemnly along
the street. The men walked three abreast, with
Governor Bradford in the rear. There was a
long service in the meeting house, and after it
was over there was a dinner —and such a din
ner had never been known in the colony, for,
apart from the savory turkey and other wild
fowl, the women had done their share in pro
viding good things from the limited supply at
their command. The most dramatic incident oc
curred when the dinner was in progress, for as
if by magic 90 friendly red men, under King
Massasoit, appeared, carrying haunches of veni
son as an addition to the feast. .Thanksgiving
day soon lengthened Into days, for the psalm
eingiug and feasting. Interspersed with war
dances, werq continued several days.
After that Thanksgiving days took on a differ
ent aspect, and occurred at any season; some
times twice a year, or sometimes a year or two
were skipped, Just as it
pleased the governor of
the colony, until 1664,
when the day became a
formal one In Massachu
setts. Other colonies fol
lowed the example, and
pretty soon all New Eng
land joined in giving
thanks on the same day.
During the Revolution
ary war Thanksgiving
days became a fashion,
and the continental con
gress set apart at least
eight days during one
year for that purpose.
On December 18, 1777,
General Washington Is
sued a proclamation for a
general Thanksgiving to
be celebrated by the sol-
diers of the Continental army. In 1789 congress
decided to ask the president to issue a proclama
tion asking the people to suspend work and give
thanks on a certain duy of the year. There had
been considerable opposition to the passage of
the bill, some of the reasons given being more
humorous than seriouß. President Washington
acquiesced in the wishes of congress and issued
a proclamation appointing November 26 of that
year as the day for the American people to join
In thanksgiving to God for the care and pro
tection he had given them in their plentiful
harvest and freedom from epidemics.
From time to time our presidents issued
proclamations, but It was generally left to the
governors of the states to determine on what
day it should occur. Under the administration of
John Adams two national fast days were ob
served, but no real Thanksgiving. It was not
until 1815, after three national fasts on account
of the war, that another national Thanksgiving
was appointed by the president, Janies Madison.
This was due to peace with Great Britain. After
this there was another lull in proclamations as
far as presidents were concerned until 1849, when
President Taylor set a day . of fast on August the
third on account of the cholera. Meanwhile the
national Thanksgiving day seemed to be dying
out, except in the New England states. Then
came the Civil war, and the nation was again
summoned to fasting, and tw f o such days were
kept in 1861—January 4 and September 26—but
it was not until 1863 that the horizon had so
brightened as to warrant the appointment of a
national Thanksgiving. Immediately after the
Battle of Gettysburg Mrs. Sarah J. Hale, a Boston
woman, wrote to President Lincoln suggesting a
national thanksgiving, and following her advice,
the president set apart Thursday, August 6, as
a day of “praise and prayer." On November 26
of the same year another Thanksgiving w-as kept,
and this was really u great festival and observed
in every northern state. In 1864 the 24th of
November was kept. After this, with one ex
ception, our great national day of thanks has
been celebrated on the last Thursday In No
vember.
The presidential proclamations contain very
little that is new or original and usually take the
form of an essay. In 1898, after the Spanish-
American war, President McKinley had a chance
to vary the conventional form by “giving special
thanks for the restoration of peace." This was
just 100 years after Washington’s proclamation.
President Roosevelt, who always did original
things, declared “that a Thanksgiving proclama
tion could not be made a brilliant epigrammati
cal paper.” The proclamation of the president
stamps the feast with a sort of official character
—something possessed by no other holiday. This
proclamation does not make it a legal holiday—
it merely recommends that the people suspend
business for the day. A special statute in each
state- is required to make the day a legal holi
day, and this has not been enacted in every
state.
The day was originally set apart for thanksgiv
ing, fasting, prayer and religious devotions, but
the modern Thanksgiving has become a day of
feasting and jollity, and is made the occasion
of all sorts of sports and festivities. The craze
for outdoor life keeps many from the churches
although the places of worship continue to be
filled with "a goodly company,” who gather to
give thanks to him “from whom cometh every
good and every perfect gift.”
The turkey Is still king of the Thanksgiving
feast and as an addition the good things of the
field and vineyard have been added The famous
pigeon pie, which was a popular Thanksgiving
dish In the early part of the nineteenth century,
is rarely seen in these days. The wild pigeons'
which alighted in great numbers on the buck
wheat fields, were enticed by a decov duck with
in a spring net and caught by the hundred
They were kept alive and fattened on grain until
the day before Thanksgiving, when they were
killed and made into a pie for the Thanksgiving
table.
Most of the old customs of the day have
THE COCHRAN JOURNAL, COCHRAN, GEORGIA.
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passed out of existence The turkey raffle with
dice is still a custom in some parts of the coun
try. Usually the turkey is a tough bird, which
was purchased cheap by the proprietor of the
saloon (for the raffle usually takes place there).
The raftle, of course, draws a crowd of men, who
incidentally patronize the bar during the pro
ceedings. Another sportive feature of Thanks
giving no longer In vogue was the shooting
match, where live turkeys tied to sticks w'ere
used. This cruel practice was abandoned be
cause the New England clergy objected, not on
account of its cruelty, but because it kept the
men away from the church service. This reason
seems to fit in with the idea of the men back in
the seventeenth century who, while they were
eating a Thanksgiving dinner of venison, discov
ered that the deer had been killed on Sunday.
They at once sent for the Indian and had him
publicly whipped, and also compelled him to
return the money which he had been paid for
the deer. This being done, they at once re
sumed their dinner and finished up the venison.
New York city is responsible for the strangest
of all Thanksgiving customs, and one which has
only recently died out. Young men and boys
used to dress themselves in fantastic garb and
parade the streets—hundreds of the boys wear
ing their sisters’ old clothes, their faces smeared
with paint and their heads covered with wigs.
As late as 1885 they held parades and made the
street hideous with their thumping drums and
blaring trumpets. In 1870 this queer perform
ance took on the dignity of a political parade and
prizes were distributed to the companies wearing
the most unique clothing. Senator William M.
Tweed, the famous political boss of that period,
was the donor of a prize of SSOO in gold. This
custom was undoubtedly a survival of Guy
Fawkes days, carried out on a later day in the
year; for some unknown reason it was practiced
only in New York city.
Thanksgiving has always been a day of char
ity, and in the old days it was considered bad
luck to turn even a tramp from the door, and
today our friendly inns, almshouses and charit
able institutions have their turkey dinners, usual
ly gifts from charitable people. Our prisons, too,
serve their inmates with a hearty meal and have
some sort of service of praise. The customs of
the great national holiday may have changed
somewhat, yet the spirit of the first Thanksgiv
ing, which was held at Plymouth, in 1621, still
hovers about the national day of prayer and
praise of the twentieth century—a spirit of
thankfulness to God -for his mercy and kindness
to the people of our great American republic.
FOR ARRIVING COOKS.
“How will I find the house?” asked the cook,
who had booked for Lonelyville.
Can t go wrong.” said her employer. “Our
suburb maintains a reception committee at the
depot.”
DIVERSIFICATION ON
SOUTHERN FARMS
Lespedeza Destined to Become
Important Feed Crop.
HIGH-GRADE HAY AND FORAGE
* ■
Plant la to South What Clover and Al
falfa Are to Other Section*—.
Grows on Any Soil and Need*
Little Attention. , ' >
(By G. H. ALFORD)
Botanists and experimenters are
constantly searching the world for ag
ricultural plants, especially of the
legume family, that will ' furajah
abundant crops of high-grade hay and
forage. Lespedeza, or apan clover, a
little plant of Asiatic origin, and un
til quite recently little known, is des
tined to become the most important
all-round crop for large areas of the
southern United States.
Lespedeza is an annual, appearing
after killing frost is over, and lasting
until freezing weather in the fall. It
may always be distinguished from otji
er small wild clovers by a small pur
ple bloom, which does not appear un
til August. The seed resembles un
hulled clover and are sold and planted
in this shape. It has long tap roots
and a profuse system of lateral roots.
The plant maintains a vine-like ap
pearance when thin on the soil. Over a j
large part of the territory covered the I
growth is dwarfish, from four to six
inches, which leads to the impression
that it is only fit for gracing. In the
southern part of the belt It attains a
growth of from 12 to 30 Inches, and is
so thick on the land as to yield from
two to four tons of dry hay per acre.
Lespedeza is to the south what
clover aud Alfalfa are to other sec
tions. It has the advantage over them
of growing on practically any soil
and with much less cost and attention
than either of the others. The plant
is equally hardy and at home on poor
clay soils, sandy hillsides, alluvial
bottoms or crawfish flats; the growth,
of course, corresponding to the fer
tility of the soil. In feed value it
equals red clover and is little Inferior
to alfalfa.
As a soil renovator nothing sur
passes lespedaza, from the fact that It
makes considerable growth on the
poorest lands and will Increase In size
and denseness each season, while
nearly all other legumes must be
planted, fertilized and doctored to
make any growth whatever on much
Map of the Southeastern Part of the United States Showing the Approx
imate Area Over Which Lespedeza Is Now Naturalized and Within Which
(the Smaller Area) It Is Cut for Hay.
of our lands. Its roots system pene
trates the hardest soil, makes them
porous and stores up vegetable matter
and nitrogen and renders the natural
elements of the soil more available for
plant food. On the poorer soils the
growth increases rapidly, and in very
little time washed away hillsides will
have their gullies checked aud be pro
ducing a luxuriant growth which will
furnish choice food for the stock.
Most legumes must be planted by
the hand of man and many require ex
pensive preparation and fertilizing and
always must be planted on the richest
part of the farm. Another valuable
feature Is that it will hold its own
with any of the native grasses or
weeds, and frequently runs them out
entirely.
No plant In the south, except per
haps the Bermuda grass, will give
more or better pasturage from May
until frost. Growing, as It -does, on
the roughest and poorest hill soils and
on the richest bottom, lands, it adds
untold value to the pasture lands
throughout the areas which it covers.
No other plant will stand so much
hard grazing or dry weather through
the summer period. It has been
claimed, and with good reason, that it
adds 25 per cent, to the carring ca
pacity of any pasture of which it is
a part.
It is only in recent years that les
pedeza has been recognized as one
of the best hay crops of the south.
This is true not only from point of
quality, but m the yield and sureness
of production.
Being very low in moisture content,
the hay is more easily cured and han
dled than any other legumes. This is
a very Important factor In hay mak
ing, where the rains are so frequent
and excessive as in many sections in
the south. The writer considers oats
and lespedeza, grown together, one
of the most valuable crops for the
southern farmer. This is undoubted
ly (rue when the expenses of the pro-
duction and harvesting are considered.
The two fit in nicely together, and one
preparation of the land answers for
both crops. Growing both on the
same land will not only prove profit
able, but if properly handled will build
! U P the soil. It will also help to solve
! the question of farm labor, now one
of considerable worry in all agricul-
of the country. By
utHICTCfg *a large part of the farm in
hay and oats, much of the work may
be done by the use of labor-saving ma
chinery. The mowei. rake, binder,
thresher, seeder and several other
high-class implements can be used to
great advantage and profit.
After a thorough preparation of the
seed bed, apply fertilizer when It is
used just before or at the time of
seeding, except nitrate of soda, which
should be used as a top dressing in
early spring. Oats should be drilled
in with seeder, two and one-half to
three bushels to the acre, between
September 15 and November the Ist,
according to the locality. If the land
is not already seeded with lespedeza
from a previous crop, it should not
be sown until the latter part of Febru
Lespedeza Pan, With Top Raised to
Show Wires or Rods Beween
Which the Seed Falls Into the Pan
When the Crop la Harvested.
ary or in March, after all danger of
killing frost is past. Twenty to 25
pounds of seed per acre should be
used. Sow on the oats, and follow
with section harrow, set slanting.
This will give sufficient loose soil to
cover the seed and prevent drifting
after rain. Germination will be rapid
after when moisture Is present. The
plants will grow rather slowly until
after the oats are taken off, after
which the growth will be rapid. In
case weeds should get a start, run
mower over the land to clip them in
July.
The oats will be ready for the binder
by June 1. The lespedeza is ready
for the mower in September and Oc
tober. The period of harvesting can
be extended over a longer period than
for any other hay crop. The seed
forms in September, and when the
land Is to be continued in lespedeza
enough seed should be allowed to be
mature so that In handling enough
will scatter oft to reseed, thus saving
of buying and reseeding. Where only
hay is desired, cutting may be done
when the plant Is in full bloom, in
most cases about September 15. The
yield varies from one ton, on poor
•uplands, to three or four tons on
rich lands and bottom lands. One
day’s sun is sufficient for the hay.
Rake and let stand in windrow or
shocks for four or five more days, then
put Into barn or bale. It cures quick
ly on account of small stems and low
water content.
When saving seed for use or for
market, the poorer portions of tb,e land
will be found best suited. There will
usually be a heavier crop of seed and
less straw to run through the thresh
er. When mowing for seed alone, the
mowing should be delayed until the
larger number are matured. Cut be
fore the plants are killed, however.
Rake while still moist and let cure in
windrow. Handle carefully to pre
vent shattering, as the seed fall off
easily. The cheapest and best method,
if weather permits, is to haul directly
from the field to thresher. Adjust
sieves and wind of machine carefully
to prevent blowing out seed. The yield
varies from 6 to 12 or more bushels
to the acre.
The market for hay is growing by
leaps and bounds, and anything like
a good quality can be sold for good
prices, ranging from sl2 to $lB per
ton. Seed saving has not yet become
general anywhere in the lespedeza ter
ritory. The supply does not equal the
demand so far. Prices for seed have
ranged from $3 on the farm to $5 or
more per bushel of 25 pounds cleaned
seed at the seed houses.
Cause of Scours.
Calves can be given scours by feed
ing too much high testing milk.