The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, November 20, 1898, Page 18

THE N FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY NOVEMBER 20, 1898. d usiiss SN LT o 4 ; 2 UNCLE S 4188 ® b & =N ’ 5 ~ @ > > . Iust Thanksgiomg 3 € . & :' i | T . § 5 - x £ j : HIS NEW COLONIES. = @ (Q On November 24 the stars and stripes, o for the first time in history, will be waving ¢ ¢ over possessions reaching half way around o o the globe, and under new dusky colonists ,000 people ing day 2 80,000,000 will part i great annual feast of turkey and pie and give thanks upon them dur- number of have over to Rico, Ha- Philippine And they to come and take part in our feast, for they seem to realize just how much they have to be thankful for by being freed from the T yoke Spain. La r ne all of our 6 population celebrated Than day within the boundaries of the Unite States s 100,000 of the same people will ob: b in our new possessions, far from their old homes, safe and happy under the flag of Uncle Sam. It is these soldier boys Wt troduce our new colonists and nightm: f Thanksgiving Of course you know that a 1 ing day that is not followed by mare is not 1f you don’t be- lieve it ask any small blxy who did not a succe get enough tu mince pie bring about the des result. 1y he will tell you that the day W ad failure. However, soldi > danger of our g able to have the h, judging by the ood things that > seas in int during the last been enough and - t0 Say Our new will get th n declare that Thanksgiving day is the greatest of all the feast days, even if it is not down in the Saints’ almanac. Many things will be lacking in these feasts in the far away lands that were a regular part of the day’s celebration last year. There is hardly likely to be a browned and steaming turkey served whole in either Cuba or the Pailippine But there will be plenty of canned tur- key and the mince pie and plum pud- there is 1 ese dings are not likely to lose flavor on account of being a few weeks old and packed in hermetically aled tins. All the good things that can be packed in cans, jars or bottles will be on hand in Cider may be lacking and pos- ome of the favorite beverages of lands made to take its place. all kinds will come in tins, and ysters will be served in all sorts cles fresh from the latest patent package s going to be a great day over of the habitable globe and it is to oped that all the good things that en sent will reach our boys far away from home in good season for the feast. If not there is no denying but what our boys will observe the day as near as they can with all sorts of make- shifts. Chickens are plentiful in Ma- nila and they don’t make such a bad substitute for turkeys when far from o of our conquering soldiers will initiate our ¢ > turkey and canned mince pie in the an- « ¢ nual grand national jubilee. the flag the outposts into eating canned < @® a R R R R R R RCRORRORCOROR Y ;1;.- iulnd where the turkey grows in all s glory. The observance of Thanksriving day in our new colonies is sure to make the natives open their eyes very, very wide; but mot as wide as it will make them open their mouths when they see the canzied Thanksgiving feast gotten up by our patriotic soldiers under stress of eircumstances. SEWACE A BIG PUMPKIN PIE for SAN FRANCISCO. Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater, Had a wife and couldn’t keep her. Put her in a pumpkin shel And there he Kept her very well. FTER the Thanksgiving dinner there will be enough pumpKin shells for all the World and his wife. For on that day, by.a con vative estimate, 70,000 pies will be consumed in San Franc alone. Fully three-fourths of those ples will be made of pumpkin or squash. Although mince p are just as typical of the Thanksgiving they are more expensive and families of modest means confine themselves to the pumpkin pies Seventy thousand pies for the city of San Francisco only allows one-fifth of a ple to each person nsidering the pie capacity of the average youth this appears ludicrously small. And those who on other days eschew pies, on Thanksgiving satisfy their craving for pie, although they are confident of reaping an aftermath of doctors’ bills. There are always public dinners for those who cannot afford luxuries in their own homes. But many do mnot avail themselves of this privilege, so all things considered, a fifth of a pie for each person is a falr average. The pumpkin crop is a large one and especially good. The conservative esti- mate for this State places the output at 1,300,000 pounds. This promises a deluge of delicious pumpkin pies that ought to equal those like “mother used to make” in New England. the great pie belt runs through the heart of New England, and. like the Thanksgiving holiday itself, is thoroughly ‘“New England.” Typical pies are composed of three They are either made of pumpkin, mince meat or apples. The reason for this is evident. In those days there was nothing besides apples and squash that could be converted into ples. The apples were either used alone or for mince meat. When the Governor after the first awful winter that the colonies en- dured established a day of thanksgiv- ing it was natural that it should fall on Thursday, and that pie should be the piece de resistance of the dinner. The choice of days fell upon Thurs- day, because it was necessary to have the unwonted excitement in the middle ingredients. I G of the week. Monday's washing and ironing were disposed of and e two days left to compose s for 4he Puritanical Sabbath. iving days were rather jc There W al- the bountiful repast, and rela- way s rear gathered at the one 'd, but there were also the s for the lurking Indian. cear passed the day of Than was celebrated with more joy iment. The menu for the Thanksgiving dinner remained as long, but the prayers grew shorter. There was the same preparation for weeks beforehand, and the gathering of all the scattered members of the fam- ily, but games and amusements crept into the programme for the day. As South. The custom did not travel There Christmas was the holiday of the vear. Thanksgiving was never ob- But wherever- New England settled in the West the day was d . Thanksgiving was not made a na- tional holiday until Lincoln’s adminis- tration. Even then it was not until some time after the war that the Southern people took any . note of Thanksgiving. feature of the day that has remained the same throughout-the year: the Thanksgiving dinner. e turkey and pies enjoy their time-hon- ored places. The observance of the d The on s now general. But the manner of ob- ving it varies. Football has at- tained the place of honor on the pro- gramme, wherever there is brawn and muscle enough .to form football teams. In San Francisco, where the two uni- versity ‘teams meet annually on Thanksgiving day, the interest in the outcome. even overshadows the house- wife's concern in the flaky piecrust. In a measure, too, the outcome af- fects the consumption of ples. If the team that has the largest following is defeated, it naturally affects the appe- tite and the consumption of pie is de- creased. The same rule holds good vice versa The similarity in the shape of the pumpkin and a football, by the law of eternal , may have brought ahout the inevitable game of football on Thanksgiving day. This, of course, is but a theory. Historians have en- tirely overlooked this important point. To really follow the lines laid down the Puritanical ancestors’ pie should be eaten at all three meals on Thanks- giving day. In the gre: pie beit, pie i for break is an ordinary occur- rence, but ide of the region of petual pies there are those who find ult to eat pie for breakfast. In rnia they manage to do their e in the demolition of 70,000 pies at the other two meals, 000 pies are not consumed by Englanders and their de- ndants. Whatever the birthplace, 7 one falls a pie-eating on Thanks- 4 12 day. Palates accustomed to the entrees of France, the macaroni of Italy and the tamales of Mexico lend themselves on this day to the seductive charm of the pie. This is a cosmo- politan cit but on Thanksgiving day the old-fashioned New England pie puts all other dishes to blush in point of popularity. Seventy thousand pies consumed in one day In San Francisco is probably as big a showing as any city of its size outside of the great pie belt can produce. N i Cranberries for THANKSGIVING. HEN the cranberries are ripe on Cape Cod few are the fam- ilies that do not join in the picking. On a sparkling morning in October the vil- lage street in old Weymouth was lit- erally alive with wagons of every de- scription, all going to the bogs. No one would have suspected a crowd of workers in that well-dressed com- pany, the girls in fresh calico skirts of fashionable cut. They wore big hay- makers’ hats, trimmed profusely with colored cambric in cockades and frills. Other women pickers worce sunbonnets and shakers; indeed, there were head- coverings of all kinds. The hands of the pickers naturally. gave them much concern, for the week's work, or even the day’s, would be very severe on unkardened fingers. Both — it \\\\\\\ \ \\\\ men and women wore some kind of big, loose gloves shorn of fingers, their nai being covered with hardened beesw: Soon we left the village and we winding over an unfenced piny waste, which seemed never to have been culti- vated. At infervals we came to big dark stretches of matted shrubs, en- circled by horizons of pines. These were bogs in their natural wild state. Cnce lakes, they have become filled up to a great depth with peculiar wate; loving vegetation—generati plants growing above each oth les; appear, they are valuable in two 3 they are the home of the wild cranberry and often indicate the vicin- ity of bog iron ore. The cranberry bog is subjected, however, to quite an ex- pensive culture and not less than three years of preparati The vines must feel the cold w which seeps through the bogs, yet they need protection from frost in June and from extreme wintry ¢old. This protection is secured by flooding, and a system of irrigation is needed. The owner of a bog must own quite an extensive water right in neigh- boring ponds. The bog is also crossed at regular intervals by narrow ditches which are used for the distribution of the water. In winter a sheet of ice covers it, and in June, if a frost is im- pending, a sheet of water séems to pro- tect the cranberries against injury from the cold. We passed many of the sparkling blue ponds which are such a lovely feature of the region, and soon the Crowfish bog came in sight, already dotted with pickers in groups of twenty or thirty. Our wagon was driven und some trees and soon emptied. And then the knights of the kettle hurried to the tally station, where they recorded their names upon a wide sheet of paste- board, and where a Weymouth girl credits them by a stroke of the pencil for every measure thev pick. Next the field marshal distributes to each a big shining tin measure holding eight quarts. Thus armed, off they start at a run down a narrow path, which shakes under the foot, and are quickly down on_their knees upon the thic green-and-red carpet. There is no vi; ible soil; the bog springs like a hair mattress, spread as are the vines upon the top of the older growths—but they are slender bushes, not vines, wiry and set thick with minute stiff leives and loaded with berries, clean, bright, hard, and of every exquisite tint of red and yellow. The law of the field is to leave none behind the picker. The “bosses,” ex perienced pickers, direct the crowd and see that there is no neglect, cheating nor confusion. “You can't step over that string,” said one of the juniors to me. “Can’t 1?7 It's only two feet high.” “Yes; but you daren’t, I mean.” No one can go over uhtil all the berries a picked clean on this side of it.” “Oh! that is the rule, then?” When I was fairly down on my knee: shoulder to shoulder with some recor breaking picker I realized the awful earnestness of it. The maw of my six- quart measure looked terribly big; but in not many minutes the first of its rings of division was covered. At last it was full and I found myself picking my row in solitude and aching from the posture. Arrived at the tally to dis- charge my load—it scored me one and that meant 10 cents—I remained there to watch the rest, who were more bent on pocketing dollars than 1 was. A steady stream moved to and from the tally. The men were usually thin and brown, like men who have followed the water; the girls were quite nice look- ing, occasionally pretty; the women stout and sensible-looking. But all seemed in grim earnest; no talking, no shouting nor fun, only the stillness of a company of racers. I had expected a gayer spectacle; that the field would T il {} | to the meal, be lightened up somewhat withlaughter and talk. But I might have known that such genial and careless spirits have no place in an American harvest fleld. It may have been so in Arcadia. From beneath the shade of her big hat, mounted behind the fast-filling boxes, the tally-keeper occasi pensed a word, almost a believe there was a good unders among the lads and lasses who often managed to come up together. Two big, blue hay-wagons slowly skirted the bog all day, carrying the ber to the screening and packing house. Here a few of the more respon- sible were kept busy winnowing and barreling. They were principally wo- men, with faces of the true New Eng- land rural type. The crop was abundant. Fifty would yield more than eight thou barre Deacon Crowfish, mov about taking a hand here and there, carried something like a smile on the edges of his faclal wrinkles. The day had its brightest side when the noon- horn sounded and a score of little fam- ily picnics were spread under the trees. Neighbors remembered solitary pickers and their poor acquaintances; more than one pailful of excellent coffee left our camp. Stretched upon pine cush- jons I made note of various facts about cranberry culture, but none of more significance than that this is a really profitable agricultural in the hands of small owne by no means overfull.—Le Journal. industry -— BMERICA'S! FIRST THANKSGIVING HE Pilgrim Fathers remembered the old English Harvest festival in their new home, and expressed their thankfuluess for their firet harvest by a feast. Death had been busy among the brave little com- pany and half their number had been carried off by disease. When health and the warm spring days c again, the little colony be- gan to dig and prepare for planting. “Some English wheat they sowed, as wheat and p but it came not to good, either by the badness of the seed or by the lateness of the ason, or both, or by some other defect.”” Squan- to, a friendly Indian, taught them how to plant corn and to tend to it. Of their harvest Governor Bradford tells us that *they began now to gather in ye small harv they had, and to fit up their houses and dwellings against winter, being all well recovered in health and strength, and had all things in good plenty.” They had *‘a good in- crease of Indian corn, indifferent good but the peas were not worth the gathering.” So the Governor issued a proclama- tion appointing a Feast of Thanksgiv- ing. The largest kitchen in the colony was that in Dame Brewster’s house, and was under the charge of Priscilla Mullens, she who later on became the wife of John Alden, A messenger was dispatched to Invite Massasoit, saga- more of the Wampanoags, and ninety of his warriors, to attend the celebra- tion. On the appointed Thursday Massa- soit and his warriors arrived, and the little settlement gave the Indians a hearty welcome. Soon the drum called them to religious service, then came a period of feasting and recreation which was to last for three days. Athletic sports were indulged in, and the litttle army of twenty men, under the leader- ship of Miles Standish, went through its drill and manual of arms. Then fol- lowed the great feast, which was served in the open & 2 The real Thanksgiving dinner took place on Saturday, the last day of the celebration. The earth, the air and the water had yielded of their bountiful supplies to make _this Thanksgiving dinner, and when the pioneers sat down they sav a table spread with water fowl, wild turkey, venison, corn and barley: with this- cheer they gave thanks that “by the goodness of God they were far from want.” Old Elder Brewster v certainly in- spired when he made his now famous prophecy on that November day, 1621 and how well it has been fulfilled: “Blessed will it be for us, blessed for this land, for this vast continent! nay, from generation to generation will the >lessing descend. I i T f LADRO NES)