Let Us Give Thanks

The fact that the day of our great national thanksgiving is approaching as rapidly as though it were on horseback, behooves us to dip into the affairs of the past year and ascertain, if possible, the things forwhich we should give thanks. Since last we gathered around the festive board, and spattered the true inwardness of the farnily gobbler over our shirt fronts, remorseless time who knows not weariness, has sought out the tender, the true, and the beautiful, as well as the coarse, the mean, and the tough, and has set his hand on their shoulders and bid them come henee. We have no more fitting illustration of the fact that death prefers the young and tender than the deceased turkey upon which we are soon to opérate. How still he lies; mowed, in life's young dream, to make a Yankee holiday. How changed he seerns. Once so gay and festive, now he lies on the platter stripped of his overcoat and with his legs sticking out into the atmosphere. Soon the amateur carver in our various homes, will stick the shining blade into the unresisting bird, and the air will be filled with stuffing and profanity. A Thanksgiving turkey is much of a humorist, and nothing pleasesJiim more than to flop over on oneside and smile, when the student jabs him with his carving sword. Few men can retain their sangfroid, when they are compelled to get a step ladder and pluck the first joint from the branches of a chandelier while people are looking at them. And what has the past year conveyed to us? Speaking from a Silver Senator's standpoint, it has brought us a large wad of dark gloom with maroon flounces up the back and down the sides. Speaking from a democratie standpoint it has been very productive of foreign missions and fourth-class offices worth from $10,000 down to Si. 45 per annum. Politically, the last year has bee one of wonderful changes. Man during the year have been appointed to office for the first time. Many also, have gone frora office, out into the cold, cruel world, and are grap pling, as how to invest perspiration in a few plain groceries. All our foreign relations hav been pleasant excepting the two round contest with Hawaii, and tha will end pleasantly. Foreigners who know nothing o prohibitory laws have made rapic strides of advancement. A for eigner, who has never experienced the pleasure of drinking eccentric beverages, from a gas fixture in Maine, and from a Babcock fi re extin guisher in. Kansas, still enjoys life by trying to bust the Czar, as he goes out into the barn for some apples, or by placing a surprise package of dynamite on the throne of a tottering dynasty, where the dynasty will sit down upon it anc then rapidly move into the hazy realm of another existence. Many startling changes have taken place since last November Ourpolitical fabric has assumed a different hue. Men who were unknown and unnoticed a year ago are still more so now. This is good sign. I do not know which party is the cause of it, but I am glad to see that it has come to pass As to crops, those of the great Northwest have been fairly good but weresomewhat damaged byentomologioal subjects. While the democratie administration has done a great many good things, it has not been able to stop the onward march of the peanut bug. While Jeffersonian simplicity has been holding Forth at Washington right much, heaves, spavin and botts have been the favorite complaints in the West. All these things have happened. W. D. Howells has quit writing for money and in his remaining days will live on glory and sociahstic doctrines. The silver-plated senator from the remote districts of Nevada has sung his song and hibernated, and Ruth Cleveland has a new sister. Bufïalo Bill has purchased a hair cut, and the Midway laisance has gone henee. Senator Cameron has returned to his blackeg associates in Pennsylvania, and he U. of M. football team has won a game. The fool-kilier in the ueantime has not been idle. With lis oíd, rusty,.unloaded musket he ïar gathered in enough to make his heart swell with pride. To this number he has also added many by he use of rough on rats a perscrip. ion that never killed anything exept those who were fortúnate nough to belong to the human amily. Still he has missed a good many on account of the great rush of business in his line. I suppose no one has better reasons to be hankful for this oversight, than I lave.