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Chase, History Tutor, Considers Sanctity of Thanksgiving Holiday

Cites Barry in Backing Campaign For Two Turkey Days

Philip P. Chase '00, tutor in History, joined in the H.T.D.C.'s campaign for a double Thanksgiving yesterday by calling on the students of the University to remember the sanctity and respect with which the Puritans worshipped the Turkey holiday.

To back up his statement Chase referred to John Stetson Barry's "The History of Massachusetts--The Colonial Period," from which he selected the following extract:

"Thus the time-honored festival of THANKSGIVING was instituted:--a festival, which, originally, confined its observance to the sons of the Pilgrims and the state of Massachusetts, and which has now become almost a NATIONAL FESTIVAL, peculiarly appropriate for an expression of gratitude to God, and an acknowledgment of dependence upon Him for His bounties, and productive of a treasure of pleasing reminiscences, connected with the joys of our childhood, and the maturer, but more exquisite delights of our own hearth-sides, where parents and children, brothers and sisters, and all the loved objects of the family group renew, at the festive board, the vows of affection, exchange kind greetings, and revive recollections of the past to enliven the present; while the pilgrimage of life is brightened and sweetened by innocent amusements and healthful recreations, and a sense of obligation to the Giver of all good is implanted more deeply in the heart, sanctifying our trials and enhancing our blessings by a consciousness of the presence and protection of God!"

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