The Brooklyn Daily Eagle from Brooklyn, New York • Page 20

8 TIIE BROOKLYN DAILY EAGLE. NEW YORK, SUNDAY. NOVEMBER 17. 1912. ADVEBTISEMENT.

THE THAlKSGIflMG MAID OLD CUSTOMS OF THE DAY The Thanksgiving Dinner In Old Days and Now more tempting meal barring some fancy "trimmings," perhaps than the typical American Thanksgiving dinner. The historians give an extra touch of romance to the first Thanksgiving feast by crediting the fair and famed Prlscllla with being the chief cook at the three-day celebration. If she really was tbe best cook in that band of wondrous housekeepers, then all apart from her bewitching face and demurely coquettish ways, it is not at all to be marveled at that she had her pick of suitors. Every last Pilgrim, John Alden and Miles Standish Included, must have been attracted by her abilities In getting up the famous feast. And would you know what it was that pretty Priscilla cooked on that day that founded our national habit of eating too much? She had wild turkeys, the historians ten us, gamey In liavor, and she stuffed them with beechnuts.

But with a whole colony teastlng, a few Best Treatment for All Complexion Ills (From Woman' Tribune. I'll tell you my panacea for all complexion troubles. If the skin be colorless, sallow, muddy, over-red, if be rough, blotchy, or pimply, there's nothing that will so surely overcome the condition us ordinary mcrcollzed wax. The wax literally takes otf a bad complexion absorbs the dead and near-dead particles of Bur-face skin, so gently, grudually. you ex1-perienoe no inconvenience at all.

A new complexion is then in evidence, one so clear, spotless, delicately soft and beautiful, you look many years younger. One ounce of this wax, procurable at any drug store, will rejuvenate even the worst complexion. It Is smeared on like cold cream before retiring and removed mornings with warm water. The mercollzed wax habit is a healthier and more economical one than the cosmetic huhlt. If be wrinkled or flabby, bathe it aally in a solution made bv dissolving an ounce of powdered saxolit'e in a half hazeL Thls acts immediately ti22ng eve2 the deepest wrinkles.

fie well-cooked dry pumpkin pulp mashed fine through a sieve, a little salt and ground mace and cinnamon to suit the taste. Bake with a rich undercrust and when done cover with a meringue of the egs whites and powdered sugar. An extras-touch may be added to this by spreading a layer of rich apple sauce or jelly over the top and then heaping the meringue on this, using a pastry bag and tube if you i have one, or a tablespoon, if you havo--no tube. The whites of the eggs may be reserved for some other dish and stiff whipped cream used Instead of meringue. Indian Suet Pudding.

Scald a pint of cornmeal with enough'' boiling water to thoroughly wet the mealj-but leave it tolerably stiff. Add a table- spoonful of salt, chopped lemon, a pound of seeded raisins, a cupful of chopped'" suet, half a glassful of any acid jelly, a "How mild your Thanksgivings are," remarked the grandmother. "Mild!" exclaimed her granddaughter. "Why, 1 thought our football games and general cutting up, and our Thanksgiving dances at night they would shock were lively every one that was not of our generation. What would our pious Pilgrim ancestors say to a modern observation of tbeir combination feast and prayer day, I wonder?" "Well, I'm not a Pilgrim ancestor, and I'm certainly not of your generation, but your Thanksgiving celebrations seem very tame.

They don't Bhock me a bit," insisted grandmother. "Well what did you do in your day that was so different from ours? You couldn't have eaten much more." The granddaughter grinned disrespectfully. "I thought you had to pretend to have fairy-like appetites when you were young. I'll bet you ate the real part of your Thanksgiving dinner from the pantry Bhelves when no one was looking." Grandmother smiled. "I can't remember ever getting up hungry from our Thanksgiving table," she said.

"If anything, we had more to eat than you do now. At least, we plied things on more generously and did not spread them out in thin courses, with paper dolls and pink candles to fill up the table Instead of food. But that isn't what I'm talking about. I mean, we used to have more downright fun on Thanksgiving. Go into the strets on Thanksgiving day In my girlhood and you knew it was Tnanksgiving.

You could not mistake it. You saw evidences on every hand. Every boy in the land had a false- face on Thanksgiving, if nothing else, and went about merrily tooting a noisy horn. How many of those do you see now? Then there were sure to be crowds and crowds of ragamuffin paraders, and every neighborhood sent out Its 'target company' to Btrlve for honors. I haven't seen a target company in thirty years.

And as for ragamuffins I was told year before last that some parts of town kept up the habit of ragamuffin parades, and I traveled out on Thanksgiving Day to see one. It was a sad spectacle, compared with the real ones we used to have. "In the poor neighborhoods there would be that well merited the name ragamuffins, but In some parts of town the parades wore impressive affairs. The best masquerade you young folks get up nowadays could not outshine the costumes of some of our typical old raga muffin processions. Gold lace and cocked hats and courtiers' costumes vied with i Indian rigs and Pilgrim fathers and Po cahontas.

Fine prizes would be awarded to the cleverest figures. It was only the little fellows and sometimes the little girls that would get up outlandish costumes, unearthed from garret stores, and sometimes largely made up of mothers' lace curtains, and go around and beg pennies and goodies from the neighbors. Every one on Thanksgiving Day prepared for an array of these grotesque little beg- The first Thanksgiving, In 1621, was celebrated with a three days' feast. The coming Thanksgiving of 1912 as most of those In between will do its best to cram Into one day enough feasting to do for a week. So no matter how devotedly religious a person is, or how fond of Bports, or how determined to find something "original" to do on this goodly day, the main event, gradually forcing Its way on toward evening, but just as hearty and overwhelming as In Its old-time midday supremacy, Is bound to be the Thankaglvlng'dlnner.

Now, sober and repressed as our old Pilgrim ancestors were In most things, they did know how to get up a good dinner. So good, indeed, were their Ideas on the subject, that no culinary twists since their day have managed to oust from the Thanksgiving programme or from a warm spot In the hearts of all true Americans the Important dishes of the original Thanksgiving feast. It Is a poor home Indeed that has not its luscious turkey and Its pumpkin pie on that one day in the year unless It deliberately chooses to substitute capon or ducks and apple pie or fruit cake or something else. And the most famous French chef In the most gorgeous hostelry would be hard put to It to get up a gars, and had oranges and cookies and nuts to place In their baskets, as well as a stock of pennies for general distribution. "The girls used to go along on ttia target excursions.

I don't mean that they marched or rode with the men, but there would be a trip to the country and the target company would arrive and shoot for prizes and hold a feast, and every one would have a good time. Perhaps your football games are just as good sport, but except for the cheering at the only one you ever succeeded in making witness, there seemed little of interest to the spectator. Any one can judge for himself the skill of a man shooting at a target, but who but an expert can tell what is going on under a heap of a score of arms and legs? The target shooting, I once heard, grew out of a still earlier practice of shooting turkeys that were tied to stakes. "The only hope I see for your Thanksgiving is in the suffragists." "But how, grandmother?" "Well, I don't in the ltust mean to say that the suffragists remind me of the ragamuffins, but the sufflragists have good cause to rejoice- and give thanks this year after winning four States, and why cau't they iiold a Thanksgiving Day parade, as well as an evening parade? They might have a lot of little district processions that way, and If they wanted to dress up in character costumes all the better, I fay. I'd like to see them do It.

Nobody else has the spunk nowadays to do it seems to me, and they could give us a rousing good old-fashioned Thanksgiving if they wanted to." Jill i-upiui ui sweet miiK, cuptui oi sugar, -and four well-beaten eggs. Mix the gredients thoroughly together and tnrn into a well-buttered pall or pudding mold "4, with a tight-fitting cover. Boil or the pudding for four hours. Eat with hard or butter sauce. Squash Pie.

Some prefer the more delicate squash pie to the pumpkin. For three cupfuls ot the cooked, drained, sieved squash, take a pint of sweet cream or rich milk and cream, one cupful of sugar, four eggs, or three eggs and a tablespoonful of IN COLONIAL TIMES TODAY Yearly Appoints the Day turkeys would not be enough, so she cooked as well quantities of wood pig eons and wild partridges, and with the call for meat still unsatiBlied. she turned to the friendly Indians for aid and they supplied her with venison. A whole deer at a time she roasted a regular barbecue. Oysters and clams the first the Pilgrims ever had tasted these Indians supplied, but whether Priscilla and her little band were epicures enough to swallow these bivalves whole and raw, or experimented in cooking them, nobody now can discover.

Fish there was a-plenty, in all the nearby streams and the sea at their doors, and Prlscllla and the rest of the good Pilgrim womenfolk broiled it carefully for the feast. For sweets they had barley flour for the making of pastries, and quantities of wild fruits to give them a pungent flavor, or to be eaten in their natural state. And what does Prlscllla's great-great-great granddaugnter eat at her formal meal at 7 in the evening of Thanksgiving1 Day? Turkey she finds on her bill of fare, surely, and its stuffing may be chestnuts in place of beechnuts, or may De piump oyslerB. Before she reaches the turkey, nowever, she has consumed an appetizing grape fruit and a cupful of consomme, and she nibbled at little salted crackers and olives and tender bits of celery. With her turkey she must have a flavor of the inimitable cranberry sauce, ana she must have some veget-j ables creamed cauliflower, perhaps, and I glazed sweet potatoes.

A simple orange sherbet follows this course and whets her appetite for more good things to follow. A salad she demands it would not be a dinner without it. A heavy salad would be out of place in this already rather heavy meal, so she may take nothing but hearts of lettuce with French dressing, or she may have cream cheese and little peppers on lettuce leaves. If she has omitted the relishes at the beginning of the meal she will take special delight in slender stalks of celery stuffed with olives, plmentoes and cream cheese. I To close her meal, In place of a see-l tion cut from a huge pumpkin or mince pie, Bhe finds at her plate two tiny, individual pies one of pumpkin and one of mince and then for as long as she cares, or as long as the conversation remains interesting, she sits at the table and nibbles raisins and nuts and bonbons, and little hard, toasted crackers and Roquefort cheese, and ends with the necessary Now, there Is not a housekeeper in this land who would admit' not knowing the very, very best way of preparing turkey that anybody knew.

If she is of New England descent, she has her great-great-grandmother's recipe. If she is a Southerner, she cooks her turkey as mack mammy taught her to. If she is a plain, ordinary, jumbled-up American, she has her pet cook book way of doing things, and no one can drag her from it. But every housewife, old or is always willing to try some new method of getting up the sweet courses for her dinner. Pies and puddings galore she must have for her Thanksgiving feast, and she Is ever ready to learn about some new kind.

For her benefit, an expert has compiled the following recipes, tested and found good, and from their savory lot she may choose the one Bhe most likes for that finest of all meals of the year: Bread Pumpkin Pudding. Soak four cupfuls of stale bread In cold water until soft, then drain off all the water not soaked Into the bread. Cook some pumpkins tender and pretty dry, add three cupfuls of pumpkin to the crumbs and halt a tablespoonlul each of nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves. Beat two eggs well and add with a cupful of sweet milk and sugar to suit your taste. Buke in a moderate oven for an hour.

Serve with cream sauce. Chopped almonds or English walnuts may be added, also seeded and chopped raisins. Great Aunt's Pumpkin Pie. Take one cupful of cream, one of sugar, well beaten yolks of four eggs, a pint of tion of the day was made in 1795, by Governor John Jay, not for any usual reason but in thanksgiving for the cessation of the yellow fever plague. cornstarch, half a teaspoonful each ot powdered cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and dash of ginger; also add a pinch of salt.

Bake with one crust. An Autumn Pie. Peel and core some nice tart apples and place In a baking dish. Sprinkle with brown sugar and grated pour over them a little cranberry juice and add a few whole red berries to give the apples a nice color. You can add the berries, uncooked, and a little water, if you have no cranberry juice ready.

Put on a top cover of half and half, or puff-paste, rolled rather thick. Bake an hour in moderately hot oven. Eat with sweetened cream, plain or whipped. Creamed Apple Pie. This is.

a suitable accompanyment to your pumpkin pie, for there must be more than one kind if you have an old-fashioned Thanksgiving dinner party. Pare and slice thin enough good cooking apples to fill a deep pie dish lined with lower crust. Sift a dessertspoonful ot pastry flour over the apples mixed with sugar to make quite sweet. Pour a cup of rich milk over the. and flavor with grated nutmeg.

Bake In a moderate oven and slowly, until' apples are well done. If oven gets too hot the cream will curdle. Mock Mince Pie, No. Take two eggs, one cupful of cider, two cupfuls of grapes, two and a half cupfuls of sugar, two cupfuls of crumbled breadcrumbs soaked In a pint of cider, half a cupful of butter, one teaspoonful of soda and ground cloveB and nutmeg to suit the taste. Mix well and bake with two crusts.

Mother's Mock Mince Pie, No. 2. Take two hardboiled eggs, chopped: half a cupful of sugar, half a cupful of raisins, chopped; a quarter of a cupful of vinegar, half a glass of grape, currant or cherry jelly. Three crackers crumbled fine, or the same amount of breadcrumbs; half a lemon chopped fine and nutmeg, cinnamon and clove to taste. Mix all together and bake In two crusts.

Sweet Potato Custard Pie. Two cups of fine mashed sweet potato pulp; one cup of sugar; one pint of sweet milk; the well beaten yolks of two eggs; half a teaspoonful of salt; one tea- spoonful of lemon. Bake with under crust only. When the pie Is done the whites of the eggs to a froth; sweeten with two tablespoonfuls of pow-. dered sugar; add enough- cranberry Jelly or juice to color and flavor nicely and spread the meringue over the pie.

Or use the meringue plain, brown slightly the oven, and decorate with bright red whole cranberries cooked In syrup. THE TIME OF THANKSGIVING proclaimed, sometimes In the fall for harvest, sometimes following a victory, sometimes In honor of the arrival of a ship. As the harvest idea loomed larger the date gradually became more nearly a fixed one, and made late fall the proper time of thanksgiving. The harvest Idea was again lost sight of during the Revolution, but the Continental Congress thought it well to let the people give thanks upon all possible occasions, and proclaimed no less than eight days of Thanksgiving, at odd times of the year. Washington himself sanc tioned an army Thanksgiving twice dur-lng the war, and finally when the new government was established the first President Issued the first National Thanksgiving proclamation, appointing I November 26 as Thanksgiving Day for his people.

Then the custom languished for a time. Occasionally the old autumn holiday was remembered, but it was usually individual StateB that observed it, following the proclamations of their Governors. It was not until Lincoln's time that Thanksgiving as we know it now was formally restored as a National custom, and even as yet, while universally observed, It is not everywhere a legal holiday. Individual States have had special statutes making it a State holiday, and as the President did not forget this year to Issue his declaration of national happiness each of those will enjoy a true holiday and the rest of the country will enjoy a good meal. In New York State the first proclama There's a purple light on the rugged hills, There's a song of winds in the leaf -flown trees, And sweet, ah sweet, through the country-side, The wild winds croon of Thanksgiving tide.

Speed on, oh winds, to the busy town: Speed on i' again, to the farthest sea; song waves, chanting clear Thanksgiving draweth near. Helen Chase. THE TRAVELERS' THANKSGIVING Decorations and Favors For the Holiday Table in November without Its Thanksgiving Day would be inconceivable to the average American, though the papers jj gravely announce Vjk every year that it K'-lma has lust been saved to us by a happy remembrance of the President, who found something to be thankful for and did not forget to remind his people. Even this year, when few people can see much cause for joy in the situation of the President, nobody doubts his ability to find enough for a Thanksgiving proclamation. "Xo President ever Ignored It," is the common belief.

But the common belief is a trifle wrong. Thanksgiving may be a set custom now, and the White House proclamation but a formula, but there was a time there were plenty of times, as a matter of fact when no Thanksgiving would have been observed but for the specific recommendation of the ruler; when the proclamation meant something to the people. It is only since the Civil War, in spite of the early Colonial origin of the feast, that Thanksgiving has been regularly observed. Current talk has it that the very first Thanksgiving Day was that ordered by Governor Bradford of Massachusetts In 3621, as an expression of the happiness of the people over their abundant harvest. History -tells us, however, that a generation before that, In May, 1578, there was a Thanksgiving observed on the shores of the new world In Newfoundland, it is true, and solemn and religious In its character, but a real Thanksgiving, nevertheless.

It was conducted by "Maister Wolfall," a clergyman, aboard the Ayile, the ship which brought the first company to settle In that region, and consisted in a communion service and sermon by "Maister Wolfall," giving thanks for the miraculous delivery of the ship upon a safe shore. The first Thanksgiving service within the limits of the present United States was held In Maine in August, lfio7, and was similar to the Newfoundland observance. These expressions of gratitude for safety would not have Inaugurated the happy custom which still persists, had not the more material Thanksgiving of Governor Bradford's time made an appeal to the people. Th'-re was something very substantial and not likely lo be forgotten about that early time of feasting, among a people Inured to hard work and scanty enjoyments. It was made different from earlier expressions of thanks though Intermingled with much religious ceremony as soon as the proclamation had been made, for Governor Bradford, mindful of the real joy of the occasion, sent out four men to hunt for game, and thus connected the turkey with Thanksgiving.

As the colony was feasting upon Its wild fowl and "flxin's," the Indians discovered them and In most friendly fashion, ninety KeJ men under King Massasoit, Joined their "party" ami contributed great pieces of venison. The feast was prolonged into three days, anil the ancestors f.f present-day America began to unbend nnd to barn how to have good time a habit which their descendants have Jievi-r unearned. After this, In irregular fashion through, out New Kiigland, Thanksgiving Day was CAN WE HELP YOU? If jou ffiii i Factory nr ln? Work'-rn, tni Wntrifii, Nursri. ViupaiifoiiM, XJoy'kci'ii'Ts, M'tilierV Hi Ijhtm, Tin luiiiiK Woiiicii'a ChrlNtlHii AttMUI'lll I Ion will hi'lp tlirimuli the EMPLOYMENT ACENCY. Mm Wi And flow into "The time of If tho Thanksgiving hostess does not care to have the sameness of orange-colored and pumpkin-loaded table, she may strike a newer note by going back to old days If that Is not a paradox.

She may have cunnnlng little Puritan maids in gray and white, and sober Cotton Mathers and the like In broad-brimmed Pilgrim hats, dour enough, almost, to take away any but a good Thanksgiving appetite. These little figures are easily made at I eiLuer iium gray anu wait? paper or irom bits of gray cloth and white lawn. In the former, clothespin bodies with painted-on faces may be gooil enough, but the dignity of tho latter re quires a real doll, a full-length gray cape for the Puritan maid and a kerchw of white lawn, parted hair and a demur, cap will make tho most, captivating costumes. A toy church may well be tic centerpiece of the tttbl that has r. quaint figures at the plates, and If toy Indians prowl around among the greenery or stand sentinel a I.

the plates of tm young folks, the I New England atmosphere be nil the bolter carried out. An ultra modern Thanks-giving scent might be carried out in place nf this such a one as Is Indicated In the contrasting on this page. The young people In particular would enjoy a tnbI-. th.i a football Held. Any bny would tell his mother just how to construct the "goals" if she did not knew, and s'no would Hod It cany matter In the favor and mn.ly shops to pick up tiny Imitation biuii'r not balls to be (llled Willi nnd pi wed at tile covers as favors; figures, one at each goal or stand.

tig In the center, ready for k( if," would bo enough of thfl lentil, anil these randy-box football heroes may tin found in tile a tills time of year at small price. o-course, If the small boys nf the family Insist upon regular game there may have to he eleven players on a side, sprawling all over the renter of the table In a lively football scrimmage, nnd a tiny "grandstand" with cheering doll girls at tho side. Idle megaphones pennants may alternate with the footballs as plate favors, and the flowers will have to be In the colors of the colleges or schools supposed to be fighting on the tablecloth, gridiron. This sort of tablo decoration is especially appropriate to the evening dinner in honor of a football hero of a real game, or a Thanksgiving "party" to the college boys home on a few days vacation. Among the more usual favors those made up mainly of crepe paper there are 90me interesting novelties being shown, most of which could be copied at home with the aid of the scissors and tho paste pot.

Jack Horner's pie this year Is made of cranberries and Is a real pie In form, when it Isn't a big paper pumpkin. Nicely "baked" brown cardboard makes the crust around the edge and the top is a crinkly red shiny paper Just the color of cranberries. A pumpkin pie might be mnde In the same way with pumpkin-colored paper. Little red or pumpkin-toned ribbons run to each plate and on their ends are place cards which have each a line from the "Queen of Hearts" rhyme, so that the whole tale of the villainoua knave and the unfortunate queen am', her tarts may be read by walking around the table and reading the cards in order. These cards are henrt-shapi'd, as a matter of course.

Individual favor dishes on the same order are called cranberry tarts, and each contains one favor. Then little lee cases are io in suitable Thanksgiving forms, and 'ere are nil kinds of quaint place cards with inrkrys nd such. The rolls of cr.po paper designed for Thanksgiving Day use are particularly ffec4jv( quite as good as the Halloween mes, but different. One style shows a procession of big turkey cocks. Anothei 'ffers a lot of good things to eat pump- 'n and corn and red apples and Another has ears of corn partlelly shucked, and another one big pumpkins.

One of tho prettiest of all the designs l. In in iimn leaves lovely red and yellow a tered about artistically on background of a soft, chocolate tan. Thl.i may be untl as a frieze around the room or hung straight down as though it were wall iMper, er formed Into curtains by looping it hack with ropes of twisted paper, in curtain form the crlre Hioulrt be a bit. so as to them, giving a ruffled appearnneo, Vnr a ry muail sum a compl-to paper table net nr bought, suitable for spread at 'I' -nnksslvIng party, bir iiamij- or enough for t'ie real --giving dinner. In these are rnrdbonrd plntoi dei-nraied turkey gobblers, set of niipltitns and nni rf doilies, a paper tahleclolh.

Separate nnnrr I "ap'ilns with turkey or pumpkin designs I may lie bought, or Individual "sets," j-onsiHting of one such napkin, gnld- 1 "Hori-d pi napkin ring, with a spuco lor the name, and a fancy paper cap. JJ Jt Jy ifrj, Copyright, IMS, tierlioit Ponllng. i OS fti! Tf VI Hit I fm Thanksgiving has Just one disadvantage. It comes too soon after Halloween. The short space of time between these two jolly festivals does not mar the enjoyment of the princi pal Thanksgiving occupation, of course -the eating of the biggest meal if the year; but In the opinion of the woman who Is having a big family reunion, or Is taking Into the Inner cir-le some exiled friends nf another rlty, and wishes to have the table at which she seals them resplendent with a lot of novel favorB, Halloween "takes the wind out of the sails" of the later holiday.

The pumpkins, the 111 tie papier marhe wgctabb-s, tile orange-colored paper favors, the bundles of whent, the fruits all of these typify tho fullness of harvest for which Thanksgiving is, theoretically, at least, observed. But they also, long custom, have grown to be associated with til" uVlig.r.s of the All Hallowed Eve, and are exploited far ami near as the appropriate decorations and favors for that nighl. One thing the earlier festival has to Itself the witch. One thing Thanksgiving owns in entirety the turkey. There are little glistening turkeys In Iridescent colors that may sit around the tablo and lend It.

color. There are huge turkeys nf spreading tails and forbidding aspect that are hlg enough of themselves lo act as centerpieces. There are "roast" turkeys, done to a turn, that come in all sizes from a rouple of Inches to the proportions of a real and edible bird. Thern are stocky little chocolate turkeys, "roasted" or "live," Ihnt will tickle the hearts and the pulnl.es of the kiddles. There are "gobblers" that have hearth that will come off and reveal all the treasure, uf a Jack Uirncr i Sarah Muor..