THALER 



5779 



THANKSGIVING DAY 



THALER, tah'ler, a large silver coin current 

 in Germany from the sixteenth century until 

 1873. A few of these coins are still in circula- 

 tion and are equal in value to three marks, or 

 71.4 cents. The thaler was first coined in 1519, 

 in the Bohemian town of Joachimsthal, from 

 which it received the early name Joachims- 

 thaler. See MARK. 



THALES, tha'leez, one of the. Seven Sages 

 of Ancient Greece and the founder of the 

 earliest school of Greek philosophers, at Ionia 

 in Asia Minor. He belonged to the period cov- 

 ering the first half of the sixth century B. c., 

 and was a native of Miletus, in Asia Minor. He 

 founded the geometry of lines, having learned 

 the geometry of surfaces from the Egyptians, 

 and was the first to apply that science to prac- 

 tical use in the measurement of the distance 

 of ships at sea, the height of pyramids, etc. 

 Much of his fame in his own day was the re- 

 sult of an accurate prediction of an eclipse. The 

 philosophy of Thales was based on the theory 

 that all things are composed of water, which, 

 though false, was the origin of the later philoso- 

 phies. See PHILOSOPHY. 



THAMES, term, THE, England's most im- 

 portant, though not its largest, river. Roman 

 writers mention the Tamesia, and the name is 

 probably a Celtic word, meaning broad river. 

 It rises in Cirencester, in south-central England, 

 and flows easterly for 228 miles to the North 

 Sea. On its banks are Eton, Oxford, Henley, 

 Windsor and many places almost equally inter- 

 esting. The Thames is navigable for barges to 

 within eighteen miles of its source, and lately 

 it has been deepened at London until it is 

 readily accessible to the largest shipping ves- 

 sels. The tonnage of the imports and exports 

 handled in London harbor in 1912 was 19,548,- 

 000, three-fourths of which was import, princi- 

 pally wool from Australia. 



THAMES RIVER, BATTLE OF THE, also 

 known as the BATTLE OF MORAVIANTOWN, in the 

 War of 1812. It was the direct result of Perry's 

 naval victory on Lake Erie, after which he sent 

 to General William Henry Harrison the famous 

 message, "We have met the enemy, and they 

 are ours." Perry's victory gave the Americans 

 control of Lake Erie, and made it necessary 

 for the British to abandon Detroit. The Brit- 

 ish garrison under Colonel Proctor, accompanied 

 by a force of 600 Indians led by Tecumseh, 

 crossed into Canada, where they were pursued 

 for several days by 3,000 Americans under Gen- 

 eral Harrison. Although outnumbered two to 

 one, the British finally halted at Moravian- 



town, on the Thames River, in Kent County, 

 Ontario, and on October 5, 1813, offered battle. 

 Almost at the first volley Proctor and many of 

 his men fled, but Tecumseh (which see) fell 

 fighting on the battle field. The Americans 

 burned Moraviantown the next day, and then 

 marched back to Detroit. The death of Te- 

 cumseh, foremost of the Indian chiefs, broke 

 the league of tribes which had been allied to 

 the British, and practically ended the coopera- 

 tion of the British and Indians on the north- 

 west frontier. Proctor was afterwards publicly 

 reprimanded by a court-martial and was sus- 

 pended from his rank and deprived of his pay 

 for six months. 



THANE , a title of Anglo-Saxon origin, mean- 

 ing variously a servant, attendant, retainer, or 

 official, but always with a military significance. 

 In old England there was a system of thane- 

 hood, quite similar to knighthood of later days ; 

 a freeman who was not of noble parentage 

 might become a thane by acquiring a certain 

 portion of land, by making three sea voyages 

 or by taking holy orders. He was then recog- 

 nized as a member of the territorial nobility, 

 and his sons inherited his thanehood. 



The thane had a vote in the local and gen- 

 eral Witenagemot, or assembly. A thane of or- 

 dinary standing was sometimes known as "lord 

 of the manor," while a successful thane might 

 hope to become an earl. The king's thane was 

 a member of his bodyguard, was therefore a 

 personal attendant in war, and an important 

 person, who had great freedom of social privi- 

 lege; he was responsible only to the king for 

 his deeds or behavior. On retiring from per- 

 sonal service to the king he was given a grant 

 of land. There were other degrees of thanes, 

 as bishop's thane, a thane's thane, etc. After 

 the reign of Henry II the thane was not known 

 in English history. 



The thane was an important figure in story 

 and verse of olden time. Shakespeare causes 

 Macbeth to say (Macbeth, Act I, sc. 3), "I 

 know I am Thane of Glamis;" and Stevens, in 

 his notes, explains that the thaneship of Glamis 

 was the ancient inheritance of the Macbeth 

 family. Sir Walter Scott, in his Lay of the 

 Last Minstrel (c. 5), makes the chief see 

 in the thanedom once his own, 

 His ashes indistinguished lie. 



THANET, OCTAVE. See FRENCH, ALICE. 



THANKSGIVING DAY, in the United States 

 and Canada, a day set apart annually for the 

 giving of thanks to God for the blessings of 

 the year. Originally it was a harvest thanks- 



