418 AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
THE THANKSGIVING DINNER 
By Mary W. Mount 
Photographs by Jessie Tarbox Beals 
og L1ANKSGIVING DAY enters the kalendar of 
our homes like some modern Ceres bearing 
sheaves, crowned with purple clustered 
grapes, the hem of her cere gown powdered 
over with gleaming dust of golden-rod and 
glowing with scarlet of drifted leaves. 
The Harvest Spirit, in our country, is the embodiment of a 
land of plenty and symbolizes the culmination of autumn’s 
largesse in some vital expression of its bounty at the moment 
when Nature pauses, divested of her broidered vesture of 
gold, to prepare for her white slumber robe of winter. To 
every mental vision Thanksgiving day presents the Spirit 
of Plenty in such wise that the most careless pause in 
awe at the realization of how abundant have been the 
blessings of seedtime and harvest; the most thankless 
are moved to gratitude for 
benefits acknowledged at 
no other time. Nature’s 
overflowing bounty stirs us 
to like generous impulses; 
not one is too mean in spirit 
to share with his brother 
that portion of cheer which 
has fallen to his lot. Never 
since our Puritan fore- 
fathers dreamed of a na- 
tional existence have we 
failed to celebrate a festival 
the underlying principle of 
which has been gratitude 
to the Giver of all good for 
the fruits of husbandry. 
The keynote of such a fes- 
tival is an expression of 
outward bounty and inward 
unselfishness, and_ so 
Thanksgiving has been a 
season for the reuniting of 
families; the gathering of friends about a laden board; 
the feasting of the poor, and dispensing of provisions to 
needy tenantry against the coming of winter. A Thanks- 
giving festival is essentially a table celebration; not greedi- 
ness, but gratitude, prompts a board piled high with savory 
dishes and a dining-room where one seems to glimpse the 
Spirit of Plenty smiling through foliage and flower; to 
hear the rustle of her skirt in some bank of golden grain 
glowing from fireplace andmantel. It behooves every house- 
wife to make her table express the true feeling of the day; 
earth’s bounty, human thankfulness, and a pervading sense 
of friendliness and good-cheer. The Thanksgiving table, 
HEEPS' TO) Pale 
HOUSEWIFE 
TABLE AND HOUSEHOLD SUGGESTIONS OF INTER- 
EST TO EVERY HOUSEKEEPER AND HOUSEWIFE 
A Thanksgiving table suggestion, showing pineapple centerpiece 
November, 1911 
therefore, should never be formal in either decoration or 
service. Both should bring us face to face with Nature in 
her season of bestowal and link every guest in friendly 
fashion, one with the other. Sheaves from the field, glow- 
ing branches from the forest, and fruit from the vineyard 
should replace orchids and hothouse roses in the dining- 
room. Nothing more beautiful can be effected than a room and 
table adorned in this wise, with yellow chrysanthemums, 
dahlias, golden-rod or dwarf oranges among the deco- 
rations. 
O housewife, however remote from a city’s shops, need 
be at a loss for table ornaments for Thanksgiving day. 
Does not every tree and vine offer bright-hued foliage to 
arrange in centerpiece, garland and wreath, and to paste 
upon paper-fashioned cups and baskets in which desserts, 
nuts and confections may be served? May not gleanings 
be saved from the field, corn gathered from the bin, and 
quaint golden pumpkins and squash be brought from the 
garden to lend both beauty and suggestion to the fes- 
tival? On the far northern 
rim of our land Thanks- 
giving decorations must be 
gathered in betimes, but 
everywhere else one has 
only to step outside the door 
to find Nature stretching out 
willing hands filled with 
tokens of Thanksgiving. 
By way of centerpiece, half 
of a yellow pumpkin makes 
a charming bowl for fruit, 
for golden-rod or autumn 
golden-glow, and small 
repetitions of the pumpkin 
bowl may be purchased or 
manufactured out of crépe 
paper or halves of oranges, 
to hold jellies, charlotte 
russe, oysters and crab pat- 
ties, nuts or confections. 
Any of the field grains make 
a charming centerpiece ac- 
companied by a fringe of grain heads garlanded around the 
edge of a table, and with purple and white grapes used in 
connection with the central ornament. Autumn leaves at 
the head of the grain fringe and around the centerpiece add 
much to the color effect of such a table. 
ILD turkeys furnished the piece de resistance of early 
American Thanksgivings, and turkey is as closely as- 
sociated in our minds with Thanksgiving as cranberry sauce 
is with turkey. Gourmets admit that guava and current 
jelly are better complements of roast turkey than cranberry 
sauce, and these are to be had where the New England 
sauce cannot be obtained. It is well to know that turkey 
