JANUARY 1, New Year's Day. On this day the Flowing Bowl is filled--
and emptied--and the Genial Palm circulated in forty-three States
and Territories out of forty-nine. In Massachusetts, New
Hampshire, Rhode Island, Arkansas, Oklahoma and the Indian
Territory there is no celebration. The natives are too busy
collecting good resolutions and bad bills.
FEBRUARY 22, Washington's Birthday. (George, not Booker), is
remembered by thirty-eight of the States. On this day, in the
public schools, are shown pictures of George Chopping the Cherry
Tree and Breaking Up the Delaware Ice Trust, Valley Forge in
Winter, and Mt. Vernon on a Busy Day. The Pride of the Class
recites Washington's "Farewell to the Army," Minnie the Spieler
belabors the piano with the "Washington Post March," and the
scholars all eat Washington Pie, made of "Columbia, the Jam of the
Ocean."
MARCH 17, St. Patrick's Day and Evacuation Day, when the British
redcoats got out of Boston and Patrick evicted the snakes from
Ireland. For observing the day, wear a turkey-red coat, or vest,
and put a bit of green ribbon, or a shamrock, in the buttonhole--
the green above the red. On Easter day, wear a scrambled egg in
the same place.
APRIL 19, Patriot's Day. A New England successor to FAST DAY--the
slowest day of the year. Originally invented for Fasting and
Prayer. Now used exclusively for opening the Baseball Season,
Locating a Seashore Home for the Summer, and watching Red-Shirted
Diogenes at his Tub.
Little drops of water,
Little lines of hose,
Make the mighty Muster
As ev'ry Laddie knows.
MAY 1, Moving Day. Observed everywhere by The Restless Tenant.
| APRIL 26 |
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Memorial Days |
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In "Dixie" |
| MAY 30 |
In the North. |
A Symphony in Blue and Gray.
JUNE 17, Bunker Hill Day. Celebrated in Boston, Mass., by a
procession of the Ancient and horrible Distillery Company, a few of
the City Fathers in hacks, a picked bunch of Navy Yard sailors and
occasionally a few samples from a Wild West Show. For 24 hours,
pistols and firecrackers are allowed to mutilate Young America
ad lib.
JULY 4, Independence Day. A national holiday, invented for the
benefit of popcorn and peanut promoters; tin horn and toy-balloon
vendors; lemonade chemists; dealers in explosives; physicians and
surgeons. A grand chance for the citizen-soldier to hear the roar
of battle, smell powder, shoot the neighbor's cat, and lose a
night's rest--or a finger.
LABOR DAY, First Monday in September. The only day when labor
works overtime. An occasion when the workingman takes a cane in
place of a dinner-pail and proudly tramps the streets behind a real
silk banner and a Hod Carrier on a Cart Horse.
THANKSGIVING DAY (Last Thursday in November). A day devoted to the
annual division of Turkey--with Greece on the side--by the Hung'ry
folks.
DECEMBER 25, Christmas Day. Another national holiday, marked by
the following observances: Filling the young and helpless with a
lot of fiction about Santa Claus, the old chimney fakir, who went
up the flue long ago; making a clothesline of the mantelpiece and
robbing the forest of its young; swapping several things we'd like
to keep for a lot of stuff we don't want; and, finally, putting on
in church a Sunday night performance of light opera, known as "The
Sabbath School Concert."