Public Ledger

"Thanksgiving" has come and gone with Chicagoans, and with it its accompanying joys and sorrows. From what I could see in my perambulations it was a hard day on turkey, and the other domestic fowl and game suffered severely. No matter where I went "good cheer" was attractively visible both as to edibles and palatable fluids. In the evening I attended a select dining at the residence of the mother of the late Cuban General Ryan. The occasion was very enjoyable. A concomitant of the dessert was a steaming bowl of genuine Irish whisky punch. The liquor had arrived but a few days, and was accompanied by several jars of black currant jam, last being presents from Captain John Burke, of the British Army. The currants were from his garden in the old homestead, near the site of Lord Ross' marvellous telescope, in Birr, King's county, Ireland. The nuts were served on silver plates, once the property of Napoleon I., and were among the articles in that distinguished hero's camp baggage when he was captured after his star had gone down at Waterloo. The plates were among the trophies of that memorable occasion gathered by Major Patrick Ryan, of the Fifth Dragoon Guards, paternal grandfather of the Cuban martyr General Ryan. While sipping the punch I could not help speculating as to how many persons throughout this broad land were eating from silver, once the property of Southerners, but which became the spoils of war during our late fratricidal struggle, and I expressed the fervent hope that the turkey eaten, nor the wine drank South, would taste the less delightful because things are not as they were in the good old days before the war. Well, let us drop the curtain. Taking all in all, Thanksgiving was a pleasurable event in this city for every person, both as to religious services, social gatherings, amusements, public and private, etc. Even the inmates of the "poor house" had a good time, having partaken of a grand spread of baked, boiled, stewed and roasted flesh, fowl, game, etc., with the usual concomitants of a festive occasion.