1 o'clock
Yes , a day of celebration , exclusively American . And now for the story which is to prove to you that we have traditions on this side of the ocean that are becoming older at a much rapider rate than those of England are -- thanks to our git-up and enterprise . Stuffy Pete took his seat on the third bench to the right as you enter Union Square from the east , at the walk opposite the fountain . Every Thanksgiving Day for nine years he had taken his seat there promptly at 1 o'clock . For every time he had done so things had happened to him -- Charles Dickensy things that swelled his waistcoat above his heart , and equally on the other side . But to-day Stuffy Pete 's appearance at the annual trysting place seemed to have been rather the result of habit than of the yearly hunger which , as the philanthropists seem to think , afflicts the poor at such extended intervals . Certainly Pete was not hungry .