Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 310, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 December 1912 — AT THE YEAR'S END. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

AT THE YEAR'S END.

4\HAT fixed the time for ankl the ending of one year ly / and the beginning of anill/ other? More light. In LMarVlf the countries where wlnter is cold and dark and ) grim the severest weatbdlMk er comes after the old vear goes. It was in less biung air. but in increasing light, that the proofs as found of the turn o’ the year.” . . . . The dead is often buried to the dirge of winter’s most bitter winds. The frost is going deeper, when t e season is normal. Nature’s sleep is most profound. There is only one sign that the sun has turned and is coming back. That evidence is a little more daylight, a little less darkness of night. makes But more light is enough. I the change a time of Joy, of new and more confident turning 0 future. There Ib the promise of spring In the added of the day and the promise of growing good an treating evil in the coming “u means that mankind has another chance for better things. It gives hope of a new foothold and endeavor to a fresh start. The world is lnvlt ® d turn its back on the mistakes an _ and troubles of the past and the ever-wonderful possibilities o unknown time to come. There is the charm and Joy of New Year's. In that revival of droop ng confidence, in that lure of the lies the appeal of the day whic ways greeted with enthusiasm, no matter how many generations have seen the hopes of the year’s birth wither before its death. After many failures success may come. Who knows. That is the magic question— vino knows?” The world gains from year to year in a thousand little things, and sometimes a great evil long endured goes crashing down. Who can say what the limit of triumph may be In the better times to come? For the world, like every young year, is getting more light It has more of the sunshine of truth, more of the life-giving rays of knowledge. If they seem cbld and sterile, at times, it is because humanity’s year is still young. “We are ancients of the earth, and in the morning of the times.” , . This increasing light of knowledge, this brighter beacon to guide the stepß of mankind, must flower and fruit in richer gains than humanity has yet won. It is an accumulating force, like the warmth which the sun gives the earth in spring The thinkers and dreamers of the world know that this is so. They are inspired by the consciousness that with growing knowledge there must come Increased power and higher wisdom to direct and control it for the help and uplifting of mankind. Tfce faith sees the life and growth, the color and warmth of spring, in the lengthening days of winter. They perceive that the world of men and women, and of the children, too, though still far from the full tide of its summer, Is Well into the long new year of the human family. They are as certain of the spring for all mankind as they are that January will pass and May will come. It is a mistake to reflect too much upon the past. It has its lessons, but the learning of them should not so absorb our attention as to preclude us from incorporating them into our daily life, transmuting the memory and experience into the gold of useful practicability and ready work that yields results. Introspection was getting so insistently a habit of the New Year that we are beginning to forget it was but a means to an end —the reflective porch to the large and spacious chamber of lofty resolve and accomplishment. We fancy sometimes that a faint suggestion of maudlin sentiment crept into the self-analy-sis, converting what should have proved a stepping stone to higher planes of activity into a more purgatory of self-abnegation ending in a cul-de-sac. We want to make our reflection an avenue that leads through paths of earnest thought to the high tablelands of glorious endeavor and achievement. The soul itself must be utilitarian and not waste itself in unprofitable penance. What has the year accomplished for womanhood? ‘•There has unquestionably been a remarkable renaissance of the feminine. Woman has broadened her outlook, established her claim to wider recognition of her talents, Impressed public life with her power for good, and raised her physical and mental scale of the sex. Thank God, among the general advancement there is one that is inspiringly reactionary—a reversion to the old veneration for the sanctity of motherhood —the holiest and divinest calling of all, a calling involving great sacrifice, great sorrows, but bringing Jwith it, on the other hand, untold compensating Joys. In the medical profession woman has done well, while in the humbler

ranks of nursing our efficient hospitals tell their own eloquent tale of the labor done by those who “watch the stars out by the bed of pain.” For the large masses of the girlhood and womanhood the arena of commercial life has widened its doors, and evidence is seen on all hands of the efficiency of the new female recruits to the business ranks. Their presence in this great army of strenuous endeavor will tend to purify and strengthen it, and make it worthier than it has ever been before. The prizes are many, but those who do not gain them must not be disheartened. The very striving after tjj|fcm stiffens the fiber. “The athlete matured for the Olympian game gains strength at least for life.” While I have dwelt in this short review of woman’s progress on the more expert phases of her career, it must be pointed out that ability is not the be-all and the end-all of woman’s existence. It is the great lever that moves things, but another quality is required for the settling down. K Greater than all her accomplishments is her capacity for shedding around her wherever she goes the fragrance of a sweet and beautiful life, and smoothing out the raveled sleeve of care. It is in the belief that Bhe is fully capable of this mission that one looks forward in confidence to the immediate future —a future in which the pulse of vibrant life will throb sympathetically and intellectually to the ultimate benefit of the whole of the community.