People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 December 1895 — THE PASSING OF THE NEW YEAR. [ARTICLE]

THE PASSING OF THE NEW YEAR.

These Mile Posts on the Journey of Life Fly by Faster One by One. It has no doubt often occurred to you, fellow traveler on Time’s coach, that the milestones of the New Years fly past much faster now than they did in the early stages of your journey. What an interminably long wait it seemed to be between the first New Year’s day of your memory and the second. Perhaps you were 6 or 8 years old then and in school for the first term. If so, New Year’s had its sorrow as well as its joy, for it was the last day of the midwinter holidays and next day you had to begin your wrestling with the intellectual arithmetic and the geography and maybe with the elements of the English grammar. Look back now and pity yourself. Do not make the mistake of most of our acquaintances and declare that particular New Year’s to have been the happiest of your existence. Pshaw 1 It was perhaps the most miserable. The fact that you have forgotten your childhood’s miserios does not make it true that you had none. It was several years after that before the New Year began to move appreciably faster. Perhaps it was not till your sister and your pretty dark eyed cousin began to chaff you about the silky down upon your upper lip, and your portly, comfortable father, in speaking of some doings of yours of which he did approve, referred to you as a “foolish young man.” Then you noticed the flight of time, I’ll be bound. No one had called you a “young man” before. You were ready to forgive the governor’s chidings for that. You rejoiced that although you were very young indeed you had yet been called a man. At that time you had great respect for your own opinions on most matters. You began to shave forthwith, and you fell into the habit of calling your chum, who was of about your own age, “old man.” If any one called you “my boy,” you felt resentful. It seemed so utterly out of place. But you had not yet learned that manhood brings with it certain definite and sometimes heavy responsibilities. It is possible you discovered this significant truth very soon afterward, though perhaps it was not till two or three more New Years had passed. At all events the knowledge came to you with somewhat of a shock—possibly pleasant, possibly otherwise.’ At all events, it was not long after that 'Ait you found out that your knowledge \Tas. not universal and your wisdom was not infallible. And ever since the New Years have flown by faster and faster. After awhile your girth grow greater. Then there were lines in parts of your face that had once been smooth. The top of your cranium, that was once thick thatched, grew bare and Smooth and shining. Glasses came next, and your hands wrinkled up. Then thero were occasional twinges in your joints, and what hair was left grew gray, then white. Only yesterday you began to carry a cane—once you carried it for ornament—because it helped you when walking. Yesterday? you ask. Oh, yos, I remember. It was a good ten years ago, but you see the New Years fly so fast now. What! Are you going to leave the coach? Is your life journey done? You amaze me. I thought you wero good for several more Now Years. Well, goodby, '6/ boy; goodby. So he is gone. But, bless me, he was only 75. He was a young man yet. Now, those of you who are yet on tho coach with me—lot, us give tho now year 1895 a rousing welcome! And may the road between hero and 1897 bo a smoother one for all of us than was that of 1895! . E. Y. K.