Volcano weekly ledger., 1855-12-29
The New Year.


trust you pM have May all the joys Incl
dent to the Holidays be yours! Notwith-
standing you may have had woes, reverses
and ddisappointments- hours, days and months
of tribulation-stil may you be able to ex-
claim with the poet
"Well, there is yet one day of life before me,
And whatso'er betide, | will enjoy it,"
Happy is the man who can so exclaim!-
Happy the man who can forget the past, and
live in the confidence of hope for the future
Shakespeare tells us
"The miserable hath no other medicine
But only hope"
Reader, the advent of new year is a
propitious time to review the past, the present,
and the future. Every man should read over
the past year, carefully examine the condi-
ton in which he stands to-day, and with care
and consideration make his calculations as to
what shall be his course of conduct for the
year to come. Time moves on with its
steady pace Time! that is no respecter of
persons Who will not stop and consider?
"Times movements, o, how fleet
And yet how still:
Still as the morning sunbeam as il kissed the
blushing flower,
But shook not e'en the tears of night
The lingering dew-drops, from their leaves"
We repeat that the advent of New Year
is time for thought and reflection. Young,
in his might Thoughts" tells US
"The bell strikes one. We take no note of time
But from its loss. To give II then tongue,
Is wise in man. As if an angle spoke,
feel the sousnn sound. If heard Alright,
1t is the knell Of my departed hours;
Where are they? With the years beyond the
food.
II is the signal that demands despatch
How much is TO be donep
A California New Year is not New Year
of the olden time. 1t is not holiday such
as we have been accustomed to observe in the
Atlantic States. There, on the first day of
each year. families and friends assemble
around the fire-side and festive board, and
recount to each other those things that have
transpired under their observation daring the
preceding twelve-month These reunions
annually occur, calculated to fill up the
measure of mans happiness-designed, as it
would seem, to Danish from the recollection of
"poor, weak men and women" every thought
Of misery Heretofore experiecntd d, and bring
back to mind only such things as are brimfull
of joy, and dear to the memory. Not so in
California; Now we are all strangers; we
have been acquainted with each other for but
few years; and our fathers, and mothers,
and brothers and sisters are not with u.s.
We are as it were strangers in strange
land; we are far removed from the places of
our nativity and education, and all things
around us are presented in strange light!
We do not meet, at the fresde or festive
board, father, mother, brother sister, or bosom
friend. The old lights have gone out to us
perhaps foreverl We are surrounded with
new acquaintance, new associations, and new
modes Of life; and so marked has been the
change that we do not even recognize the
old, familiar holidays! Well-be it so, for
cannot be helped; we must take things as
they are, not as we think they ought to be
The time iciH come when we can have
Christmas and New Years in California;
But we cannot pass over the present oc-
casion without indulging in few practical re-
marks Let them be considered as being adj
dressed to the lazy, loafng, sponging
portion of community, who have heretofore
lived in California on the earnings of honest
men. Those who have worked hard lived
honestly and frugally, even though they have
failed to store away competency of this
worlds goods, can afford to enjoy the New
Year because it as the New Year-can call
to mind the remembrances of the past, and look
forward to the time when they will again be
surrounded on this annual festive occasion
with families and friends But the loafer |!
Go to work, sir you are recognised in the
streets, on the corners, and in the gambling
and blinking saloons. Your very counten-
anee betrays you. You have not earned an
honest dollar during your stay in California
You have fEched a livelihood from the super
abundance of wealth in the country and th'
superabundance has at length been exhaust
ed Youni,fst work, sir--work or starve.---
Your pale, ematiated countenances will no
protect you it has been occasioned by you
own bad, conduct. You must work Com
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