The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1860-01-13
WHAT THE OLD YEAR SAID.
From the Boston Courier.

From the Boston Courier
Eighteen Hundred and Fitty-N inc lin
gered in the high belfry of the church in
Hanover street : Tor, being a willy old fellow
who had seen the world, he knew that the
clock there, like many other things that go
con tick" was sure to be behind time, and
he would thus gain five minutes before be
stepped into the past. as he looked out
over the snow beieagured town, be spoke.
And this was what he said
"Im not sorry to leave you for I've had
a hard time with you. | came among you,
a fresh and merry child. found many of
you asleep in warm beds, many trying to
sleep in beds not so warm, a few of you with
no beds at all. By many my advent was
hailed with boisterous glee; but this was
probably born of the beverage in which you
drank my health. You greeted me loudly,
and then by daylight began to growl about
the weather l brought some of you have
growled about the weather on each of my
three hundred and sixty-fve days. There
was no such thing as suiting you; and, to
tell the truth, l never cared much whether
you were suited or not. When first came
[ had a good stock of faith in human ma
ture, was disposed to deal very gently with
your faults and to make much of your en-
cellencies. But you abused me from the
beginning to the end, and now don't won.
der that you are glad to turn your back on
one you have so much injured. What
quantity of humbug have seen to be sure
Why, on the first day of my course it was
rampant. Every body called out, one to the
other, Wish you happy New Year. and
then went directly to work to render happi-
ness an impossibility for all parties. A led
B into temptation, B cheated G, G sian.
dered d, and the whole alphabet wrapped
themselves in thick mantle of selfshness,
became social hedgehogs, with head rarely
visible and never attractive. l vow, I
couldn't help laughing, child as was, when
on the New Years Day l saw the small
parties of nice young men making calls-not
because they liked to do so, nor that they
enjoyed the business, nor because they had
anything to say, nor because they really
wanted to see anybody, but because the nice
young men of New York, following the
ancient custom, made calls on that day, and
it was thought to be the thing. That which
in the metropolis was natural and grace.
full amusement graceful early in the day, 1
mean--and in which certain measure of
real hilarious enjoyment was to be found,
became here to you solemn performance,
dull even if original. and utterly rayless as
an imitation. Gracious! How my weather
was used up in the talk of that day and
those calls. There was spice of scandal
certainly, but even that had not its usual
zeal; for everybody was acting part, and
none were yet quite easy in the words.
There indeed seemed to be some exceptions
to the general dullness; as, for instance, l
overheard little Jane Threadneedle say to
her sister Bella: How funny Mr.. Chan
deIles was! He kept laughing all the time,
and made up the queerest faces She re-
ferred to young man who had just left the
drawing room, gyrating somewhat, and
little shaky with his polysyllables. 1t was
rather late in the day, to be sure, and Bella
merely said, Hush, child soon found,
however, that this humbug wasn't confined
to the first day of my reign that it ran
through all your social life. saw a small
country called society, surrounded by high
wall and entered by narrow gate. On one
side of the gate was crowd of people
striving with their might to keep it shut,
giving very little heed to the cultivation of
the pastures the we'll inclosed. On the
other there was second crowd pushing
vigorously to force open the door; and
they, too, neglected their own fields,
turned colby away from their pleasant
running brooks. Now and then, one in gay
apparel, bringing heavy bag to bear upon
the gate, would be unwillingly admitted
this one would wander about tor time
alone in society then would become part
of it, and would join more zealously than
any in the throng who pushed from within
to close the gate. found Mrs. Grundy
among you in great force. She has had you
all under her foot, and none of you dare
even to buy new hat or muff till she has
been consulted. The young men among you
dare not marry, because they cannot afford
it, they say. Stuff! 1t is because Mrs. G..
says they must live in certain quarter of
the town, have certain kind of furniture,
and buy meat every day, instead of taking
it cold half the time. The young men are
bad enough about this but the young wo.
man are worse. DISTINGUISHED affection
Oh, yes Have not looked into the pretty
head OF many girl when the sutton was
stumbling along in a confession of his love,
and when she was supposed to be listening
in rapture to the sweet words; and have l
not seen that a panorama of household
was passing before her mental eye, pan
Drama whose minutest details she was crit.
cising as coolly as she would criticise the
personal appearance of beauty at the
theatre? Instead of the conventional ges,
it would be much more appropriate if She
had answered its a bargain. If by chance
some of these people have blundered into
marriage, they dare not live as they would