Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1864-12-31
NMW YNAR,s DAY,


New Years Day is looked upon as q
pleasant winding up of the Christmas hol-
iday Week-a sort of lighter after-peice to
the grand performance, during which mods
and smiles and friendly greetings are ex-
changed before each one disperses his
several way, and settles down for another
wear 10 his business duties. When we were
children, ofcourse the two days, Christmas
andNew Years, were inseparabIy connected
in our eager anticipations of the good time
coming; SO that when the one with all its
delights was gone, we had still New Years
day In reserve, to save as from the utter
despair which was like to devour US in the
thought that Christmas came only once
year, and that in all probability we should
never live to see it agsinI So on New
Years eve We hung up our stockings, hE-
Eled off fire. crackers into the snow, banged
away with harmless old horse-pistols, and
tried to keep up general fErore of glee,
and 10 believe that New Years was all the
same and quito as good a thing as Christ
mas. But it all would not do. Even
to the childish hearts, so willing and 30
able TO "make believe great. deal, /" there
was something comparatively tame and
worn ont about this last day in the even
ing of holiday times. We were apt to get
little Cross and hard to please by that
time; New YEARS. gifts, not being 30 choice
or plentiful perhaps; with jealous doubt
as to whether st. Nicholas had presided
over them; whether well-meaning friends
had not merely initiated his,way of do
ing things. All this crowned with the
consciousness that next day, at the ring
ing of the school bell, this fairy world we
had been dancing about in, would disap-
pear as completely as did Cinderella's coach
and six at the stroke of midnight. Besides,
we could not help feeling that the time
had something solemn and ghostIy about
it-a feeling chiefly founded upon stories
told US by certain basement story conf.
dautes, about mysterious "watch meet.
iugs" held on New Years eve, and made
up of midnight watchipgs and shoutiDgs;
scenes which to witness, we were sure
could only be next to the day of judge
ment itself, as we conceived it. Added to
this, was much grave talk at the Preside
among seniors, of the shortness of life, the
the flight of timei that grim figure we were
used to see In the primer catechism, with
the scythe which
allowed down all,
Both great and small"
andt many exhortations, about making
good resolutions at this time, which we
understood to mean the leaving off drink.
ing the tea and coffee which digniied the
close of our bread and milk breakfast; and
which terrible resolution entered into
with much quaking and misgiving, was to
be broken with sense of guilty remorse
which haunted US long after. We could
not understand all this, and altogether,
New Years. time was to US doubtful good,
tan uneasy joy" This same old Father
Time of the primer, having brought US
along up to the years of men and women,
has cleared away many things for as; much
of the perplexity, many of the briars aud
thorns, as we'll as the blossoms, of child
hood. Bat still the New Years holiday is
the same time Joy and sorrow-"of mem
ory," pleasant as we'll as painful, "and of
tears" tits still ghostly time-a hushed,
solemn pause in life, when we hold the
breath to hear this ringing stroke which
will sound out startlingly the hour. and
tell us how far into the day, towards the
night, we have gone. Ifeyer we have Wis
ions and feel the presence of spirits it is
then-visions of those seasons past
young Spring, bright Summer, Autumn's
solemn form, aad Winter with its aged
locks" with the spirits which wander up
and down through the year that is gone
The poets olairvoyance has but revealed
to our eyes those 'spirits of the
seasons" which before were often
near US; which have, how many
times, stretched out their empty
hands reproaohfully to as, seeming to ask
why we have sent them away empty
Yes, the childish mystery was real mys-
terry, and the New Years festival is haunt
ed in a sense too deep for childhood to
know. Every reader of Hawthorne will
remember little story of his, one of the
Twice.told Tales, we believe, called ''The
Meeting of the Years." where the Old Year
aud the New Year meet together III the
heart of the eity-.he one, old and worn,
and glad to rest the great burden of care
and woe he has gathered up in going to
and fro upon the earth, upon the door
steps of the great house before which
they have met. The other, "the New
Year, blithe and bold. comes up to take his
own" and there they speak of their sep