Weekly Calaveras chronicle., 1867-12-28
CALAVERAS CHRONICLE.
MOKELUMNE HILL:
SATURDAY, :: DECEMBER %, 1861
New Year.

New Year.
As the clock strikes twelve, at midnight
of Tuesday next, Eighteen Hundred and
Sixtv-Seven, laden with its cares, strifes and
struggles; pleasing "reminiscences, bitter dis
appointments, joys and sorrows, will make
its departing bow and be numbered among
the centuries past. Its history is written,
Our deeds, and the motives which prompted
them, are inscribed in the recording angels
ponderous tome. How will the accounts
balance What a variety of emotions ret
year will give rise to. To some it has been
season of uninterrupted joy and prosperity
bright hopes and anticipations more than
realiZed-every battle crowned with victory.
Others, less fortunate, will ever regard it as
SYNONYM ofevil; ill-fortune has attended
every venture the dark clouds which OBJ
scure the horizon of their future, have not
even silver lining-each struggle in the
great battle of life has but sunk them deeper
in the Slough of Despair. Life is as varying
as the ever-changing scenes of kaleido-
scope. We "know not what a day may
bring forth" Fate is inscrutible. Every
attribute of human happiness is as fleeing as
a shadow. The possessor of health to-day,
may be clothed in the cerements of the grave
to- morrow, and wealth takes to itself wings
and flies away. How rapidly the years
pass. 1t seems but yesterday that we chron-
icled the advent of the now departing year,
and yet another volume of the history of our
lives has been written. Time, with its
ceaseless flight, like the current of mighty
river, is hurrying US on to eternity, scarcely
affording US an opportunity of observing the
landmarks which denote our passage. The
cycling years succeed each other so rapidly
that were it not for the indelibie traces which
they leave behind, their flight would be
cident to life. As the old and new years
approach each other, the membranes of
the past and hopes for the future seem to
crowd aside the present. We are standing
dlHOoI upOH liie lllles DcLDIC US 10
the unveiled, mysterious future; behind us,
the unmistakable realities of the receding
past. AS we enter upon the new and I'M
tried paths before us, we have nothing to
guide our footsteps but the light of expert
ence. If we shape our course in obedience
to the dictates of that great mentor, we shall
IF tho and n1iol sands
which beset our feet. While welcoming the
new, we cannot bid adieu to the old year
without some regrets. 1t seems like parting
with tried friend. Although broken hopes
and disappointmentsa are thickly strewn along
our pathway since the advent of the present
year, still many of its "reminiscences are
pleasing, and fragrant memories cling around
our recollection. Some of its histories are
intellectually inscribed-chiseled, as it were
upon the tablets of our memory, too deeply
to ever be forgotten. We shall treasure
them up as the miser does his gold. Let
time roll on; fortune smile or frown
whether our pathway shall lead through
pleasant fields or dark valleys, the brightness
of fond recollections can never be dimmed.
New years is the day upon which good res
olutions are usually formed-only to be
broken, in most instances. The broad road
which leads to destruction is paved with
good intentions. The natural bent of the
inclinations, together with the evil associa-
tons by which we are constantly surrounded,
lead people into course of habits which it
is almost impossible to break loose from.
Nothing but the exhibition of an indomitable
will can unrivet the chains. Men are the
slaves of their passions. We hope that the
year 1868 will prove prosperous one to all
our readers. and heartily wish them happy
New Year."