Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1869-12-31
The Old Year.
the room.

| lear Sently GOWN INTO tne grave Wnlcl
Time has dug for it, in the bonndless
cemetery of the Past. A few and only q
few will gather about the bier, to weer
tears of regret above the uncofined re-
mains of Eighteen Hundred and Sixty
Nine. HAPPY the unloved Storm Spirit
may be abroad, to chant grand old
dirasa With the ehoe-4a North so;r,l, :, ans,
fashion shapely shroud from the driv-
ing snow. No other burial could be Sc
| fitting. Nature tends her children with
rude and strange caressing, but tends
| them well withal and is not the dying
year child of Natures She will take
it in her giant arms, gather it the all
prevailing warmth of her maternal bos-
ON, and there let it lie peacefully till the
end of time. in its magnificent resting
place-covered, but not hidden buried,
but not forgotten. We, in the small
boundary of mortal existence, can have
no real sympathy with Natures illimita-
bic immensity. To us year is but a
ladder of days, and when we have reached
its top round, We are ready to kick it
from beneath our feet without any un-
necessary delay. The great sonorous
bells will thrill the wintry air of to-mor-
rows midnight, but they will not toll
requiem for the dead year instead, they
will startle US from our momentary
thoughtfulness, with peal upon peal of
laughing melody, rung in honor of the
advent of the new year.
Thus it must ever be with us, whose
lives are like lever nicely balanced up
on the pivot of the present One step
backward-we lose our balance and tum-
bic headlong into the dark cavern of the
past; one step forward, we plunge into
the terrible uncertainty of the future.
None but craven coward will take the
former step, and none but truly brave
soul will dare the latter Today is the
acme Of each mortal existence: and
polsec upon such tiny speck of time,
we bound our whole career with circle
tiI"s oannotreaeh beyond our outstretohed
fnger-tips. But to hold our balance
perfectly upon the lever, we must so han
die our balance-pole as to have one end.
at a moments warning, anchor firmly in
the past, while the other dips deep into
the hopes and aspirations and possible
fruition of the future. And we cannot
keep our eyes long fixed in any one di-
rection; now before, now behind now
this side, now that; they must sweep un-
tiringly, and with all the eagles daring,
the whole round horizon of our being
Hence there are moments for retrospect
tion and thoughtfulness, as well as for
joyousness and hope; and hence mind
that has but one unvarying mood, is
surely not we'll balanced.
80 now, in the midst of the grand and
Jubilant holiday time, we may well af-
ford to step apart from the great gay
world for little, and stand beside the
death-bed of the old year. And if, as
we remember how short time ago it
was that we hailed this faded and worn
and useless shadow as the new year.
tears come up to choke our utterauce and
overflow our eyes, they will not harm us
No, let them flow. Let m emory recall
the quick succession of scenes, incidents
happinesses, bereavements, thoughts, i'm
pulses, acts, which it catalogued day by
day upon an imperishable record. Let
US confront ourselves now, with ourselves
then; In no other way can we so success
fully guage our achievements, our capa-
bilities, our weaknesses. More than all
let US make the comparison profitable in
It's lntinence upon the future. Where
our armor has proved vulnerable. let it
be strengthened; where we have been
weak let US be strong. And as we stand
thus in solemn retrospection, hand in
hand and heart to heart, in the great
brotherhood of common. humanity. let
US have pity and compassion for those
among us who can look upon the wasted
old year in its last hours only with a
shudder, as a period that has brought
them nothing but pain, suffering, and
disaster, and left them nothing but re-
gret and discouragement. Let us each
grasp more warmly the hands that touch
us timidly, and look more encouragingly
into the eyes that seek ours appealingly.
II we are ourselves strongenough to walk
alone, there are kinsmen OF ours ON eve
ry side, whom our strength may save from
fatal fall.
No eye has ever yet seen another
CLEAN of sunshine so transcendipglv
bright, as that which bursts through the
clouds after storm, and transforms the
myriad rain-drops into spheres of LIQUID
fire and no smiles are so sweet as those
which illuminate a face wet with tears
After we have said goodbye to the old
year thus, and wept above his omen