The Hawaiian gazette., 1872-01-03
Now Nenr.

The New Year has come with the usual
amount of greetings, of wishes and bless
i ings. All the changes, variations and
medleys have been rung on that theme
since New YEAR was first observed, and
yet the world, like a consummate actor,
receives the offerings with a smile and a
bow, and passes them around with the
wine and the cake, for what they are
worth-and what are they worth {?
In small house, scantily furnished and
badly lighted, sits a widow, with three or
four little ones, mourning the loss of him
to whom her young heart had chung, like
the ivy to the oak, through adversely and
trials; but the passing year singled him
out to bear her train in the realms of the
shadowy past, and, selfish and cruel, she
left the widow and the orphan with aching
hearts and smothered sighs to the neigh
bors' well-meant but ill-timed Happy
New Year," What to them is it worth
Music sounds on the still night air The
cannon roar to the incoming year, and
revelry reigns within and without; blaz-
ing with light and furnished with luxury,
stands the wide-open hall of the merchant
prince, and the blandest of smiles and the
deepest of bows accompany the greetings
of the owner of this elysium on earth;
but the owner who receives and returns
this fearful infiction, received a telegram
as the year passed away that his ships
had been wrecked, that his magnificent
blocks of buildings had been burned, that
his speculations had miscarried, and he
knows in his heart of hearts that to-mor-
row will see him bankrupt, and the crowds
which thronged his halls to-day will shun
him tomorrow and know him no more
forever What to him is the greeting
worth
To the statesman who receives the adu-
lltory greetings of the obsequious Ins
whom his smile has made and his frown
could unmake, but to whom slip ola note
has conveyed the astonishing intelligence
that his rival had gained his Sovereign's
ear, and that his hopes and ambitions
would henceforth be laid by, like worn
out umbrella, in the lumberroom of time,
to be fingered and examined by curious
students in centuries to come-What to
him are they worth?
ODlae sinlilia clauddnt, says the pro-
verb, and the foregoing may be the ex-
trenes of a morbid view of the practice of
New Years greetings; but while man
remains mortal, ailing and failing, thous-
ands of instances similar in character, if
not in depth of coloring, meet us in every
direction, demonstrating the hollowness
of the practice and the pain of its infic-
ton. Is 1t meet and proper to look at the
past year as great charnel-house from
which we have fortunately escaped? Is
it meet and proper for us to look upon the
New Year as a land of promise to which
we have the privileged entree, and whose
inheritance we have a right to divide
among ourselves7 The first is ingrati- I.
tude to the Benign 0mnipotence who
sends one year as well as the other; the
second is arrogance of no small order, and
mbecoming that humble hope and that
strong faith which lie at the root of all /
enduring greatness.
Let us enter the new year with becom-
ing gravity, not as school-boys let out for
a holiday. Let us cherish the memory of
the old year for the good it has brought
US, for the lessons it has taught us, and
for the oonquests which it has enabled US
to make over sin aud ourselves. In such
a spirit, and such alone, can we look hope
fully and trustfully to the future, and in
such spirit we cordially wish our read
ers A Harry New YEAR.