Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes Co., O. [Ohio]) 1870-1895, 1874-01-01

ceptionally great festival of Christmas
for instance, the Russians of Easter
the Italians of half the days of tn
year; and though the time that has beel
set apart immemorially for praise ant
thanksgiving would seem to have som,
inherent claim upon Americans, II
view of the dangers and difficultie
overcome in the cruel preparation Of
the blessings they now enjoy, yet New
Years Day, a voluntary festival, {
merely poetieal anniversary, and ont
that at first sight seems to have M
reason for its celebration at all, has In
some accountable manner taken the pre-.
cedence Of all others with by far ths
greater portion of our citizens, and
proved its right to be by the delight II
gives.
But for the northern portion of New
England, we observe this day univer-
sally from the Atlantic to the Pacific
with giving and visiting and banquet
ing. We disguise its chill with the ge-
nial warmth Of hospitable houses and
under tropical luxuriance of hot
house blossoms; beauty arrays herself
among her subtle webs in her most
glorious aureole to make the day more
charming; her gallants are there to
help her greet it; and the whole round
of its splendid hours rolls away in one
long wave of merriment from MORN
ing till midnight. Long before the day
arrives mothers begin to look after their
tables, fathers begin to groan, maideas
begin to select their choicest dresses.
lovers begin to develop great connois-
seurship in jewelry; and when the day
dawns at last pretty pictures it sees in
every house, where the young girls,
lovely in all the modern accessories to
loveliness, have paused midway in their
distracting toilettes and run dow to
put the finishing touches to the spark
ling snowy boards, where pearly finger
tips twinkle among purple grapes, and
the roses and violets are less rosy and
less blue than the dimpled cheeks and
the bright eyes Of the fair expecta mt
damsels SO busy among them, and who
while they make pictures Of gayety.
and pleasure in the rich mans house,
have not forgotten with their bounty
to make them bef orehand in the poor
mans house as well, till the dawn sees
every where such scenes of jubilation
that it might look upon this world, so
far at least as its Western hemisphere is
concerned, as nothing but a world of
happiness!
And certainly we need not marvel at
this manifestation, for it ia something
so entirely in consonance with the spir-
it of our people, with its gay enterprise
and eagerness to 60 ahead, that it car
ries its explanation on its face-a spirit
that is constantly forgetting those
things which are behind and reaching
forth unto those things which are be-
fore," and which halls the first day of
the unbroken year as the gate into great |
possibilities, great achievements, great
enjoymen.s. 1t Is in Old England,
perhaps, the primitive land of steady |
habits, that they may regret the depart
ure of the old year: !
.sFun knee-deep lies the winter snow,
And the winter winds are wearily signing: |
Toll ye the church-bell sad and slow,
For the Old Year lies a-dying.
Old Year, you must not die:
You came to us SO readily,
You lived with us SO steadily,
Old Year you shall not die!'
That regret answers for a land where
people are welded to the past, and be-
lieve the future has nothing to offer
with which they can be more content
than with what they have. But the
spirit of America cries out in latter
strain of the same singer, and there is
hardly soul of us that does not echo it,
so full is the tomorrow of this won-
derful land where every dayis richer
than the day before.
Ring out, will bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light;
The year If dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him diem
Last year was fair enough, very like,
but next year must be an improvement
on it, for We are an inventive race, and
few of US ever see new patent without
it by some attachment of
our own. On this point of the possibil-
ity of bettering ourselves we are all op-
timists; the world moves for us; we
hold that the race improves, that the
country is better off, that comforts in
crease, and that we ourselves are to |
have share i'm the general distribution
of happiness. Perhaps this year tenn
with fortune; next year, re- |
that none but the brave de-
serve the fair, we will take her by storm
This year was comparatively good, it
may be; next year shall be superlative
ly best. 1t has been all very well, this
year, to WOO: next year it may be bet
ter yet to win. The watch-words of
our civilization are purpose and hope
itself is the dominating |
of the American who has
not dyspepsia, We are intent and in
earnest, doing mighty work. Now and
then we stop long enough to take breath
and spend it in boast--and then we 60
on with our great march, tunneling our
way through mountains and under lakes
telling forest ripping up gold mines,
developing magnificent resources with
the helping hand of magnificent institu-
tions, and each ofus trying to turn
and expecting to turn-some little stream
of the resources into our own private
and this eagerness for materi-
al advance is sort Of foundation, after
all on which we rear letter hopes
and intentions, like that state of physi-
cal well-being for which the soul finds
all the stronger and the more able to do
and dare.
1t is no wonder, then, that we will well
come the New Year as an other step
toward our goal, toward the completion
ofour fortune, the crown Of our love,
the salvation of our soul, as the case
may be with each one.
Yes, let the Old Year die, we sing
again with the poet; the New Year
comes with fuller reception for us, full
Ter wisdom, "A fuller measure of our days.
If there is sorrow hidden under its
bright mantle, like the n,emento mori
under the flowers of the Egyptian feast,