The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1875-12-30
THE HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Happy New Yearl"
A. bright face looked into the cham
Der sweet voice rang through it In
tones of music. "'ta
s. eeHappy New Year, darling y =
And Mr.. Ellis stopped to kiss the
child. But the kiss he gave was not fer
vent. It was kind and gentle, but not
loving. s.
A pair of large blue orbs looked up at
min In a kind of hurt surprise. Then,
rs If she felt repealed, the child, after
standing for moment or two in shy,
embarrassed way, went out OF the cham
Der and left her father alone.
MIR. Ellis was less comfortable In mind
after she went out than before she came
an. A ray of heart-sunshine had swept
into the room, and though he had failed
80 perceive its warmth, it was colder
and darker after it's withdrawal. He
zsreathed out involuntarily heavy sigh.
nc was not happy new year. In fact,
the new years came in always with an
added weight of care, annoyance and
encouragement for Mr.. Ellis, each
heavier and more discouraging than the
zone that preceded.
+" Happy New Year /" cried one child
after another, as it looked into his
room or met him on the stairs. Happy
New Year, greeted him from many
voices.
But it was not happy new year. Oh,
mog MIR. Elhs's new years were no
longer happy ones. Why9 Let us go
back little.
just ten years before the time In which
ne comes before the reader, James Ellis,
: Eaen clerk oil salary of one thousand
&ae1lars, took to himself wife but In
doing so, he made one mistake, and that
. was g0ing In debt for the furniture of
4 his little rented house. For over three
years be had been getting salary of
taneithousand dollars, and out OF this had
saved scarcely enough to buy his we'd
ding suit and the marriage ring. How,
z1D the same income, he was to support
a wife, besides himself, and pay the five
hundred dollars it cost to furnish the
house. was one of the mysteries in finance
.heEhad not stopped to solve.
1t is no matter of surprise that the
first New Years Day following the mar
Efage of Mr.. Ellis was not for him very
a1appy one. He had dear little wife,
sgead and loving, and as careful as she
colsd be to make home the pleasantest
!. place for him in all the world. But there
had abeen grave error in the way their
new tife was begun, and error of any and
every kind surely works for all its meas
uxe Cd disquietude, pain or disaster.
There Is no escape.
The first New Years day brought In to
SIR. Ellis unsettled accounts for over
one hundred and fifty dollars, besides
tbs FIVE hundred dollars he had
az1aCrowed from friend to meet his furni-
11uEe bills. These accounts came In from
4aae grocer, the dry goods merchant, the
S0Fn-dealer and others, with whom bills
had gnn up chat might have been settled
With the cash he had let slip through his
AaRads for articles of ornament they did
not need, or for various little self -indul-
gences. If there had been rigid sys-
tenn of cash down for every article that
' was purchased, and a just self-denial In
the matter of things not actually need
ful TO comfort, that first New Years
Day woul& have found Mr.. Ellis in far
different and happier state of mind.
The true remedy was neither seen nor
adopted.
g must have larger income said
Mr.. Ellis. Of he had said, g Il must
z64egt new system and practice closer
economy" the case would have been
mere hopeful
On the next day Mr.. Ellis asked to
sAave his salary increased. Business had
aoG been very good for the past season,
and there was some demur but he was
a faithful and intelligent clerk, and, in
view of this, two hundred dollars were
added to his salary-not more, really,
than the deficits of the last six months
yet enough to cause our young friend
TO feel much elated, and to lure him.
into freer instead of closer style of
living.
The second New Years Day brought
another day of reckoning. A baby had
been born, and with this sunbeam That
caaae brightly into their home came
also added expenses, and consequent
ssrcrease of debt. The original five hun
.dred dollars borrowed to furnish the