Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1880-01-01

stands, and well ii the balance is
upon the credit side and we are
not largely debtor to the wrong,
At this season, when we are
called Upon to meet our lives as
they are, without shadow ofdoubt;
when the years pass in review;
when the panorama reveals even
from birth what we have been,
and the future stretches away a
great unknown, it behooves eve
ry one TO give heed to the warn
ings received and learn how to
guard against the manifold evils
and errors and failures that may
come.
1t was the wise Benjamin
Franklin Of We mistake not who
compared the human soul to a
pure, white sheet of paper, upon
which virtue would place its gol-
den impress or vice a blot; a
maiden soul, fresh and unsullied
from its Maker, to be returned
when years had iapsed with every
thought and action written as
with a pen of steel; printed with
type ineffacable and ink lindeli-
bic; registered by hands fiendish
or angelic, and justified" by
good or the reverse.
The smile is a strong and per-
tinent. one, alike III society and
business, and the same motives
and ambitions that control in the
one case are apt to do SO in the
other. Man, in this respect, can
rarely play two parts. The
scenes may shift, but the main
springs Of action remain the
same; the motive power is the
same, and the, result identical, as
a whole. Life is but a means
unto an end" and that end IS ey-
er kept in view and controls
largely; viii ever control more
than is believed of such a Great
ure of impulse and passion and
prejudice as man. a ~
But the soul is not cribbed
and confined by the same limits
as mortality. 1t can overlap
the fence, and, turning its back
upon that which is unworthy of.
its high and holy birthlight, mark
out new channels, and create, as
it were, for itself new worlds.
The subtlety of its motives, as
OF its essence, can never be load
ed down by the grossness of
earthly NATTER; and has it been
betrayed into wrong, it can be
|re-baptized, even unto its pris-
tine purity, and putting off the
old as a garment re-habitate it
self with the new. iac aye.
The settlement of the. twelve
months comes with the dawning
Of the new year. Then we stop
in orr headlong race for place
and power and wealth--pause
and soberly reflect what we have
done and what we are going to
do--mouln for lost opportunities
III the days to return neyermore,
and to build, as against the fu-
ture, battlements we hope to sue
cessfully trust amid the war of
party and the crash of business.
Even when the curtain of the old
is falling and that of the new is
being rung up-the sighs and
sobs being drowned in jubilant
muslc-we are called upon to
strike the balance. s
Turning our thoughts away
from the inner man, the stirring
business life rises before us, and
we see at a glance, the balance
struck-the profit and the loss
the chances of success that we
have failed to turn to good ac-
count, the errors committed and
the causes of failure. True, it is
too late now to remedy the evils,
but not to guard against their
again occurring, and by judi
cions forethought making sue
cess triumphant. M -,
The year just gathered into
the mighty stoiehousc of the CEN
turtles has been one exceptionally
fruitful in business complications.
The tide has run so counter that
to avoid financial shipwreck was
impossiblein many and
happy the one whose bark has
weathered the tempests and rides
at anchor in a safe harbor, even
with rent sails, broken masts,
lostspars, and rigging sadly torn.
If debt does not brood over us a
gigantic nightmare, if the chest
bower" credit is not gone, there.
is ample time to refit against an
other voyage, and by successful
venture retrieve ali.
The signs of the times are en-
couraging. To use a far-west-
ernism, we have struck the sTbed
rock" of business calamity; have
reached the bottom; can sink no.
lower, and the move is now in an
direction. The majority
Of those who have not had their
names stricken from the roll of
business men now stand upon a
firm footing. They have been