Morning journal and courier., 1881-01-01
For the JOURNAL AND CouRIER.l NAvv Raa-sa NTArvn vpr


 It is a swift current, this stream upon which we float. The echoes of the bells which ushered in 1880 still finger in our ears when g new toll tells us the Bark of Life has reached another year. Sc rapidly are pas ssngers continually enbarking and departing that scarcely have made the acquaintance of our fellow travellers before they silently leave us; we see them on the gang plank and they are lost to sight,-we never see them on shore. When he embarks, each one is alike unconscious of the swiftness of the stream and the shortness of the journey. The landmarks seem remote,-the passage slow it appears long way from one New Years day to another. But we gradually be- come conscious of speed; the shores glide backward, headlands fit by in quick succession, our first seatmates have debarked, sc that more friends have gone than remain and we find ourselves surrounded by new faces. And still the tide, which knows neither check nor ebb, rolls steadily on. Whether rich or poor, wise or foolish, merry or sad, it gives no heed to it's freight, but goes noiselessly and swiftly on, and on, and on.
 Like it's predecessors, the past year has been an attenuation of bleak winds and pleasant air; storm laden, dreary clouds and warm enlivening sunshine. All of us, in varying degree, have had both joy and grief, pleasure and pain. We have had times of contentment, cheerfulness and mirth, and periods of depression and gloom.
 We have been gladdened by births, by watching the bodily and intellectual growth of children, by making desirable acquain- tances and by closer companionship and sym pathy with old tried associates and friends. We have been rejoieed by learning of new in- ventions and discoveries, by fresh achieve n asee f ar 8 e8nsfusss the forces of Nature. lifting the burden of drudgery and poverty rom the human family and helping them to rise to a plane of greater physical comfort and high CT intelligence.
 We have been gratified by tokens that man. kind are slowly emerging from barbarian; that they are growing less stupid, less selfish and less brutal; that they are gradually be- coming broader in their religious ideas, more tolerant and less superstitious; by tidings that the era of peace and good will to all (al- though still far off) is little nearer than it was And many have had pleasure in their own growth, in the hope that they were mak- ing mental progress and gaining hard fought but substantial victory over the un- lovely things in their own characters.
 But alas As the sunlight often throwssa dark, threatening cloud into bolder relief, so the joyful occurrences of the past year cast its sad events into more sombre shadow. Some of us have lost kindred others have lost friends. Desolation has brooded over 2 multitude of households. Blades of grass covered with hoar frost have joined us in lowing their heads and shedding tears over the sleeper beneath. We have awaked in the morning and shuddered to find the new made bed of loved one covered with counter pane of snow. Lost to sight are the genial face and the gloom dispelling smile we saw last New Years day. Absent is the form whose presence, even in silence, made lonei- ness impossible, created ample society and produced homelike feelings sense of rest and content. Folded are the hands whose grasp was so cordial; the hands ever active in kindly offices and generous deeds F; the hands which with us gathered the early anemone and violet, the snowy immortelle, thecolumbine and cardinal flower, and, in au- tumn picked the blue fringed gentian, the aster, the golden red bitter sweet. and frag- ments of the many hued robes which the forests were taking of before their winter sleep Henceforth, the yiolets with their blue eyes filled with dew will seem weeping for the hand that loved to clasp them; and the purple and scarlet glories of the oak, the maple and the woodbine will slowly futter down to earth as if fondly hoping to place themselves once smors within it's reach.