Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1883-01-25
4 COMMONPLACE Year.


The year 1882 was remarkable for
the absence of remarkable events.
Taken as whole it was a common
place period the world over. The
record of casualties and calamities. of
crimes and horrors, is not meager,
perhaps, as compared with ether wears,
but the fullness is due 10 the thor
oughness with which the record is
kept, rather than the abundance OF
the occurrences themselves. Happy
the people whose annals are stupid, !"
is proverb suggested alike by the
most general review which could be
taken, and the several departments OF
events. With the exception of some
political surprises in our own country,
the footsteps of time have most en-
couraging monotony.
The only approach to war during
the year was the brief episode in
Egypt, which had about the same =
lation to an old-fashioned war that a
tallo@ dip has to headlight. A few
fellahs, led ~ one of their number
VINO had risen to high rank, provoked,
by their beligerent pranks, the martial
navy, but they took good care to dis
band in time to harvest their crops.
During the dull season they beguiled
the time with the excitement of
campaign. In Europe all ig calm,
with no immediate prospect of an
outbreak. The kings and ruling classes
generally feel less apprehenslve, APP
parently, OF revolutionary outbreaks
than they did q year ago. The Nihi-
lists and Socialists are less rampant.
1t certainly seems as if the affairs of
nations are less purturbed than at any
other new year within the range of
history, although the actual under
current is something of which it il inn
possible to form judgment in adj
vance.
New Year is not so much national
or International as it is an Individual
landmark. The LIST of July is the new
year day in the finance of the United
States government, and the 4th of
March the beginning ofthe political year
and with states and municipalities the
calendar year is no guide and limit to
the official year. But in the thousand
nameless details of life the LIST day of
January is a landmark. No business
house of any considerable magnitude, if
conducted on sound principles, allows
one year to give place to another with
out thoroughly investigating its own
affairs. During the year the books can
not be fully balanced, and the bad
debts, shrinkage, and other uncertain
elements in the calculation cannot be
taken into exact account. The average
man of affairs, if asked to state the ex-
tent Of his possessions, could only do so
once a year. He knows the amount of
real estate he owns, about how much it
is worth. how much he owes his bank,
or how much the bank owes him, and
some other details which are naturally
or necessarily kept on hand, but it Is
still true that what clearing house is
daily to the banks belonging to it, the
new year is the ordinary business CT the
country. The man who allows this
point Of time to 60 by without finding
out just where he stands is surely drift
ing toward the niagara Of bankruptcy.
In matters of personal behavior the
new year is potent agency of reform.
With all the good-natured banter per-
son hears about swearing off with the
new almanac it is certainly true that
many a man is brought to genuine re-
form by the reflections forced upon him
by oday. Making liberal allowance
for the good resolutions formed now
only to be broken, it still remains that
the transaction from one year to an
other serves as powerful element in
the suppression of vice. Many young
man SEES in the light of New Years eve
whittier he is drifting, and realizes he
is on a road which can only end in
ruin and misery. 1t is most excellent
thing for societies that the path of life
has mile-posts which serve as guide
boards, pointing out the destination of
the countless by-ways which seem to
the inexperienced to be primrose paths