The Washington critic. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1885-1888, 1885-12-31
WASHINGTON. D. c., DEC. 81, 1885
THE NEW YEAR.

We are watching the Old Year out
and the New Year in.
A few more lluttering hours-the
curtain will fall upon the one and rise
upon the other.
Behind us fit away, in all their
varied forms, the realities of the past
"a weird and melancholy procession.
Tcfore us opens vista OF shadowy eX-
ectations, which hope isprone to tinge
with the lustrc Of cloudlcss promise.
II has been so as long as we can re-
member. 1t was so with our fathers
and mothers. II is still to be. AS the
years pass in and out the grotesque
story reiteratcs itself.
The initial day Of the New Year,
though characterized so long and so
generally by social observances peculiar
10 no other day, is invested with purely
secular canonicals and scarcely rises to
the dignity of festival. 1t differs es-
sentially from the sacred anniversary
which we celebrated week ago, in the
quality of its attributes and the strength
of its associations. 1t is not so closely
interviewer with hearth and heart, nor
so rich in precious recollections nor so
fruitful Of thoughts that take deep hold
lipon our better natures and enter into
Them as an element of inspiration--not
so much retrospection, green with
never-fading memories, as an out.
look upon the unknown and the turn
ing of new leaf in the book of fate
not so much Holy Day as q holiday
o "Glad- d-we-arc alive" sort of day.
1t is rather the bright and sparkling
ehervescence with which the festival
season eliminates and departs.
Yet the New Year anniversary is one
10 be enjoyed and profitably utilized in
the offices of good fellowship and the
exchange of friendly congratulations.
1t is unlike other days upon the caen-
dar in being the first of new series
and for this pre-. eminence, If nothing
else, should 1t be duly honored, not
alone with the festivities that custom
has sanctioned and the purchase of
new diaries, but with the virtuous re-
solve that this year shall Nc better than
the last in the fruit it bears and the
crop it produces-the fruit Of honest
living and the crop of opportunities
improved.
And right here let us suggest that
The resolutions now made be made to
keep. The better course would De to
pass them this evening to 60 into effect
tomorrow morning. 1t should be re-
membered that the New Year begins
on the 1st of January, contrary
10 somewhat prevalent impression
especially among our younger friends,
that il begins on the I'd or 3D., accord.
ing to the duration of the headache.
Panoplied with this stout armor, the
temptations that sometimes beset us or
this convivial occasion may be all tht
more easily avoided or successfully en-
countered
Let us begin the New Year not will
long faces but with sober heads. Thus
will the battle Of the next twelve
months be more than half won at the
start.
The man who sacrifices his self-rc
spect tomorrow will be certain to hav,
more or less trouble in regaining it
and he who lets his wits go so astray
that he forgets the respect which is du,
10 others is in still worse plight. IL
one and all, therefore, THE CRITIC
concludes its homily by saying; Be cir
cumspect; and there will be no afte
regrets nor humillating remembrance
10 blur the virgin record of the New
Year.
May it open auspiciously--may all it
new departures be wisely taken-it
ventures prospered, its honorable am
billions gratified its adversities bravel,
met, its revolving months like wheel
of.fortune be ailluent in their gifts, ant
the glad welcomes with which the New
Year is ushered in, like music over th,
waters, go echoing to the end in crate
full benisons