Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1886-04-01
AN AUCTION ROOM.

Going! going! gone!" The other
day, as I was walking through side
street in one OF our large cities, I heard
these words ringing out from room
SO crowded with people that l could
just see the auctioneer's face and up
lifted hammer above the heads of the
crowd.
''Going! Going! Going! Gomez
and down came the hammer with a
sharp rap.
do not know how or why it was,
but the words struck me with new
force and significance. I had heard
them hundreds of times before, with
only sense of amusement This time
they sounded solemn
s.Going! Going! Gonet'
THAT is the way it is with ife,"
said to myself-"with time"
This world is a, sort of auction room;
we do not know that we are buyers;
we are, in fact, more like beggars; we
have brought no money to exchange
for precious minutes, hours, days or
years; they are given to us. There is
no calling out of terms, no noisy auc-
tioneer, no hammer; but, nevertheless,
the time is ''going! going! gone!"
The more [ thought of it. the more
solemn did the words sound, and the
more did they seem to me good mot
to to remind one of the value of time.
When we are young we think old
people are preaching and pressing when
they say so much about it-when they
declare so often that days, weeks, even
years, are short. can remember when
holiday, a whole day long, appeared
to me an almost inexhaustibIe play
spell; when one afternoon, even,
seemed an endless round of pleasure,
and the week that was to come seemed
longer than does whole year now
One needs to live many years before
one learns how little time there is in a
year-how little, indeed, there will be
in the longest possible life-how many
things one will still be obliged to leave
undone.
But there is one thing, boys and
girls, that you can realize, if you will
try-if you will stop and think about it a
little; and that is, how fast and how
steady the present time is, slipping
away. However long life may seem to
you, as you look forward to the whole OF
it, the present hour has only sixty min
utes, and minute by minute, second by
second it is s'going! going! gone!" Il
YOU gather nothing from it as passes il
is ''gone" forever. Nothing is So hope
lessly lost as s.lost time" It makes
me unhappy when I look back and see
how much time 1 have wasted; how
much might have learned and done
if I had but understood how short is the
longest hour.
All the men and women who have
made the world better, happier OF
wiser for having lived in it, have done
so by working diligently and persist.
entity. Yet, am certain that not even
one of these, when .'looking backward
from his manhood's prime saw not
the specter of his mis-spent time:"
Now, don't suppose | am SO foolish as
to think that all the preaching in the
world can make any thing look to young
eyes as it looks to old eyes; not Bit
of it.
But think about it a little;, don't lei
time slip away by the minute, hour,
day, without getting something out OF
it! Look as the clock now and then,
and listen to the pendulum, saying OF
every minute, as it flies Going
going! gone!'
Going! going! gone! Is this an auction here
Where nobody bids, and nobody buys, and
there is auctiOneer?
No hammer, no crowd, no noise, no push OF
women and men-- 49,
And yet the chance that is passing now VIII
never come back again!
Going! going! goneI Here is a morn of June
Dew and fragrance, and color, and light, ano
q million sounds a-tune.
Oh look! Oh, iistenl Be wise, and take this
wonderful thing
A Jewel such as you will not find In the treas
ury of king!
Goingl going! gone! What is next on the list
An afternoon of purple and gold- fair as ar
amethyst,
And large enough To- nold all goOo thihgs
under the sun.
Bid it in now, and crowd 1t full with lessons
and work, and fun!
had
A whole magnificent year held out to every
lass and lad!
Days, and weeks, and months! joys, and
labors, and pains!
Take it, spend it, buy with it. lend it, and pre-
sently count your gains.
Going! going! gone! The largest lot comes
last:
Here, with its infinite unknown wealth is Of
fered u lifetime vasti
Out of it may be wrought the deeds Of hero
and sage
Come, bid! Come. bidl lest brave bright
youth fade out to a useless age!
The Late Helen Jackson, In st. Nicholas.