The Arizona sentinel., 1886-04-17
AN AUCTION ROOM.

Remind One of the Value of Time.
 Going! going! goner The other day, as was walking through side street in one of our large cities, heard these words ringing out from room so crowded with people that 1 could just see the auctioneer's face and up- lifted hammer above the heads of the crowd.
 "Going! Going! Going! Goner' and down came the hammer with a sharp rap.
 do not know how or why it was, but the words struck me with a new force and significance. I had heard them hundreds of times before, with only sense of amusement. This time they sounded solemn.
 "Going! Going! Goner'
 'That is the way it is with life" l said to myself time."
 This world is 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! goingi gOne!"
 The more I 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. I can remember when holiday, a whole day long, appeared to me an almost inexhaustible play spell; when one afternoon, even, seemed an endless round of pleasure, and the week that was to come seemed longer than does a 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-ify fyou 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 going! going! goneW If you gather nothing from it asit passes it is ''gone" forever. Nothing is so hope lessly lost as ''lost time." It makes me unhappy when look back and see how much time 1 have wasted; how much I might have learned and done if I had but understoodhow short is the longest hour.
 All the men and women who have made the world better, happier or wiser for having lived in it, have done so by working diligently and persist ently. 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 1 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 little; don't let 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! goner'
 Going! going! gone! Is this an auction, here, Where nobody bids, and nobody buys, and
 there is no auctioneer? No hammer, no crowd, no noise, no push of
 women and men And yet the chance that is passing now will
 never come back again! Going going! gone Here is a morn of June Dew, and fragrance. and color, and light, and
 million sounds a-tune. Oh, look! Oh. listenI Be wise, and take this |
 wonderful thing A jewel such as you will not find in the treas
 ury of king! Going goingl gone! What is next on the list? | An afternoon of purple and gold, fair as an | And large enough to hold all good things |
 under the sun.
 Bid it in now, and crowd it full with lessons, |
 and work, and fun!
 Going! going! gone! Here is year to be
 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 1t, and pre-
 sently count your gains. Going! goingl gone! The largest lot comes last:
 Here, with it's infinite unknown wealth is of-
 fered a lifetime vast! Out of it may be wrought the deeds of hero
 and sage
 Come bid! Come bid! lest a brave bright
 youth fade out to a useless age! .The Late Helen Jdckson in St. Nicholas.
 ACKNOWLEDGE THE DEBT.