The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1886-04-21
AN AUCTION ROOM.

"Golng! gong! gomez The other
day, as l was walking through q side
street in one OF OF: large cities, l heard
these words ringing out from room
so crowded with people that could
Just see the auctioneer's face and up
lifted hammer above the heads of the
crowd.
"Going! Going! Going! Comet!
and down came the hammer with a
sharp rap.
l do not know how or why it was,
but the words struck me with new
force and significance. l had heard
them hundreds of times before, with
only sense of amusement. This time
they sounded solemn.
"Going! Going! Gomez
THAT is the way it is with life,' I
said to myself 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 l 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
a holiday, whole day long, appeared
to me an almost inexhaustibfe 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 q
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 ''going! going! Comet" If
you gather nothing from it as itpasses it
is "gone" forever. Nothing is so hope
lessly lost as ''lost time 1t makes
me unhappy when / look back and see
how much time l have wasted; how
much l might have. learned and done
if had but understood how 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
emily. 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 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, saving of
every minute, as it flies - Going!
going! goneH'- '.e'
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
| amilliOn SOUNDS a-tune.
| Oh, look! Oh. iistcn Be wise, and take tn IS
! wonderful thing
A jewel such as you will not find In the treas
ury of king!
Going! going! gone. What is next on the list:
An afternoon OF purple and gold, fair rs an
| amethyst,
And large enough to hold all good things
under the sun.
Bid it in now, aud crowd it full with lessons,
and work, and fun!
Going E, Sscins' s0ne' Here is 'ys'r to be
lass and lad
Days, and weeks, and months! Joys, and
labors. and pains!
Take it, spend 1t. 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 vast.
Out of it may be wrought the deeds OF hero
| and sage
Come, bid! Come bid! lest Q brave bright
! youth fade out to O useless are.
The Late Helen Jackson, in st. NichOlda.