The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1890-12-27
THE OLD YEAR.

81. II has gone and we are on the threshold OF
New Year Nature has turned over another
leaf in the volume of human existence and we
find written thereon 1881" What Will NIL
the blank pages that follow time alone Will
tell. Certain it is, however, that the shifting
scenes of this mundane existence, as if viewed
through kaleidoscope, will present the usual
strange admixture of joy and sadness, love and
strife with all their kiaaged p sm Fe ans sSr
of our lives as it has that of our ancestors away
back to the beginning of the world.
In the wild, mad career of ambition, in the
rush and whirl of business, in the struggle for
wealth that is typical of the nineteenth centu-
~, let lis pause at this milestone in our jour-
new and look back in sad or pleasing retrospect
at the events that have transpired since the
dawn of 1890. The days that have gone will
come to us no more and they have vanished
forever, but there is a record of them on the
angels book, and be well assured they will
stand out in bold relief, for good or evil, at the
sound of the last trump.
What, then, are the lessons to be learned
from the past2 Are they full of sunshine or
full of woe? Most likely both. Friends or
relatives have gone to the better land. A good
deed here or bad one there rise before the
mental vision, like Banquo's ghost, that would
not down. Some have stood at the bridal altar
and some at the side of the grave. Misfortune
has come to some and happiness unspeakable
to others. How is it with you, reader? Has
all been well or has health and fortune been
impaired? But whatever of sorrow or sadness
may have been your lot let the dead past bury
the past and turn once more to the actual and
living issues all around you; for
Life is real, life is earnest,
And the grave is not its goal"
STILL such parting glance backward along the
months-that line of dead sentries-that now
mark all that remains of 1890 may teach many
useful lessons in warning us against errors COM
mitted or serve as sweet remembrance of pure
and noble deeds that shall incite us to even
greater efforts in their performance in the time
to come.
The year 1890 has been one of tranquility to
the nations of the earth. There have been
rumors of war, but the black, lowering cloud
that has so long lowered over Europe has not
yet burst in tempestuous wrath.
The explorer Stanley is alive and with us from
the heart of the dark, mysterious continent.
Nearer home another notable man of science,
Prof. Proctor, has passed to the land beyond
the rivera loss that was national calamity
Sheridan will win no more victories for death
has been his conqueror. Henry w. Grady,
editor of the Atlanta Constitution, one of the
most brilliant men of the age, died suddenly.
and within sixty days four prominent men,
Justice Miller, ex-Secretary of War Belknap,
Surgeon General Baxter and Gen. Wilcox, have
DeCr rrrrrzncTr 5rruucTIIy ann fatally, each
nearly the same manner, besides a number of
Congressman and other prominent persons
have died. Such a number of sudden deaths
of great men was never before known to have
taken place in any year. Several important
Presidential elections have taken place in this
hemisphere that will have an important bear
ing on our future destiny-one in the United
States of Columbia and one in Mexico. Aside
from this the notable events in either land have
been rare.
The blessings that have been showered upon
us as nation have been manifold. We have
steadily grown in prosperity, with nothing to
mar the shining record, except in Florida
where the angel of death had descended with
the weapon of contagion in hand upon the
chief commercial city of that State. The
admission must be made, however, as to the
country at large that the past year or so has
been one rather notable than otherwise for its
destructive cyclones. railway and steamboat
disasters and its serious confagrations Despite
all this prosperity has been the general lot of
the people.
Never before in our history has there been a
year marked by greater railway progress. Than
those bands of iron there are nothing that
binds together the different states in a more
inseparable bond of union. They typify ami
ty, trade and progress and social improvement
wherever they are found National unity and
prosperity flow from them as surely as enlight-
eminent finds its germ and source in the public
school The havests have been bounteous and
the labors of the toiler whether at the anvil or
the plow, in the mine or on the briny deep.
have been generously rewarded. For thesean
other blessings let us all be thankful. There is
nothing as people for us to regret. Let us all
then look toward with renewed faith to the
promise of the future make the most of life
with its golden opportunities, and be fully pre-
pared when the "last summons shall have
come.
TEE MASoNTc TrNrpTr situatad m, Nortl,