The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1891-01-08
THE NEW YEAR,

New Years day comes around once in
so often. In this country the majority
of the people have concluded to locate it
for general purposes on the first day Of
January. This is to avoid collision with
the 4th of July, and also the first day of
the new school year, which in Vermont
has come to be very much like the nova
BILE feast days of the almanac. 1t comes
at season of the year when people can
attend to it. The Chinese have theirs
along towards spring, but with us such
arrangement would interfere with plant
ing. The day got out of place a few
years ago but some of the astronomers
got hold of it and jerked it around into
proper place again. 1t will probably stay
now where it belongs so long as we have
occasion to use it, unless some future
Vermont Legislature begins to NEEDLE
with it. 1t is convenient, as we have in
timated, to have New Years day on the
first of January. 1t would seem odd to
have it on the 3lsJ of December, and be-
sides, it would shorten the holiday sea-
son and impose many additional hours
of severe study upon the pupils IN our
schools and colleges. Some have
thought it would be well for each one to
have New Years day of his own, reck-
oning from his visible appearance upon
this planet. But under such an arrange.
ment the difficulty would be that in a
well regulated community of average
size and intelligence there would be from
three to five New Years on every day in
the year, and the human mind is not
constructed to bear such strain as such
a state of things would impose. In other
communities, less careful, there would
be a great many New Years kicking
about apparently without any owner.
Some have thought it would be better
not to have any New Year, that is, get
along without having beginning for the
year. This would be well enough il IL
were not for one little circumstance, if
the year had no beginning it would have
no ending. There was never thing yet
with only one end TO it. To have q year
spinning on forever would be terribly
mOnotonous. Only one Christmas, one
4th of July, one session of the Vermont
Legislature; only one time to pay up
newspaper subscriptions and raise the
salary for the minister, and get up bean
supper for the heather on the border. II
is impossible to conceive of the state of
affairs that would ensue without a New
Year. 1t would be a great deal worse
than playing Hamlet with Hamlet left
out, for in such a case you can put in a
substitute but you cannot substitute any
other day for the New Year. There is
no other day of just the same length.
Almost any other day would lap over the
ends. In view of the magnitude of the
undertaking it is hardly probable that
any change will be made in the present
arrangement of things. The New Year
is good time for reflection. IL is
usually cold, and of course it is pleasanter
to sit around in the house and mediate
and doze and spit tobacco juice all over
the stove than it is to go out and work
on the wood pile. 1t is good time to
think over all the mean things you have
done ddring the year that has Just been
swept off into the dust-pan of eternity,
because then they are fresh in mind and
you can base future calculations upon
them to better advantage than after wait
ing few weeks and allowing a sense of
them 10 become dulled. There are sew
eral matters that can properly be attend
ed to on New Years day that one would
be apt to let pass if there were no such
day. 1t is good time to get new
clothes. 1t is very appropriate TO slip
into n new garment as one slips into a
new year. 1t makes definite break
with the past. You can bury the ragged
old year and your ragged old pants to-
gether in the same hole. Then you have
a sharp point from which to date your
purchase, and can easily tell how long
your clothes will last This will encOur-
age economy and cheat the rascally mid
dlemeu, The New Year Is q good time
to pay up debts, II you have no money
you can use a promise. These are oheap
and almost every one has them. Where
one pays his debts at the beginning of
the year he can start off with a new
assortment and keep them in mind more
clearly. There is nothing more conducive
TO financial health than the memory Of
ones debts. The New Year Is a good
time to get married il you are not already
married. II you are you know how it is
yourself. The New Year is good time
to get out paving stones for that bourne
to which most fellows expect the other
fellows will go TO remain. The New
Year Is good time to take account Of
stock, count up the number Of your chill
dren, wipe off their noses, and In fash
ionaNle society sec how many times you
can drink before crawling under the sofa,
1t is a good time to start In and try and
be little more decent, rejecting that
these opportunities are diminishing, and
IL you are not good soon the chances are
more than even that you will not be good
for anything. Wecommend these rcflec-
tons to our subscribers, and wishing
them happy New Year, trust that they
will pay up and keep us company right
along. -Herdld q Kecs.