The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1891-10-15

[Greenville News.l
Out Of each one Of the three hundred
and sixty-fve days of every year things
of Importance to great many people
happen. Many newspapers print every
day the notable historical events G
which that day is the anniversary, and
aqueer jumble they make of happen
ings and tinles-great battles of one
century, births of great men Of others,
noted discoveries, important political
achievements over range Of thou
sand years or so. These, however, are
not the dates that live in the memo
ries of most people. We learn at school
the'year William the Conqueror landed,
the day King Charles head was chop
ped off, the time of the Diet of Worms
and all that and forgot it as fast and as
soon as the operation can be performed.
Most of US know when Washington
was born and the declaration of inde-
pendence was sigued because holidays
every year remind us Of them; and the
old soldiers recollect the dates of battles
in which they fought as they come;
outside ofthose We are usually con-
tented to guess within few years Of
when any event of the worlds history
happened, no matter how important
+}ov, NOV howe haop
The dates that live in our memories
are those of our own history-births,
deaths and marriages and acts making
eras in our lives. They are stamped on
our hearts in numbers increasing year
by year as we grow older. With very
old people the year is a continual sue
-~cession of anniversaries, bringing
thoughts and memories sad or happy
following each other closely.
Tomorrow is the tenth of March" !"
an elderly lady will say. my first boy
would have been forty years old if be
had lived until tomorrow" The child
died, perhaps, when be was year old,
or less, and the mother has since then
seen children and grandchildren come
and grow, develop into manhood and
womanhood and marry in their turn.
Nevertheless, the day as it comes opens
the old wound afresh for a moment.
That baby who would be now an aging,
bearded man is still baby to her and
its face smiling into hers and all its
baby tricks and ways return to her, and
she feels anew the pang-the bitter,
despairiDg pang-with which she saw
it laid in the little grave over which
Summers verdure has smiled and
Winters winds have blown so many
times. So it is with most of US. The
dates are fixed. We could not be rid
of them if we would. We may try to
escape or forget them but they will
surely recall themselves in their time,
perhaps with sudden flash Of recollec-
ton which stings like an electric shock
but always before the day is gone. We
may try to forget our own birth days.
Many people do in that period during
which youth is fading and the dignity
and pride of confessed old age has not
yet come. It would be an admirable
scheme if birth days could be abolished
between thirty and sixty, but they
have an incurable habit of whirling
along with depressing swiftness and
forcing on US recollection Of then and
the conviction that we have gained and
lost another year. Birthdays are nuis- |
ances in that time because they make |
sus feel older. We may be unconscious |
{. 81 ngth or vitality |
but the birthday comes along and |
brings with it an inexorable little sum
in subtraction which insists on giving
US the same date. 1913 from 1891 will |
leave 4S. We are so many years old
and already beginning to gallop with
unpleasant speed toward the next date
of the same kind and it is time for us
to be feeling old. We may lock it in
our own hearts and fail to inform our
most intimate friends Of the deplorable
facts, but We don't forget it-nor do
they. They are usually more or less
interested in the matter, and guess at
it. They put US few years younger
than We are. We wish they were right,
they put US a few years older and dep
press US with the conviction that we
look older even than wessare. There is
usually, however, another elderly lady
or gentleman among our acquaintance
whose exasperating memory has our
day fixed as sort of side issue or ac-
compartment to date of her own. The
subject Of discussion was born, she
remembers, just two weeks and day
after or before one of her children or
neices or precisely two months from
the date Of her own or somebody else's :
abominable marriage. She fishes back {
among these miscellaneous odds and
ends CT memory and dates and emerges ,
with the time of birth
fixed to the year, month, and hour {
the very minute may be because she re- {
collects precisely what she or somebody :
else was doing when the interesting {
announcement arrived via the doctor {
or the doctors wife or q neighbor. ,
There by are we undone, spotted, re- q
vealed and our secret is no secret at all |
and it behooves US to be circumspect t
in general statements of the matter.
When We are past sixty most Of Us
become shameless and Indifferent. At
seventy we begin to brag. At seventy