The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1893-01-06

and London and Berlin and vienna ana
all the great national capitals there are
clocks
Suppose that by presidential procla4
nation and resolution of senate and
house OF representatives our national
clock in the capitol turret be ordered
TO stop. stop, o clock, until sectional
animosities are cooled OF, until our
Sabbaths are better kept and drunken
ness turns to sobriety, and bribery,
fraud and dissipation quit the landl
Stop, o clock IN the tower of the great
United States capitol" mo, mol" says
the clock, 81 have been going on
SO long / can not afford to stop.
sounded the birthday Of American
independence. rang out the
return of peace In 1855. I have
seen many presidents inaugurated
struck tho hour of Lincoln's assassina-
ton. 1 have beat time for emancipa-
ton proclamation, and Chicago fire, and
Charleston earthquake, and epidemics
of fever and cholera. Nations never
stop. They march on toward salvation
or demolition. And why should they
stop? I chime for the national holidays.
toll for the mighty dead, must go on
1 must go on. Tick, tockl Tick, tockl
There may be difference of few sec
onds or a few minutes in the time
pieces, but it will be serious occasion
when next Saturday night about the
same hour the family clocks, and the
city clocks, and the national clocks
strike onel twol three! four! f1vel sixl
seven! eight ninel ten! eleven! twelvel
Sorry am 1 to have 1899 depart this
life. 1t has been good year. What
bright days! What starry nightsl
| What harvestsl What religious con-
vacations! What trirpphs of art and
science and invention and enterprise
and religionI But, alas, how sacred it
I has been with sorrows! What pillows
| hot with fever that could not be cooled
What graves opening wide enough to
take down beauty and strength and use
fulnessl What cctogenarians putting
down the staff of earthly pilgrimage
and taking the crown of heavenly re-
ward! What children, as in Bible time
crying: MY head, my head! And
| they carried him to his mother, and he
sat on her knees until noon and then
died"
This year went the chief poet of Eng
| 16nu anu Iil6 CIl4C4 EOSO VI
Our John G. Whittier-great in litera-
ture and simple as a child-for did
| not spend an afternoon with him in q
barn in the AdirondacIEs, and in the
evening we played blind mans buff, he
tying over my eyes the handkerchief,
while the hotel parlors rang with the
merrymaking? And Tennyson, this
! year gone-he who for this particular
season of the year wrote:
Ring cut, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light
The year is dying in the night
Ring cut, wild bells and let him die.
What mingling of emotions in this clos
| ing year! What orange blossoms for
the marriage altar, and what myrtle
for the tombs of dead! Hosannas and
| lamentations in collision. Anthem and
dead march mounting from the same
ivory keys. Before this year quite leaves
the earth let it hear our repentance for
opportunities that can never return;
kind words spoken too late or not
| spoken at all; means of getting good or
doing good SO completely gone by that
the archangels voice could. not recall
them. Can it be that this year is clos
| ing and our sins are unforgiven, and
we have no certainty that when our last
December 81 has sped away we shall
enter a blissful eternity? The most
overwhelmingly solemn week of oil the
year is the last week of December.
But on opening this subject, In re-
spect of holy day." as my text put it,
or holiday. as we moderns write and
pronounce it, 1 advised that you divide
| this season into three chapters-the first
chapter of illustrious birthday, the
second chapter of annual decadence,
and the third chapter of chronological
introduction, and this last chapter we
! have reached In olden times there was
| style OF closing an old year and OPEN
| ing n new one that was very suggest
| i've.
The family would sit up until twelve
o'clock at night, and when the clock
struck twelve the family would all go
to tho front door of the house, take
down the bar and turn back the lock
and swing the door wide open to let
! the old year out md the new year IN,
And that is what we are going to do
With the same measured step that time
! has kept since it started, it will come tC
our door in the closing night Of this
week. With what spirit shall we Jet
the new year in? l have already indi-
Gated that it is to be one of the greatest
of all chronology.
"Why?" you ask. Have you any
forebodings or Premonitions?" No
'Are you expecting the millennium
this year?" Mol why, then, say this
about the coming year?" For the sim
pie reason that I find as the years &c
| By they become mora and more event
full Compare the nineteenth century
with the eighteenth century. Compare
the first half of this century with the
last half. The surges of this ocean OF
time are rolling higher and higher.
The forces of right and wrong are rap;
| idly multiplying, and their struggles
must be intensified.
1t is chronological fact that we are
all the time coming nearer to the
worlds edenization first and then TO its
! incineration, to its redemption and 1t:
demolition. And 80 l expect that 1895
will be greater year than 1892. Its
wedding bells will be merrier. 1th
obsequies will be sadder. Its scientific
discoveries more brilliant It's prosper
! tiles more significant It's opening
more grand. Its termination more stu.
pendous. Look out for 1898! Let
| printers have IN their cases of type
! plenty of exclamation points to set up 8
! sudden paragraph. Let the conserya-
| tories have profusion of flowers tina:
can be twisted into garlands. Let
churches have plenty Of room for in
creased assemblages. Let men and
| hav y11a,a --aJioia7 meet the