Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-01-01
COMMENCING THE YEAR.
Ninety-Four Came in With bang
and Clear Sky.

Bang.
That is the way the old year slid off into
the past. The noise that came at midnight
showed that no one was really sorry to part
with ~. No one seemed to weep many
tears over it's departure. There was little
to regret
AS soon as the echoes of the parting shot
died away there was a queer sound to be
distinguished. growing louder as the new
year grew older, and adding volume as the
minutes sped into hours. This was the
fiuttering of the new leaves that We're being
turned over. Resolutions were being made
by the thousands some to be kept for an
hour, some for the day, some for a month,
and few for the year. Here and there was
one that was destined to be observed for all
time But it seemed shame-faced among so
many that were not at all serious, and 1t
did not make much fuss.
Eggnog began to flow soon after break
fast. 1t has been growing in volume ever
since, and now is probably worthy the name
of torrent. No one can ever think of New
Year day without thinking also of eggnog.
1t Is as much u part of the day as the open
ing bang. 1t seems to resist the introduc-
ton OF newer accomplishments. and to hold
Its time-honored place in the observances
of the day.
1t was lucky thing for the young men
who made their social peripatetications on
this day that there was neither snow nor
rain, for these, in the midst of these hard
times, would be serious drawback to the
observance of the calling custom. The liv-
cry men were bewailing their hard lot to-
day. According to their stories there was
not much calling being done, but they
were not as good judges as they might
have been had Ii not been for the fact
that dollars are bigger on this New Year
than previously. They have increased in
weight and fineness and are more precious
to the young men with patent feathers and
long overcoats and untrimmed locks, who
make up the grand army of callers on the
threshold of the year.
Washington's handsome homes were gen.
orally thrown open with lavish hospitality
today and the callers showed no signs of
diminishing. The annual rumor that the
custom Is to be abandoned was abroad, of
course, but the events of the day did not
bear 1t out There were the usual number
of pasteboards placed on silver salvers and
the usual number of polite conversations
about nothing. and the usual number of
little luncheons, eaten in precariouS atti-
tudes and amid grave dangers.
In fact, half of Washington resumed it's
acQuain lance with the other half in the
style that has been in vogue for so many
years. The official part of the city, clad in
it's most brilliant effects, shook the other
official hand, and said that 1t was glad
there were three more years at least of Of
fetal life. Many of the most disagreeable
topics of official conversation, the tariff
and the income tax, the Hawaiian muddle
and the hard times, were relegated to the
future, which is filled with SO many pos
sibilities Of this sort.
And so "a came into being There was
first a noise, then an eggnog, and then a
handshake. Perhaps there were more egg
nogs after the handshake, but of them his
tory has no dealings.