The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-12-26
JANUARY FIRSTLINGS.
Some Things to Ponder and to BE Thank
full For.


The best time to rejoice, to feel great
satisfaction, is not SO much at the opening
of the New Year as at the close of the old,
when we know what we have gained,
what we have achieved and what we have
reason to be thankful for.
The exercise of memory, however graft
flying the things we remember, never af-
fords such pleasure as the exercise of hope,
which pictures everything that might be,
but has not been. The New Year, there
fore, always appeals to US as promising
the realization of the dearest wishes of oUr
heart and is in consequence exuberantly
welcome.
The profuse distribution of gifts on
New Years day was still the custom in
England during Elizabeth's reign, and
nearly her entire wardrobe as we'll as her
jewelry was supPlied in the form of pres
ents. If the women of today were as
bountifully furnished as was the vastly
Overrated queen, Jan. would be more
precious in their eyes than all the holidays
together, but the present makers would
be irretrievably bankrupt.
In medieval times women enjoyed being
kissed on NewYear's day under the mis-
tletoe. The modern, the contemporaneous
woman, is not particular about the mistle-
toe or the day either. Time, place and the
man being given, she reIishes kissing gen
orally.
Till within few years the women of
New York were in the habit of receiving
their friends in town on New Years day
in grand style. Now those claiming to be
fashionable fly on that day to the country,
presumably to avoid their foes-in other
words, to get rid of bores, who are socially
the most formidable of enemies
Tho Cbiy,aco OF
Years night to prodigious extent. In
Wall street New Workers gamble enor-
mously on most of the other days of the
year.
The good resolutions made on Jan.
have generally proved to be bad perform
/ ances before the end of February.
The men who are continually turning
over new leaf'' on New Years day are
apt to forget the leaf soon after or that
they have turned the leaf over at all.
The headaches that are felt the next
morning after New Years may usually be
attributed to treating the good resolu-
tions they have made on that day.
Many Americans outside of New York
so detest the fulfllment of what it called
social duties that they would be delighted
to see widely extended the French custom,
which releases Parisians from the obliga-
ton of making New Years calls in con-
sideration of their sending small presents
instead. They would give nberally to be
entirely exempt from the whole business
of visiting" be the date Jan. l or any
other. They would much rather pay out
than go out.
Expectancy is so strong in the human
breast that it amounts almost to supersti-
ton, as New Years day illustrates. No
matter how i'll success a man may have
had in all the years that have past, he is
pretty sure to believe that the New Year
will bring him change of fortune. And
happily his belief will help him to bear
his burdens if it does not make them
lighter. What we believe may not hap
pen, but it makes the present brighter.
1t is great pity that every day of the
year does not inspire and cheer as Jan. l
is apt to do. Then we should always carry
a light heart and possess a cheerful mind.
In the cities of China the people on New
Years day offer up paper prayers in the
temples. To use a commercial phrase, dc
they meet their paper when it falls dueP
JUNIUS HENRI BROWNE.