The Van Buren press., 1896-12-26
THOUGHTS FOR THE NEW YEAR.
Good Thing to Begin 1t by Making
Good Resolutions.

8oou RESOLUTIONS.
With the beginning of the New Year
comes the almost universal practice Of
making good resolutions. All consci-
entious persons who have been ac-
customed to indulge in habits that they
know are not to be approved by high
standard of aesthetics or morality, or
dinarily take occasion to make resolves
that they will amend their ways ac-
eording to the best accepted ideas on
such subjects.
1t is curious fact that the break
ing OF such resolutions is likely to
cause as much merriment as regret,
and failures to live up to the new de-
termination are regarded by many as
huge jokes. 1t is good thing to begin
with the New Year to lop off some of
our mental or moral derelictions and
correct whatever physicalsho
we may have been guilty of. Especially
is this the case With young persons.
Every year ought to show a distinct
| and decided advance over the one Just
before it. Boys and girls have every
incentive to strive to elevate and de-
1t!op their characters. They have the
world and life before them, and it rests
with them to make the coming genera
ton better than the present and in
iinitely superior to the one just pass
ing away. Young people who are now
entering upon the preliminary duties
of life will find ii of the greatest adj
vantage if they will select some pursuit
to which they can devote whatever
spare time circumstances may alot
them. The girl who takes up botany,
Horticulture, Bookkeeping, gardening or
poultry-raising as a special study, with
the determination to make 1897 red
letter year in her calendar, by reason
Of her thorough study and comprehen-
sive understanding of the business in
hand, will, before long, find herself in
an independent and commanding po-
sition, able to paddle her own canoe
among the rocks and reefs that line the
shores of the river of life. 1t is good
thing TO begin new study With the
New Year. 1t gives something to date
from, and an ambition TO cover all pos
sible ground during the 365 days before
the calendar is to be renewed. The man
who makes up his mind to cut loose
from all nonsense, to give up every
thing that sounds like excuses for non
performance of duty, and determines
to be prompt, thorough, alert. concen-
trative and watebful of every oppor.
tunity to make himself indispensable,
will some day look back to the begin
ming of the present year and eongratu-
late himself that there is in the world
such thing as good resolutions There
are very many persons who would be
the gamer by determined resolve to
divest themselves of the idea that they
are of such great Importance. Conceit
mars more characters than any other of
our besetting sins. The world gets
along just as well without us, and while
for little time the few may regret
ms, the many never miss us. When once
we become fully reconciled to the idea
that we are but particles in the great
mosaic of creation and that if we drop
out of it there are plenty more that slip
almost unconsciously into the spaces
we leave vacant we will have removed
from our lives some of the leading
causes of unhappiness and unrest. Jan
uary, 1897, is an excellent time to prune,
as far as we may, everything in the
way of weaknesses and folies and set
up standard higher than we have
ever before raised. and register vow
to follow the best models and methods
that our most enlightened intelligence
can furnish.--N. Y. Ledger.