The Monitor-register., 1897-01-15
Leaf Turning on New Years Day.
BY MARY SIDNEY.

resolves for the future. Along with |
wishes for "Happy New Year" for
ones friends, big dinners, social merry.
makings, etc., the subject of better be-
havior for the incoming year was liable 1
to come up. We designated these desires
for improvement by saying we Would
"turn over a new leaf"
One might say am going to trcas<ss
new leaf. and get up earlier tubs year
than l did last, and not MATS nothgs;
have such time to waken me and get
me started in the mornings.
L must turn over a new leaf, too, says
another. | must work without quite so
much grumbling this year. have been
too slow and stubborn about getting at
things l have to do. and it must have
been harder work often to get me at it
than to do it, and 1 must correct my
style.
I'll turn my leaf over at fault finding,
another voice declares. l won say
word against anybody for a whole year,
now you see If do. It's not nice to be
talking about folks and saying things
about them behind their backs, or before
their faces either, as for that, when maybe
you don't know that what you say is true,
for people can't tell thing straight even
when they try, and it's best not to try.
"Pm going to be an angel, and with the
angels stand" next year, I'll bet you a
dollar will.
I'm going to turn over a new leaf, and
be more particular about my company
next year, says some one. You can't
help sinners any by running with them;
''come out from among them and be
separate" is what the preachers say, and
l guess We had best believe them. Bad
folks can harm you more than you can
help them, and people know you by the
company you keep-'birds of feather
dock together" you know. Ill flock
alone this year, if I can't fiud good,
square folks to Aook with,
I've turned leaf over most every year
since I've been grown up, says another,
but somehow it won't stay over. l sup.
pose am stiff and bard to govern, like q
new book that has not been much used,
and the leaves fly every way but where
you want them to go. l am going to be
kinder to my parents this year, and see if
l can't make life more cheerful for them.
! might do many nice thing for mother
and help father more, SO that they could
feel that they had firm prop to lean on
In their old days. never meant to be
cruel to them, but have been. keep
forgetting what they went through for
my sake; how many and many a time
they had to pass sleepless nights and
weary days. and give up their own wants
ard wishes, tEeYr recreations and hard
earnings to feed and clothe and educate
me, while have taken it all as a matter
of course. and been the most ungrateful
mortal that is above ground. l have
been short and surley and disagreeable if
l couldn't have my own way. The leaf
must stay over this time; I'll sit down on
it. and make it stay. I've got as good
indulgent parents as any one, and they
must And some comfort in me, else why
was born?
must turn over new leaf to-day also,
some gay young girl will say, and not
spend SO much time and money in nom
sense. i see girls, lots and lots of them,
that DON'T seem to care much about their
clothes, only to look neat and sneighbor
like, who have more friends than have
with all my fuss and feathers, and they
go off like hot cakes in the matrimonial
market, which l don't. 1 guess more
brains and less fnery is about what l
need. Anyway, I'm going to save fifty
dollars for papa this very year, and won't
he wonder what's the matter, not to have
bonnet or dressmaker's bill to pay every
few monthsa I'll make papa happy if /
don't make any one else; and guess it
will Tighten my own mind considerably,
too, for it's awful hard work to travel as
fast as the fashion. That last new dress
and could hardly be gathered in at the
waist, it was so full, might have looked
just as we'll with only seven, am going
to stop short in trying to Guido others.
Because I've been fool is no reason
why l should keep on being one, is it?
Leaf turning was in the air in those
old-time New Years days. Many q
secret leaf was turned; the young man
who strayed from tina path in which his
mother led him--that straight path that
leads to peace and conference.-the sip
his first glaes, to try bis first cigar, to
take hand at the card table, and in
various ways sided with the multitu de to
do evil, turn over many silent leaf in
his anxiety to get back to the good old
happy days that he feels slipping away
from him. The leaf must go over.
will be man,, or "my name is not
Haines.'
The young lady whose sweetheart is
not quite up to the standard of excellence
that is required of sweethearts, feels the
necessity of turning over a new leaf. Her
tickle sutton has been the attendant of too
many ladies: be has grown gray in gal
lantry, but he don't marry; he is good to
look at, dresses well and talks like an
archangel, but he has broken too many
hearts, and be is now plying his trade
with her. If he doesn't ''pop the ques-
ton" this very night, I'll bounce hin,
says she. won't continue to be trifled
with in this way: ''tbere are as good fish
10 the sea as ever we're caught" and
something fresher, too, than he is, and
I'll catch one or go without. won't
waste my prime, and pass into the ''sere
and yellow leaf" with always a beau
and never husband. What is this-map,
anyway, that I should be mindful of
him ? And so the leaf is turned and
fresh page revealed that is not to be
defaced by the wavering man.
Leaf turning on New Years day is
conducive to good habits. Doubtless
many young hearts to-day are just as
DESTROYS to leave off all that has been
found unworthy, and stick to the good
ship Wisdom, as in the days gone by.
Let them this New Years day spy out
the land, count the saags they have
struck as they sailed along, and resolve
that they will steer clear Of them in the
future. Thus may they rise above the
flesh and the devil, and be able to walk
among men as was designed for man,
when he was created little lower than
the angels.