The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1897-02-27
S~EAsONABLE REMARKS
Sam Jones on the Old and the
New Year.
rhere Aes stnl . Thoasand Blessinrs ID
spite of the Dlsaatrous Conditions o.
ehe Past Tenr-Turnlng Over
= New Leaf.

and gone and the New Year is on us
again-the year of grace 1897. Not In
my memory have we had a more event
full year than 1896. More banks failed.
more manufactures stopped. more
commercial houses went under, and
more financial wrecks along the way
than any one year recorded in my menu
CRY, and still about 7O,OOo,O 900 Of US in
the United States are alive and kicking
with a thousand blessings on which we
have looked but little, and for which
we have shown but little gratitude.
The year just passed has been a year
of cyclones and earthquakes, Of tidal
waves and railroad wrecks, ct cetera.
And yet ali Of these things still find
the country full of people and, l some
times think. full of GROWERS and kick
ers. / believe / had rather be here amid
all our disadvantages than to have been
swallowed up in an earthquake or
washed away by a tidal wave, or swept
over the country in acyclone. or mashed
up in a railroad wreck. My bones are
all whole, my stomach is full and
~measurably my heart content. Idon't
believe I'd growl and complain and have
the blues if I'd keep out of bad COM
pany. Sometimes environment is o
strong for me and l fall in with the pro-
cession and growl a little to keep from
feeling lonesome and odd.
But all in all, after the hardest years
pull of my life in work and worry, in
fortune and misfortune, / had a pleas
ant Christmas. / am forced to believe
am a travelling man. And like all
travelling men, 1 came home to spend
the holidays. What a blessed thing it
is that we have Christmas holidays. 1t
is the time for the reunion of families,
for good dinners, for joyful meetings
and for blessed association. What q
splendid occasion it is for all the travel
ing men to come home and enjoy the
blessed days with their families and
loved ones But now the New Year is
upon Is and off we go again, not COM
batting, perhaps, new trials and diff
culties and temptations, but to fight
the same battles, to meet the anne
temptations, and suffer some of the
same ills that we have suffered before.
Christmas time is a reckoning time.
The fellow who is not hopelessly bank
rupt takes his bearings about Christmas
time at the end of the old year. 1t is the
time for taking stock, for adding up the
columns of debit and credit. Some are
even with the world because they owe
as many as they don't owe and have
nothing to pay with. Some are nearer
out of debt than they were a year ago,
and some deeper in debt; and the Lord
have mercy on them. 1pray ~itreverent-
ly, for if any fellow needs mercy from
Heaven it is the debtor getting deeper
into debt. Men won't have mercy on
him.
But after all 1 for one start out the
New Year with heart and hope. I be-
lieve better days are coming. 1 be-
lieve the morning Sta has risen. The
sun will come up by-and-by, and the
bright good old days that we have had
in the long ago will come again. May
be not in the booms and mutations we
have seen but in n more healthy and
stable way. / don't know what cot
ton is going to be worth, or corn, Or
wheat, or wool. l am not much on the
prices current when / get into the
realms of prophecy; but if times don't
get easier we will get more accustomed
to the times and adjust ourselves better
to them and get along better. l sup
pose all men more or less like myself
after adding up the columns of the old
year will start out to mend matters. 1
have made SO many Notifying failures
in turning owe new leaves L have almost
lost faith in myself and confidence in
my ability to do any better in the fu-
ture than I nave done in the past. l
don't know how much better morally
/ will be. know l am not very good,
but it would hurt my feelings awfully
to know that / was not doing my dead
level best trying to be good. may
be mean, but If / know anything know
l don't want to be mean. / may be
stingy, but I'd want to be hung up by
the toes if 1 knew I was stingy. This
thing of turning over a new leaf every
New Years day is q sort of a chestnut
and a joke, but it does us good to think
thatthere is a chance, to thinkthatther
Is an opportunity to turn over a new
leaf. and If we don't do any better we
Will udNC OAS COASCAOu SuCSS " AAOW
that we thought we would. l have
sometimes thought that if l didn't owe
a dollar in the world / would be happy,
but then something else would come
up to remind me that Job spoke the
truth, and wisely, when he said shat
man is born unto trouble as the sparks
fly upwards"
By the time we settle taxes, pay i'm
terest. insurance, rotage, leakage and
rustage, the difference between hav-
ing something and having nothing
|, seems to be In favor of the fellow who
has nothing. BY the way, that tax
business is growing on US. PhIlos-
pphers tell US 10 economic, they tell
the farmers to economic, the mer-
chants to economics and the manufac-
turers. to economize. / wish some phi
losopher could talk to these little jack
ass legislatures that meet all over this
,leountry and these little fellows who
belong TO the United States congress,
. called GnitaA States senators and con-
gresamen; but l expeetwhat might be
said to then would go in at one ear
and out AZ the other, because
" 49,