The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1897-12-30
New Years Thoughts.

and his venerable hour glass, already
boar with the dust of buried centu-
ries, never fails in it's ceaseless duty.
How trueit is that blessings bright
en- as they take their flight We never
appreciate the value of day as when
the sinking sun tells us it is dying
We never so fully realize the golden
opportunities OF, year as during the
last week. And so with life. One of
the most illustrious of English
Queens would have given her King
dom for a short extension of time
when it was too late. Travellers in
the olden days to the golden shores
of California used to halt on the
crest of the Rockies for breath, and
for backward and forward glance.
So we now stand on an annual crest
in the pilgrimage of life, with the
angels of Memory on the one side
and of Hope on the other, the one
a historian and the other a prophet.
With some it is time for memory
and for tears.
When memory takes retrospect of all the
past,
When the soul avakes to hopes that could not
last
The wasted moments, hours and
opportunities of 1897 force upon US
the question, How shall we redeem
the hours and opportunities of the
year whose seal will soon be broken,
whose pages or leaves the Angel of
Time will soon begin to turn? How
shall we redeem them, buy them back,
as chattels from a brokere Save them
from final and eternal loss?
The Old Year will soon be num-
bered with the things that were, but
many scenes of the past, of Joy and of
sadness, of moments of pleasure and
OF pain, will, as the days go by, again
come knocking at the hearts door,
Another year has ended. We are a
year older, a year nearer the grave.
The New Year is upon US. Satur-
day morning We will open new vol
ume in the calendar of time-turn a
new leaf whose surface will be as
white and pure as snow. Are the
pages of this great volume here and
there to be stained with shame, bis
tered with dishonor, scorched with
passion or blackened with crime? Or
will we, rising to the high potentiali-
ty of our nature, write upon its every
page noble deeds and pure thoughts?
Lifeis just as we may prefer to make
it-for good Or evil. May the good
only be ours.
Let US look forward to hope where
there is reason to hope, and press on
with wisdom and energy in the proper
discharge of our respective duties
and the execution of our obligations
to society. There is room for work,
none for dispair. It is we'll known
that the highest and noblest efforts
OF human nature are brought out by
trouble and sorrow; the greatest men
have been those who have overcome
difficulties. That man or woman is
most to be admired who has the moral
courage to march bravely up to the
trying vicissitudes which overtake
them in the great battle of life,
rather than those who yield to every
obstacle; despair at every reverse of
fortune and murmur at every wave of
trouble.
In conclusion, we extend to each
and to all of our readers a Happy
New Year. To those who have gone
far into the sere and yellow leaf, we
trust its close will find them still on
the sunny side of the stream and
with the pleasant reflection that the
year past has been pleasantly and
proftably spent. To the more Wig
orous and active, who have to meet
the frowning emergencies of every
day life, may their labors be crowned