The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1897-01-10
sEAsONABLE REMARKS.
ssa Joaes Writes on the old and
the New Year.

Ing ShFAst-nsS boisoays navo conn
and gone and the New Year is on u,
. again-the year Of grace 1897. Not in
my memory have we he'd 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 mem.
CRY. and still about 10000. 900 Of Us in
the United States are alive and kicking
with thousand blessings on which we
have looked but little, and for which
we have shown but little gratitude.
The year just passed has been year
of cyclones and earthquakes, of tidal
waves and railroad wrecks. ct cetera
And yet all of these things still find
the country full of people and, some
times think. fun 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 q tidal wave, or swept
over the country in cyclone, or mas b ed
up in railroad wreck. Ny bones ore
all whole, my stomach is full and
ineasurably my heart content. don't
] believe I'd growl and complain and have
the blues il I'd keep out of bad COM
! pany. Sometimes environment IS too
strong for me and / fall in with the pro-
cession and rrowl little TO keep from
feeling lonesome and odd.
But all in all, after the hardest wear:
pull of my life in work and worry. in
fortune and misfortune. ! had a pleas
ant Christmas. l am forced TO believe
an a travelling man. And like all
travelling men, came home to spend
the holidays. What a blessed thing it
is shat 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 10 come home and enjoy the
blessed days with their families and
loved ones. But now the New Year is
upon us and off We go again, not com
batting, perhaps, new trials and diff
culties and temptations, but 10 fight
the same battles, to meet the same
temptations, and suffer some OF the
same ills that we have suffered before
Christmas time is 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 IS they don't owe and have
nothing 10 pay with. Some are nearer
out OF debt than they were year ago,
and some deeper in debt; and the Lord
have mercy on them. Ipray it reverent-
~. for il any fellow needs mercy from
Heaven it is the debtor getting deeper
into debt. Men won't have mercy on
him.
But after oil for one start out the
New Year with heart and hope. / be-
lieve better days are coming. / be
lieve the morning star 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 boon-s and mutations we
have seen but in more healthy and
stable way. l 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 l 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
10 them and get along better. ! sup
pose all men more or less like myself |
after adding up the columns Of the old |
year will start out 10 mend matters. l |
have made so many Notifying failures |
IN turning over new lea yes have almost |
lost faith in myself and confidence in |
my ability 70 do any better in the fu-
,ure than l have done in the past. l
don't know how much better morally |
viii be. know am not very good, |
but it would hurt my feelings awfuly
10 know that was not doing my dead
level best trying 10 be good. may
De mean. but II know anything know
don't want 20 be mean. | may I've
stingy. but I'd want To be hung up by
the toes II | knew l WAS stingy. This |
thing OF turning over a new leaf every
New Years day is Il sort of chestnut
and joke, but it does us good 10 thinl,
that there is 4 chance, 10 think that there
80 tPIftA NNH'hF w No+ ~ p''t u ilt"
leaf, and IL we don't do any better we
Sill have the consciousness to know
hat we thought we would. ] have
sometimes thought that il / didn't owe
, dollar in the world would be happy,
'ut then something else would come
up TO remind me that job spoke the
ruth. and wisely, when he said that
nan is born unto trouble as the sparks
ly upwards"
By the time we settle taxes. pay in
crest. insurance, rotage, leakage and
-ustagc. the difference between hav.
ng something and having nothing
GEMS To be in favor of the fellow who
'as nothing. BY the way, that tax
business is growing on us. Philos.
pliers tell us to economic. they tell
he farmers 10 economics, the mer-
hanis 10 economic and the manufac-
urers 10 eoonomizc. ! wish some phi
osopher could talk TO these little jack
is legislatures that meet all over this
ouniry and these little fellows who