The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-01-04
THE NEW YEAR RESOLVE
Relic of Old-lime sweetness Found in
Thousands of Characters.

over for a whole year.
Think of it, All the rush. the prepar-
alton and the almost childish excite
ment and all the lessons, too, past for
1865 days, and then the whole thing
will be gone through with again, and
we will be as interested as ever, as
eager as ever, and as behindhand and
hurried as ever. Just as the JOY OF
the time never grows old to us, SO we
never learn from the past experiences
to be ready next year.
But that is what we are preparing
to resolve on New Years day-that we
will be ready for Christmas next time.
IT is the most fayorite resolution of
the day and the most surely broken. 1t
is the first stone we drive into place in
paving the road whose very name
proves it to be IA jolly uncomfortable
affair that leads to--where does that
road paved with good intentions go
to? Who knows? It ought to be out
of date now and a nice, smooth maca-
damized roadway of good actions put
in it's place. but who really can see any
change in anything so far as character
goes?
1t is not custom to make resolutions
at the new year, properly speaking. IL
is simply human nature. We make
each Monday morning a sort of new
week stand from which we drop grace
fully by Tuesday afternoon, and OF
which we have no memory by Wednes-
day. 1t is our natural impulse to de-
eide how a new book or gown or rug
or, if it be not trivial, a clean table
cloth, shall escape the fate of its prede-
cessors. This one shall go as 1t mas
been started; it shall stay fresh; u IS
not necessary that the leaves be dog
cared the little rent torn, the ugly
trnddnn N the shattered.
No, it is not necessary, but 1t VIII nap
pen and the new becomes the old with
sickening rapidity If "a change from
spotless to soiled may so be designated.
Why is it? Why can we not make
change when we really want to? Why
cannot you, who speak SO loudly. lower
your voice, and you, who delight TO
SANDER. know it and disapprove, stop?
Why cannot you study when you
should, get up at the right time, refrain
from spending money you should not!
Why?
We all expect children to mind us;
we give our orders clearly and expllc-
ity and expect obedience. why can we
not obey ourselves!
There is a very popular idea that on
New Years day everyone is BUSY paw
ing their highway with determinations
for the new clean start but this is a
mistake There is n most amusing, OF
pitiful If you will. army of workers all
busily absorbed in paving, put there
| is also "A large amused ana also pltlful
crowd of onlookers. They are the Ola
| experienced hands at the work; they
| know that the roadbed is a quIcksand,
and that the best-laid stones Will sink
| out of sight in a week or at most
month and be lost. They are the blase
old hands who make no resolutions on
the first of January, and VINO ma lhelr
fun in Watching those who Will stfug-
gle.
There is a curious fact about these
two groups The line or demarcation IS
not that of age. The class to which a
man belongs can be read only IN ms
face and in his voice The workers are
/ absorbed and eager; they nave Ialtn
that with energy they will succeed, ana
they have faith in the worth of their
aim. There are many of them gray :
haired and feeble handed, but they
have retained that sweetest OF all hu-
man qualities-a chlld-hke idith III
themselves and others, and no matter
what the truth is, they have belle1
that they have succeeded in years past
The onlookers are cynical; they have
logical, practical minds; they nave re-
viewed the past, read the future anu
refuse to roll the stone up the endless
hill Poor wise ones. There are n'
people so sincerely to be pitied as those
who cannot stand on New Year DAY
and make resolutions.
Do make some! Not number bu
one or two and live up to them. jus
the mere effort will sWeeten you am
add new Zest to life. Do not adml
that you have no desire to return Il
the ring. Go in and win.
Perhaps il will be unwiSe TO take
net fault and resolve against it, blu
most of us have such wide selection
possible that the choice may fall o.
something that we really hate, ana
we put our nineteenth century Vlgof I
, work we may kill the habit before tn
t twentieth dawnS.
one good resolve OF which I know
Q to choke the word "ain't from our No
5 cabulary. 1t is not heroic resolve
) but it will take just as much Garrett
! watching as a matter of more seriou
: moral might.
: The good resolution day is upon u:
: no not less il PASS unheeded, and d
Y not abuse it. Let us all resolve som
l. one thing and carry it to successl'
: finish, no matter how small 1T may De-