The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1898-12-30
TURNING OVER NEW LEAVES.
A Relic of Old Time Sweetness In
Thousands of Characters.

A Relic of Old Time Sweetness In
Thousands of Characters.
Think of It'll All the rush. the prepare.
ton and the almost childish excitement,
and all the old lessons, too, past for 86b
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 learL from the past ex
perience to be ready next year.
1t Is not custom to make resolutions
on New Years, properly speaking. 1t Is
simply human nature We make each
Monday morning a sort Of new week stand
from which we drop gracefully by Tues
day afternoon, and of which we have nc
memory by Wednesday 1t is our natural
impulse to decide how new book or gown
or rug shall escape the fate of its predeoes-
sors. This one shall go as 1t has been
started 1t shall stay fresh. 1t Is not
necessary that the leaves be dog cared, the
little rent torn, the ugly spots trodden In
or the gray spattered. No, 1t Is not neces-
sary but 1t will happen, and the new be-
comes the DID, and SO the world wags on.
Why Is itp Why can we not make q
not you who speak SO loudly lower your
voice, and you who delight to Islander,
know it and disapprove stopS Why cannot
you study when you should, get up at the
right time, refrain from spending money
you should notf Whyr
There Is very popular idea that on
New Years day every one Is busy paving
the highway with determination for the
new, clean start, but this Is q mistake.
There Is most amusing, or pitiful, II you
will, army of workers all busily absorbed
In paving, but there Ia also large, amused
and also pitiful crowd of onlookers. They
are the old, experienced hands at the work.
They know that the roadbed is a quick
sand and that the best laid stones will sink
out of sight in week or at most q month
and be lost They are the blase old hands
who make no resolutions on the lst of
January, and who find their fun In watch
ing those who still struggle
There is curious fact about these two
groups The line of demarcation is not
that of age The class to which q man
belongs can be read only In his face and
In his voice The workers are absorbed
and eager They have faith that with
energy they will succeed, and they have
faith in the worth of their aim There are
many of them gray haired and feeble
handed. but they have retained that sweet.
est of all human qualities, childlike
faith in themselves and others, and no
matter what the truth Is they have be
lief that they have succeeded in years past
The onlookers are cynical. They have
logical, practical minds They have re
viewed the past, read the future and refuse
to roll the stone up the endless hill. Poor
wise onesl There are no people SO sincere
ly to be pitied as those who cannot stand
ON New Years day and make resolutions
Do make some-not number, but one
or two-and live up to them Just the
mere effort will sweeten you and add new
zest to life Do not admit that you have
been thoroughly beaten.
Perhaps 1t will be unwise to take a pet
fault and resolve against it, but most of
us have such q wide election possible that
the choice may fall on something that we
really hate and If we put our nineteenth
century vigor to work we may kill the
habit before the twentieth dawns.-Bos-
ton Herald