Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1901-12-31

- CONCENTRATION of the be-
~ ginning of the year is senti-
/oMMcN mental, purely, since the first
IYNIlg day of January makes no special
NVWE/ epoch in history, nor is it the
anniversary of the birth or death
of any hero. 1t is not set apart for the
performance of any specific duties, nor the
teaching of any particular lesson; yet New
Year is observed, quietly it is true, and
without any ceremonial, in all parts OF the
United States.
In looking for the beginning of this prac'
tice, one must go into the prehistoric past,
for New Year is the most ancient of all the
days which men have set apart for special
distinction. In the former days, though, it
began with the advent of spring, when
the buds and leaves began to open and the
voices of the song birds were heard again
The Latins, from whom came the months
now used, celebrated their New Year as the
nations older than they had done, in March.
This explains why December, meaning
tenth" month, should be twelfth in our
calendar.
The day, then, neither a festival nor a
fast; not one to keep alive the fires of pa
triotism, as the Fourth of July, or to bear
in remembrance, as Christmas the sublime
life of Christ, is, nevertheless, universally
observed, because at one time it did stand
for most beautiful sentiment-the revivi
flying of nature. 1t harbingered the Danish
ment of cold and of the sterile winter; it
gave assurance of a harvest for man, who
could see in the bursting of the seeds au-
tumn days of fullness.
Thus was it with the Chaldean, oldest of
the civilized peoples, whence came Abra-
ham, the founder of the Jewish nation.
They were as puzzled as moderns are over
the mystery of DEATH and that greater
mystery, life. Of the generative principle
they made god and worshiped it. The
presence of their god was felt, seen, as they
taught, in the new garb put on by the trees,
in the tiny spears of green grass which
peeped through the sere blades of the pre-
vious year, and in the many-colored little
flowers that nestled confdingly beside the
CRASH blades.
They knew their god lived and was pleased
with his people. They broke forth into re.
joicing which lasted many days. There was
worship in the temples and the groves and
infinite gladness everywhere. Through cen
fury after century this religious and fes-
tival observance was had, and the remains
of it are seen to-day in the chief holy day
of the great Catholic church during the
vernal season, although now held in COM
memoration of grander and more glorious
event.
The New Year observance, then, is the
survival of day beyond the period of its
effective use. Once sublime object les
son, it remains solely as a record of the
beginning of new year, arbitrarily fixed
by man. Its position is peculiar one. 1t
is neither the beginning of any one of
the four seasons, nor the end of any one
of them. 1t is not the commencement,
necessarily, of week, even. 1t does but
assert for man that by his choice of compu-
tation New Year has begun.
Yet, as to the ancient, SO to the modern,
New Year teaches, after all, the same leg
SON. 1t tells that the old year is dead, and the
New Year is born. 1t declares the mortal
ity of all things, and it proves that the
mortal shall put on Immortality. Itteaches
the higher lesson that out of death comes
life; that the dying year does but make
way for the living year, and that the chasm
is invisible between the dying and the
dead. A single tick, just one tick of the
clock, and in the minute interval the Old
Year was and the New Year is, and from
this lesson one may learn that the sum
of all the lives that have been is but the
expression of the lives that are, just al
the result of all the years that have beer
is found in the New Year just begun.
WILLIAM RoSSER COBBE.