The Nome nugget., 1902-01-01
NEW YEAR REFLECTIONS.

The year 1902 has begun The first year of the twentieth century has closed. It year that brought, like all other years, it's and joys. Our country plunged in mourning because of the death by assassination of beloved president; but time is great healer, and the tragic death of the president showed the endurance of institutions and the cool judgment of the people, The year just closed was prosperous for the country, and with the first year of the new century comes the renewed assurance of the greatness of the republic and the stability of its institutions.
 The New Year season is usually considered time for specton for the exchange of good wishes for the coming year. It is we'll We live in cono- elastic age yet few of like to old customs, especially Christmas and New Year customs, become obsolete They have quaint old custom in Scandi- navia the people open their doors five minutes be- fore midnight and wait in silence until ti.e last stroke of twelve tells each of the assembled families that the old year has gone out and the one has come in Here in our own country many of us repair to churches and wait in prayerful silence, or sit musingy in homes until the final moment ccomfs. But whatever the custom or whatever the cline the ysterious charm surrounds the last hour of the old year and the coming in of the first fresh hour of the new one Every heart alive to hope and fear is impressed by the strange and inevitable
 
 our thoughts it is in the last moments of year. We feel, as it were, suspended between year slipping out and another being quietly ushered in Behind as is the past before us, the inscrutable future.
 The young look forward to the new the old would fain finger the past. A strange division of time is this We look at the hands of the clock as they mark the last second of the hour of twelve and the first of the hour of one. We feel if some thing ought to happen to mark the going of the old and the coming of the But nothing occurs. The seconds tick at any other time of the year, and before the clock to strike the midnight hour already several seconds out of the old and into the new Then as we hear the greeting, "A happy New Year, we shake off the old and the of freshness, the feeling of something new the fascna tion of thinking that have embarked upon some thing which moment ago seemed dim and unknown takes possession of us. And so fear and joy and hope come nearer together within those few seconds than at any other time of the year. The last moment of the od the first moment of new; but in this case the first is the last, and remains with us.
 And so with hope millions stand on the opening day of the year with faces toward the future What it will bring them time alone will tell. No one l4nows And it is we'll that we do not. It requires sober thought to realize that what are and what we do along the lines of wise creation It is often very easy for us to feel that might change things for the better if the power and opportunity were but But the most astute ceyerness of man is poor affair when compared with the simplest wisdom of the Creator. And thing that can make this year. which begin today, happier . is to have that feeling always with us That -"whatever is is best" Frequently we cannot com prehend at the time why this should be so, why tha, should happen and why some particular trial should \, ,;lo ;o, time to another why should have so little and others so much But it is better to think that noth- ing comes into lives except what is for own good. And some day, perhaps, shall clearly un- derstand all.