Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1903-01-07
NEW YEAR REFLECTIONS.

With quite a number of watches. ''
 several dances and many other social
 events under way, the midnight quiet
 was so suddenly and abruptly dis
 turbed on Wednesday night that even though everybody was expecting a
 new leaf to turn, its crisp parchment
 was the means of producing considera-
 ble racket as Old Time touched the
 page numbered 1903. The infantry
 fired several salutes, the boy with the
 tin horn and bunch of fire. crackers,
 the steam whistles of the railroad
 and stationary engines, the barking
 and bowling of terrorized canines and
 the lusty voices of the more exhuber-
 ant, told to our local world of six
 thousand or more inhabitants, that
 something extraordinary was happen
 ing As master Time does not con-
 suit his subjects as to their wishes in
 the matter, the great event of neces-
 sity always takes place at that un- reasonable hour of midnight; a time when no man may elect to remain
 just a little longer in the past;
 time that marks the dividing line be- tween two epochs-the finished past and the proposed future. Unmindful
 of the feyerish exactments of man.
 Time decrees, and there is no alter native. No interlineations mar the >5eauty of his symmetrical chat, and wben once the mark is passed there is Sno recovery and the purpose will either have to perish in the moment or adapt itself to the new existence of a progressive era. Nothing can trans mute the dead or past day of time to the living or promised day in the time to come This is a fixed sub-
 stance and no power of man can
 change or hinder its evolution. There
 are innumerable instances where this
 is an earnestly expressed desire; but the defenses are invulnerable and the artifices of man are futile.
 The space of one-half minutes time -. the hands of Tine have
 Pfi -IFE2V' so iong, would have saved
 Sousands of lives, millions of dollars and depths of misery in the year that has just closed. All sorts of oppor- tunities have slipped from the grasp of man within even less than that margin. The entire business plan of | the world today is figured out so minutely upon the suggestion that | 'Time waits for no man, that its | doors are barred and locked to every | avenue of approach upon the fraction | of a minute. So systematically is it applied that by being fraction to | the credit the world just misses the departing train, the sailing of yes sel, admission to offices, banks, stores, etc, on occasions too numerous to mention Notwithstanding the worlds knowledge of the worlds ways, it is surprising the large proportion of it that is to be found upon the tardy list. Up to date is even a latent ex- pression, for the world is complaining against the impositions that its elastic interpretation admits of Up to time leaves no margin for emergencies. On time is more to be desired. While one business man reioices that the train is on time, another of his class has been praying that it may arrive half hour late; a5third is so anxious that his earnest wish is that the train may 'pull in ahead O time Only one of these men is accommodated as far as Time is concerned The in exorable decree was promulgated at the creation and the same laws have obtained through all ages down to the present moment. With the birth of the New Year, Time admonished. as he ever has done, a regulation of the affairs of this life strictly in con formity with his regulation scale. He argues, and rightly, too, that it is only by conformity to such regula- tions that the engines of life will run smoothly and a clear track be kept for succeeding events.
 New Years day passed of in a very unostentatious manner in Prescott. and save for the annual turkey, goose and duck feasts that necessitated practical suspension of business for the greater part of the day, all was serene and quiet. There were a few homes open to informal receptions. c where friends were made welcome and C where eggnog was used to christen S he launching of life's vessel upon l he sea of a new calendar year. In s liffeToGl., partial and total abstinence q 'esolves were made with reference to [ many of the luxuries of life, each of c which was received with the usual mile of incredulity by the friends who were made confidants.