The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1903-12-31
FREE~HAND COMMENT
ON MEN AND MANNERS

be no more smoking and poker,
No more cocktails and headache and
sorrow;
No more staying out long after mid
night.
For the New Year commences tomor-
row.
Theren be no more betting on horses,
No more losses and money TO borrow.
For wei all Of US make resolutions,
And be sickishly good from tomorrow.
1t has been a pretty good old year.
afte- all. and we shall feel a genuine
heart wrench in laying il away in the
tomb one thing is certain: good or
bad. we shall never look upon its face
again. neither in time nor in eternity.
IL is not in the gift Of the Infinite TO call
it back for us. Some things are i'm
possible even TO Omnipotence. To make
5 out Of and is one Of these, and TO
restore a moment of lost time is an
other We shall. therefore. feel sad
when 1903 steps back into the irrevO-
cable past-when it joins yesterdays
:. 900 years" We shall never be quite
so young again. Even those Of Us upon
whose checks bloom the Pierian roses Of
youth have checked of another Of the
very few milestones allotted 10 the life
Of man Yout.i, Of course. is too joy )us
to realize that the current is swift, and.
even though the waters bubble like
champagne and flowers bloom along the
banks quite within reach. Age is a
little farther down, where the blooms
grow farther back and are not so fra
grant There is little difference between
twenty and twenty-one. perhaps, in the
eyes OF those who are still in the brave
days; yet what great difference there
is after all,
Just think q it. A man is wen along
at thirty, and there are only ten years
between twenty and thirty Every one
that passes. therefore. is an important
matter And the more so because youth
is the time for storing up knowledge
and fitting ourselves for the serious
business Of life. The youth. therefore,
who has wasted this past year. has
good cause 60 bid Il good-by regretfully,
for he has wasted something which no
prayers can restore to him. Whatever
De your religious creed. you must agree
that the heavens are cold and deaf to
those praying lDI Ale resurrection on
dead time And we who have got uE
into the forties and beyond, how grudg-
ingly. how like miscrs. Do we give up
the years one by one To write 1901 now
at the head Of our letters with one eye
ever on the date Of our birth-when was
it, 1859. 1857. 1852 God save us gentles
and fair ladies. how time hies Tis "a
trite remark, but so full of truth that
Il secrus TO have smack Of originality
about IL at this season.
Now. what shall we do about it? Why.
there not much that can be done. except
10 believe in something, it doesn't much
matter what. and TO keep our hearts
young AS for making New Year reso-
Iutions. there is no wisdom I'm that. If
We are or DO anything that makes rs
ashamed. we shouldn't have waited for
New Year. After ali. jne prime lesson
that this season repeats TO rs with in
creas!ng emphasis every year. is: that
time is the most valuable thing on earth.
and If there is any such thing as a
governing intelligence in the universe.
sometime It will ask us. What did you
do with those precious minutes and
years that werc given your" And what
golden-tonRued witnesses win an those
minutes be that we employed in doing