Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1905-12-30
NEW YEARS.


ually q good one" but not one has
yet found any sensible ground for
beginning the New Year on the first
day OF January If it were. made to
occur in March as the old Romans
placed it there might be sense in it.
It would be the more reasonable if
it began March twenty second the
vernal equinox or at the autumnal
equinox September twenty second
or June twenty-second or December
twenty second. Excellent astronomi-
cal reasons could be assigned for
such q reckoning. Higher civiliza-
ton is in the northern hemisphere
yet January IN this part of the world
is q season of cold and snow or chill
and rain. It is season when moving
is not only announcement but next to
impossible. It is the time of the be-
ginning Of nothing coming ten
days after the winter solstice and
seventy days before the spring
equinox. The day was chosen prob
ably upon the assumption that any
day is good enough for a general
starting point providing everybody
agrees to it and it will probably
have to go at that 1t is queer
though that in setting back the be-
ginning Of the year two months the
names September and October and
November and December should
have been suffered to remain. These
were as their origin implies the
seventh and eighth and ninth and
tenth months when the year began
with March but now that January
is first they are the ninth and tenth
and eleventh and twelfth months
respectively. Consequently they
are decidedly misnomers. Yet there
is no use of finding fault where no
amount of it will correct the
blunder. It has been made and
stuck down as a mile-post of tine
Dy all the civilized nations and no
profane hand will be suffered to
pull it up and set it forward. It has
been hallowed by usage and must
be and abide until the coming of
another civilization. Whatever it's
origin or causes the day brings in
with it thoughts and associations
that should prove serious to the re-
Elective mind Unerringly as the
clock records the passing minutes
and hours the New Year writes,down
the passage Of the years as they
come and go. The birth Of the new
is the death of the old year. It pro-
claims that the past is gone and
cannot be resurrected. That tin q
which was lost in it can never be
regained. That folIies committed
and sins INDUCED and vices prac-
tlced though past have left their
impress upon mind and character.
1T tells of good deeds that will
never die and of manly action and
heroic suffering for the right. All
of these are in the &c ID past ir-
revOcable and useful only as the
good done has made better and
and stronger the character and
evil done has made one less
fitted to meet the duties and
responsibilities of the hour. The
New Year suggests the beginning
of things. 1t is a time of good
remorse or sorrow for the past and
of good resolutions for the future.
The trouble IS that too many good
resolutions are made in this first
day Of the year and too many of
them are broken. It may be we'll
to purpose to do but it is far better
TODD and hold fast. Broken promises
whether made to self or others
tend to lower character and render
one more fertile lin pledges to do
because of the very ease in breaking
them. The New Year is a time
with business men for casting up
accounts. They figure out losses
and gains for the year that is past
and upon the result lay plans for
the year just begun. Here is
serious work in which there can be
no self-deception and no false hopes
and no false pledges. Business is
made UP Of fact and work and
energy and will 1t will stand no
false estimates and will not delude
itself with idle fancies. The king