The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1905-12-30
THE FEW YEAR.

Z One would find it an impossible
task to determine the precise time of
the dawn of the new year. That
very progressive, ancient people, the
Romans, found it in March, thus ex-
planning why the last four mouths of
the year are named, respectively,
seventh, eighth, ninth. When the
present division of time was reached
the iconoclasts did not deem it a mat
ter Of any importance to fit the names
to the changed condition, but preserv-
ed the order n d nomenclature
fixed by Caesar. The Hebrews hold
fast to an entirely different date, the
Chinese to another, the Persians to
another, because of their refusal to
adopt the Gregorian calendar.
But custom honors any observance
and in time makes saint of it. Many
ksusuries have elapsed since the lead
Ing countries of europe accepted
January I as the initial day of the
year, and the rule was brought over
to America by our Pilgrim fathers
and the Jamestown settlers. In the
absence d any proof to the contrary,
and because there must be starting
point somewhere, this is as good
time as any for adding an advance
figure to the terminal one which
marks the number of years that have
elapsed since the Christ birth at Beth
lehem.
Because men have determined to
mark it as the dawn of new year, by
the sheer force of association they
have seen fit to connect it with every
thing that is new. 1t is then that
business men balance their books and
take new start; it is then that hu
manity takes on spasm of penitence
and decides that it will put off this or
that bad habit and begin all over
again. 1t is day Of throwing away.
of pipes and tobacco, the eschewing
of the wine that is red and the sealing
of the lips against lying speech and
all manner of oaths. On the princi-
pie that it is better to try to do right
and fail than not to try at all, the
New Year resolutions might be pro-
nounced an unqualified success. But
if one looks for permanent results from
this almost universal practice his
search will be as empty as that of the
cynical old philosopher who went
about with his lantern trying to find
an honest man.
One should expect much serious
ness in day like this for if it be
the beginning of new year it pro-
claims the resurrectionless death of
the old year. And it is a very solemn
matter to think of the dead that shall
not live again, whether the corpses
be those ofthings or men. The good
resolves come of the memory OF the
fruitless, or chaffy or bad grain har-
vest of the time that shall not be again.
The holy resolutions, numberless as
the sands upon the seashore, are So
many witnesses to the truth that man,
as rule, would like very much to be
good, and his failure to reach his
ideals is due more to the infinite
weakness of the flesh than to any
downright depravity.
The old year has gone into the in
finite, shadowy past, out of which
troop the ghosts of things. The new
year is on with its uncertainties, its
promises, its hopes, its ambitions and
its vanities, none of which may pos
sibly assume shape until after their
realization. If it were not for hope
the heart would grow cold and die.
So with the exuberance that is born
of the presence of the optimistic deity,
man echoes the sentiment of the mass
es: "The old is dead, on with the
new."- N2slliam R0SSer C06be.