Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1907-06-15
FLITTINBY'S REFORM
CLEANS UP THE ACCUMULATION
OF YEARS.
Reaches the Mature Age When He
Throws Away Dead Matter and
Is Ready to Begin Life
Again.

Il am beginning TO throw away
things" said Mr.. Flittinby; going
through my papers and things and
throwing things away.
Il find among them newspaper clip
pings about things that | would never
have thought OF again but for this
reminder and some things l have
forgotten so completely that even the
sight of the clippings does not recall
to me why l cut them out and saved
them; so important, really, are many
of the things about which we bother
ourselves or which at some time we
found CT interest.
There are letters from men long
since dead, and old bills that recall
forgotten periods of our life, that now
seem strange to us, we live so much
in the present, And why keep these
old receipts? The men that gave them
are dead now or moved away and
these accounts will never be sent in
again, and if they were they have
long since been outlawed by the lapse
of time. Throw them away.
"Here are old birthday cards, with
pretty, with affectionate with loving
greetings; bringing most pleasant
memories, though they do remind us
of the years that have gone since first
they came to us. And why should we
preserve them? We can remember,
we can cherish those who sent them,
without them to remind us, and they
would only be there with the old pa
-pers in the drawer. To the basket
gently with them.
And here, as l live, are some old
valentines! Well, well. This does
make us young again. But dear, dear;
that was long ago. Why should we
keep them longer? To the basket,
gently. We have the valentine her.
self now.
There are so many things that we
put away to save, to treasure, life
seems to stretch unfortunately before
us when we are young, and we are
going to keep these things always.
And it takes us, happily, a long, long
time to get to where we can see
the beginning of the end. Youth en-.
velops us with buoyancy and
strength that makes life seem JOY
that is to go on forever, and in sturdy
middle age, indeed, we take little &C.
count of the years, but then comes
a time when We begin to realize that
two and two make four and no more.
Nov / have arrived at that time
Of life when / begin to know. Don't
for heavens sake think that l am TAX.
ing a mournful view. Far from it.
Life never seemed to me so full
of JOY as now, and I'm good for a
good long stretch of it yet, with
senses keen and understanding broad
ening, finding enjoyment in every
thing; and taking this broader view
of things, net occupied too much by
detail, this stored up accumulation of
long gathering truck seems superflu.
Gus and useless. and so I'm just going
through it and throwing things away.
This lot that I've been going
through to-day is just stuff that has
accumulated in the cubby holes in my
desk but I've got boxes and bundles
of such stuff stored away, and ]
must get it out, box or bundle at
time and go through it, and throw
it away. For of what use will it ever
be to anybody? What becomes of
this sort of stuff, anyway, when peo-
ple-er-r-I mean why shouldn't /
sort this stuff out now myself, and not
leave it to cumber things up for some
body else to throw away?
There may be some things, to be
sure, that I'll want to save, things tina.
ether people will want to keep, and
these things | will save; but as to
the bulk of this stuff, why, it's just so
much hindering useless baggage, and
this I'll throw away, and with the
decks cleared start life anew