Norwich bulletin., 1910-01-08
Cwritten for The Bulletin.)

Dear Friends and Neighbors Mine:- l am glad you all came to see me on New Years day. It is what I hoped you would do, for it gave us the op- portunity for a cordial hand shake. and much kindly talk face to face. and the growing into deeper and sweeter ac- quaintance with one another. It is surprising that people can be near neighbors year in and year out, and yet know each other scarcely at all. A friend of mine tells me that she makes warmer friends in three months abroad than in thirty years at home which to me seems very sad Why is is that the stay-at-homes so seldom get heart-near to one another? Or do and is my friends experience merely 8 solitary instance, one peculiar to herself? Is it possible that we all feel more kindly toward one another less the answer to all that depends, as does the answer to every question, up on the individual point of view. The making of New Years calls is friendly custom, dear to me from my youth up. and one which wish might be more generally observed. For it is one of the gentle courtesies that helps bring people into closer and warmer gers and neighbors into friends.
 l am glad of the many times it has been my privilege to receive" just as I am glad of every pleasant thing that has ever come into my life and helped to broaden my sympathies. Looking back, can see my girl self, one of a group of girls, all of us dressed in our prettiest, and gathered in the long drawing-room of sometimes one, sometimes another hospitable home. dispensing coffee and chocolate, salads and sandwiches, boned turkey and hot escalloped oysters to sleigh-load after the bright suggestion of one of our number, one New Years day stands out from all the rest "Everywhere they go," she said, they are surfeited with good things to eat. Let us give them a surprise instead" Whereupon, under her direction, we trimmed the parlors with wreaths and ropes of ev- erEreen, filed the corners with cedar trees, and placed in the center, under the chandelier, a large round rustic flower stand or vase, four feet in diam eter, filled by the florist with moss and set thick with button-hole bouquets. The vase looked like any mass of roses and carnations, geranium leaves, sIni- lax, and asparagus fern; but each tiny bouquet had its stems wound with sil- yer foil, ready to be plucked out of the moss and pinned to a callers lapel. The surprise was complete, the flowers were appreciated, and every man in town who had already, or could secure the shadow of an excuse for calling, called that day for his boutonniere. That day was one out of many, but every New Years day brought the dance in the evening until midnight, and after. Who does not remember? Was it not all delightful? And why do We not do it now? To be sure. it was never really a New England GUS tom But New England is not so far from New York but that we could easily borrow, if we would, the genial custom of our neighbors and friends across the state line. And why do we not?
 As l remember, there seemed to be a larger leisure in those days, time and leisure and opportunity to live and move and have one's being, where as today it is even question if there exists in our country a. leisure class We are all more or less aware of a