The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1913-12-26

Rs~s% MA O
and the question comes up with spontaniety.
What OF all this to me-"
In country SO new as ours, whore ones great
grandfather was about the earliest on record,
time does not impress us. II seems as II every
thing began yesterday. In old lands whose bis
tory goes back centuries upon centuries the prog
ress OF time seems very impressive.
But say what we will 1t is our own life that -
the most impressive, and as the years stretch out
behind us the memory Of our own youth makes
deeper impression on us this New Years day than
all the written history Of the world, thar all the
traditions of all the races thar all the records OF
the rocks The individual souls on days like this
naturally divide into two classes. On New Years
day youth looks to the future and age 10 the past.
To the young all the paths before the feet look
rose.strewn and smooth. So be 1t. Let the eye
brighten as 1t feasts In anticipation on the good
things that must lie everywhere to the end. Youth
Youth The time when there can be mo doubt OF
any mystery save that life's longings and its
hopes could die" Let youth dream on OF roses
without thorns OF bright days without cloud.
of hopes that always find fulfllment. OF ambitions
always fully satisfied All we need do for youth is
leave It alone with its dreams Its hopes. It's am
bitons With these 1t will take care of itself And
let not age whatever the years may have brought,
say word. shake head or give a dubious look
to dlspel the glory OF the dream, the brightness
Time will do enough of this, SO let youth have Its
undimmed Joy today
But age looks back The fires OF ambition are
dmmed They are all burntout ashes now. The
hopes that buoyed us up so safely In youth have
found what there is of fulnlment all too little, OF
disappointment all too much We dream no longer
OF joys to come, but of grief that has so strewed
the path along which we have come The smell
of the woods IN early spring when the first violes
bloom or In the heat OF summer when all is like
the spice islands, or in fall when decay Is In the
fallen leaves, or In winter when death absorbs
ALL no matter TO the aged. all call back to days
long gone We walk alone now, and all along the
far road lie mounds where we stood and connded
10 the breast of Mother Earth many that walk
ed with us In the heydey OF our life. The mother
whose soft touch banished pain, the father whose
ripe experience taught us where TO walk, the
brothers and sisters who were our playmates in
those days when the world was all sunshine.
Then when the wing OF love ceased to brood over
us in the paternal nest and we went forth TO
create new family under the banner OF love, how
day like this calls up all the JOY and tenderness
OF these days of early manhood and womanhood!
So we dream Of tho ong.ost clasp Of the hand of
lover or friend; SO we dwell In tender memory
on all those days of hope, of JOY Of expectancy
and fr,tion We feel that all will soon be over.
This may be our last New Years day on this earth
where we have passed so many eveutful years.
When those who are left again ring out the old.
ring in the new" We may not be here to ring
either chime of bells. SO we sit and dream and
call up from the treasurehouse OF memory the
faces, words and deeds OF those who walked with
In the days of our youth and OF our prime But
we would not be gone yet lie is less than man
who thus can sit and dream think Of his de-
parture, and not east one longing, lingering look
behind We must go to the poets to interpret
this life to Not 10 tho great ones of the world
but to those whose verse deals with the common
things of life 10 Burns and his banks and braes
O bonnie Doom" his Highland Mary" to the man
who wrote Home Sweet Home" to the poet OF
the poor slave In the south and his "Suwanee
River" We go far back in the ages and all
the time the common heart OF n common humanity
was the same now. King David would take
the aged lIarzillai to the capital, TO the court.
But the plain man Of the people would be left
alone to dream the last dreams OF life in peace
Let me go back that may die in mine own city"
And after death be buried by the side of my IA
Their and of my mother" Oh the tenderness of
old age! There no fierce passions left Am
bition builds no more castles in the air. Just TO
be let dream of the days that are gone of the
early home and all II contained and then lie down
with the companions of youth and for centuries
and centuries, throughout the great eternity let
our ashes mingle with those we loved so well.