The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1913-12-26
At TIE PARTING
2z2eOF THF VANS

What of all this to me?"
In a country so ours where ones great
grandfather was about the earliest on record
time does not impress 1t seems as If every
thing began yesterday In old lands whose his"
tory goes back centuries upon centuries the prog
ress of time seems very impressive.
But say what we will, it is own life that is
the most impressive and as the years stretch out
behind the memory of our own youth makes
deeper impression on us this New Years day than
all the written history of the world than all the
traditions of all the races, than 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 to the past
To the young all the paths before the feet look
rosestrewn and smooth So be 1t. Let the eye
bristten as ID feasts in anticipation on the good
things that must lie everywhere to the end. Youth!
Youth The time when there can be mo doubt or
any mystery that lifes longlngs and It's
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 it's dreams, it's hopes. its am
bitions With these it will take care OF ITSELF ana
let not age whatever the years may have, brought,
say word, shake head give dubious look
to dispel the glory of the dream, the brightness
of the hope the vaulting nature of the ambition.
Time will do enough of this So let youth have It's
undimmed joy today
But age looks back. The fires of ambition are
dimmed. They are all burnt-out ashes now. The
hopes that buoyed US up safely in youth have
found what there is of fulfllment 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 violets
bloom, 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 contided
to the breast of Mother Earth SO 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 where to walk, the
brothers and sisters who our playmates in
those days when the world all sunshine
Then when the wing of love ceased to brood over
us in the paternal nest and we went forth to
create family under the banner of love. how
a day like this calls up all the joy and tenderness
of these days of early manhood and womanhood!
So we dream of the long-lost clasp of the hand OF
lover or friend; so we dwell in tender memory
all those days of hope, of joy, Of expectancy
and fruition. We feel that all will soon be over.
Ths.may be our last New Years day on this earth
where we have passed so many eventful years
When those who are left again ring out the old,
ring in the new may not be here to ring
either chime of bells So sit and dream and
call up from the treasure-house of memory the
faces, words and deeds of those who walked with
us III tue Gays OIL our youth anu OIL our pTlme but
would not be gone yet. He is less than man
who thus sit and dream think of his de-
parture and not "cast longing, lingering look
behind We must go to the poets to interpret
this life to Not to the great ones of the world
but to those whose verse deals with the common
things of life: to 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 common humanity
was the now. King David would take
the aged Barzlaf 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 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 castles in the air. Just to
be let dream of the days that gone of the
early home and all it 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 we'll.