The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-01-01
NEW YEAR 1913

Nobody knows when the first New Year was Everybody celebrates the auspfctous occasion, but there is no agreement as to when the celebration really began
 Christian people, who comprise the leading nations take their New Year under the Gregorian Calendar, the New Year that is celebrated in Bridge port-the civil New Year
 But the great Russian nation cele- 5rares under the Julian Calendar, which the Greek church always has observed. The Russian New Year and United States New Year. do not fail s1pon She same date
 The Jews have a New Year of their own. It is a very old New Year, and dates back to Creation, which, under the Hebrew Ritual makes New Year begin more than 5000 years before the first Christian New Year.
 The Chinese have a New Year which Is old indeed, and all the believ- CTS in Mahomet of whom there are millions. have New Year, which dates from a certain pilgrimage the Prophet made to Mecca This New Year was inaugurated some centuries after the birth of Jesus Christ.
 The Julian Calendar was instituted bv Julius Caesar, the great Roman ruler. to correct certain errors per ceived in the calendar in use in his day
 All these New Years of all these na- tions and peoples have this in com mon: that the day is and always has been everywhere regarded as a most important event and has been so cele- brated-
 Amoez< the Romans. New Year was the ch1ef and most general holiday. it was celebrated as a festival of rejoic- ing. It was a time for good resolutions and a new start in the right direction, just precisely as it is today in Bridge port
 It would be well if pictures of these thousands of New Year celebrations, from earliest days to the present time, could be thrown upon some screen, moving picture fashion, where all could see them
 There might be dark spots in each picture There would be. But bright CT would each fragment of the pano- rama grow as the film of time unrolI- ed to the eyes of the observer
 One truth would stand out clearly. T. would be this that from earliest days until now the average content of human happiness has increased.
 Upon this New Year, 1913, the mass of men and women have more things to be thankful for than they ever had before There is more justice in the world. and less suffering than there ever was before The poor of the earth are better sheltered, fed and clothed than they ever were before The ideals of economic justice are nearer solution than they ever were he again until New Year, 1914, and each New Year succeeding that, until the distant goal to which God has des- lined man is at last reached, if, in deed it shall not prove that there vii he always something beyond; some Ioftier peak of perfection which etrfv- ing humanity must surmount-
 The most pregnant fact of this New Year is perhaps the growing beIiet Of men that many of the insecuritief which beset the path of men ant women upon the economic side may bt avoided by the intelligent application of wise protective principles in 1egisIa- ton and social custom.
 The next few New Years may See thu fear of the poor house removed from mems minds. Then surely must fol low impulses to brotherhood and al truistic action that are sadly limited while each man feels that he may faI ny the wayside, if he shall not strug gle for the bread in his brother. mouth