The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1923-01-18
OLD SINS AND THE NEW YEAR

"Db pEANS hANhF hhh
II was that friend of all men who
knew him and needed his friendship,
Joyce Kilmer, who wrote the famous
Ballad of New Sins" Finding him
self. on a lecture tour, in one of those
dismal and distant towns where stern
local fathers inflicted stern local laws
on merry strangers within their gates,
he attempted. on the Sabbath day. to
procure a shave and a shoe-shine and
cit being In ancient times) o cheer
full cup of brew with his meal at O
miserable inn. He was regarded by
the barber, by the shoe-shiner and by
the innkeeper, who scowled al him
scriatim, as a dangerous anarchist
seeking to undermine all government.
He retired to his damp and draughty
room and composed his ballad Of the
new sins that he had been unable TO
commit.
This balefui ballad might be taken
as a text for the thoughts of all men
who face the new year uncertain of
what strange phenomena they may
see before IL ends. or old II was
customary, even for the riotous folk
who made the dawn of the New Year
simply All occasion for carrying over
the truly earned headaches OF the old,
to solemnly pronounce resolutions for
better conduct and fairer ways. OF
late it has become fashionable for
others to do the resolving. There are.
unquestionably, large numbers of folk
who have dwelt long and deeply upon
the lamentations of job and Jeremiah
and Lear, without paying the slight
est attention to the philosophy Of
these unquestionably historic exam
pies of human misery. Job, In the
utmost deeps of affiliction, yet pro-
nounced his hardy faith in God; but
the new race of the unco guild begin
their philosophy with a pronounced
lack of faith In Now there is
no reason why any men, judging from
the general experience OF men, should
have faith in other men-life as 1t is
lived is too alarming an experience OF
| false friendships and intimate treach-
cries. But there Is reason why men
who are not born cynics. which Is
equivalent to saying that they are
born demons, should nc have, at least
preliminary faith in other men. There
is, perhaps, an element of reason In
the act of a village father a~bolishing
the village inn because he disapproves
of the fantastic conduct OF the village
drunkard; but there is no extension OF
| reason in the proposition of the vii
lage fathers extending their inhibition
to the temperate men Of the towns
because his act is mechanically SINH
lar, though morally dissimilar to that
of the village blubber.
The Matter Of Resolutions
1t is an old and a very true adage
that men cannot be made good by act
of Parliament. Once II is enacted by
law that all citizens shall be saints
or rather must be saints, II they are
to be. truly citizens, In the full lega
sense, we are likely TO ind that mer
have a strange prediction for beint
I'm a state of --sin. We cannot easil,
deprive men of the privilege of maxim,
New Years resolutions without en-
couraging them in the pastime OF re
viving old bad habits.
II may not have been very convinc
ing to have a certain Mr.. Jones (Which
is a popular name of a popular famil.
and n always safe to quote for pur
poses of iilustration) awaken on
certain New Years morning in a re
Elective mood and swear with his ham
upon his breast, or across his equal,
throbbing forehead, that he woul
~thenceforth lead a safe and sober life
But there Is some doubt whether l
were not better for the popular MI
Jones to thus serio-comically resolv
than to very seriously conclude tina