Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1925-01-22

THE NEW YEAR-(The following take from Prose
Miscellanics" written by the late Ihos F. Watson we
this for its appropriateness at the Des9 o. lIIo
New Year We also use it Tor the sake OF Its Deauy3
Lead us gently Father Time, you take us to the
We know not what may be within! and our souls are
burdened with fear, stand at the door
Lost forever lost the confidence with winch we nsed
to 90 bounding into the New Yearas jewellers hastemhg
to the We have met the unforeseen SO often nave
mourned where thought to have reloced been tram
pied upon amid the horrors and panic OF defeat where we
had stoutly fought for victory and reward that our
hearts are sadly subdued. 49,
We did not seek this awful life-woe, Father Time
Thrust from some great outer darkness into the hurry
ignorance of what it all may mean and some irresistible
force pushes up, pushes swiftly ineXhorlby, onward
to another darkness that fills us with speecheSs
Have mercy on us Father Time. We have been beaten
with many stripes, covered with many wounds
God How have suffered!
We knew nothing in the beginning and we know but
been made to pay in heartaches and scaldng tears
Always struggling, often down always anxious Tor the
Father Time, still looking for the smooth road and the
sunny sky and the bright companonshp OF success and
Shall we never see Them Father Time?
We shudder when we think what you did to us dur
ing the Old Year, Father Time.
All, but you hard on us bitter hard Our little
ones painted for breath OF fresh air Father Time; and
they died like flies, in noisome reekng crowded tene-
where there's light and air Tor every flower that ecked
the felda breath of fresh air for the little children OF
Ah it was pitiful Father Time Our feeble young
and old persisted mseraby OF cold il the midst of land
that worships the Good God land amid accumulation
of wealth that known since the morning stars
looked down upon newly made world
Poverty. crime, vice. drunkenness, riot war, famine
pesten e. earthquake and confagraon have gutted their
awful appette upon during the Old Year Father Time
To what are YOU leading in the New
VIII the heart OF the world grow harder and harder
Father Time? Will the greed OF human aVarce demand stu
larger sacrifice OF human lives?
VIII the sclfishneSs of Glasses still gorge itself upon
the rayenous conquess and remorseless exploitation:
Shall the cry Of the white slave reach heaven
Is wrong never to be dethroned?
Shall the song of the angels who hung the infant
Christ throb, living principle, in mans govern
nent OF man? Sc ~,
Is the reformer always be the martyr Father lime?
Oh Father Time We trenble feel YOU leading
toward the door Of the New Year Beyond that portal
we cannot and dread taS children dread the dark
Deal gently with in the New Year, Father lime
Give us strength bear the croSS-for we know that
we must bear Give courage for the battle tor we
know that fight it. Give JUS patience to endure Tor
we know shall need it r
Give us charity that thinks no evil, and which viii
stretch forth the helpful hand lift weaker brother
out OF the me rather than the cruel which passes
him bv or thrust him farther down.
Give us faith in the right which defeat disturb
and encouragement undermine.
Give us the love OF truth which temptation can Sc
duce and 70 menace intinlidate.
Give us the fortude which, through the cloud and the
gloom and Of apparent failure, the dis
tant pinnacles upon which the everlasting sunlight rests
Give us the pride which suffers contamination, no
compromise OF selfrespect wfu assertion OF honest
conviction.