Why Twelve O'clock is the Noisiest Hour In the Year "The truth about the glad New Yeu wore assured gravely by a bibulous nofsemaker at five minutes past 32 on January' 1, "is that it wont differ greatly from the old. yes People who are pessimistic in their cups, are indeed sad to behold; yet, we wonder whether there wasn't a grain of truth in what was spoke. For it is so easy to imagine that because a thing is new it is more interesting, or a least has. more possibilities, than something old. The picture of a Young Year, tod dung in jauntily with its cap set a bit awry—just to connote what a Joyous time was had by all New Year's Eve, I suppose—makes tus well with pride. What glorious possibilities we see in that young-In fact there have been many instances when people set such store in this Bouncing Boy of a New Your that they deposited a goodly number of New Year's resolutions in the bank for him. One by one, alas, it is feared that the resolutions were drawn out so that when his twelvemonth was ended the Bouncing Boy went tottering out bankrupt to his uninteresting end, But one thing which alwa: strikes me as really extraordinary in the way in which the Bouncing Boy grows up in twelve months. Whether it is the constant worry of close association with waning Now Year's resolutions, or whether hho is simply one of those "*fimsies"
ort-lived that he must grow rapidly if he gets anywhere, it is certainty true that the Bouncing Boy ages remarkably quickly. He generally has a graybeard to show for his labours at the end of twelvemonth, not to mention a dis. {llusioned expression and lumbago, Nevertheless, this old man who staggers out to make room for 1 young and lusty New Year, leaves few regrets in his wake.
ly because he is old and shaped ike an old and easy shoo, our affections into" play. He has the advantage of the old over the new because there are mntimental associations—stupid things to have always, of course, Dut there you are. The callow youth who replaces him on the calendar as s0 much to learn; one sees in the way he carries his honours into the throng that he is strutting to a fall. The Old Year had come to take things as they are, without feeling aggrieved that New Year's resolutions had dissolved into their own particular limbo before February had drawn to a_ close. The Old Year was a comfortable companion with which to live. We really liked him; whereas this Young "On will probably be exacting beyond endurance until he learns through bitter experience that human beings are human beings. The New Year can be idealized but how can wa-know whether or not we really like him.
This New Year has already begun its importunate demands. What about that letter which should have been answered six months ago order to keep alive and vital' one of the nicest friendships you ever had, we hear it question.—What about a little less display of ill-humour to telephone operators, 19287 What about joining the As. sociation for the encouragement of radio programmes in Shanghai What about that call you never paid? "What about a New Year's ravings account? What about walk: ing to office three times a week?
What about, what about, what about?
The questions ring out with the bells on New Year's Eve, or would ring out if they could " be heard, Perhaps that is why we all make such a lot of noise at 12 o'clock. The old year doesn't make much of he creeps out, glad enough done with it all, But the ow One, riding in on the crest of the wave, might be a bit troublesome if we didn't make an uproar. T wonder if that's why we do it?
"he fault, dear Bates, len sot in But elves that we are Yen, Twill write that letter, before the eyes of the young year take on a patient look. LB.W.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.