From the front page of the January 1, 1903 edition of The Chatham Record:
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
YESTERDAY was the last day of the old year and today is the first day of the new year. And thus one year follows another in rapid succession, and as we grow older the years seem to come and go with accelerated velocity, like a ball rolling down a hill.
The death of the old year always brings sad thoughts. At its close our minds recall its joys and sorrows, its pleasures and griefs, and a feeling of peculiar sadness comes o’er us all. With some it has been a year of sorrow and affliction. At many firesides there is a “vacant chair” and in many family circles a loved one is missing. With others it has been a year of happiness and prosperity. To them life has been a roseate dream and success has blessed them.
And what will the new year bring them? To whom will it bring joy and happiness? To whom will it bring sorrow and grief? On whom will shine the bright sun of success? On whom will lower the dark clouds of sorrow and adversity? Who will fall by the wayside in their journey of life and die before the new year ends? How fortunate that no one can answer these questions or pierce with human vision the veil of the future!
Regrets for the past are now in vain. What has happened cannot now be changed. While this is true our past experience and past events can and should enable us all to profit by them, so that in the coming year we may be benefited and blessed thereby. In the coming year let us all strive to avoid the errors and mistakes, which now we so clearly see were committed during the past year. Let us carry with us in our daily life during the coming year some of the kindly feelings that the joyous Christmastide aroused within us. Let us strive to be more tolerant of the opinions of those who differ from us. Let us all have more of the milk of human kindness, and do unto others as we would have them do unto us.
May the coming year bring happiness to all our readers, and may it be to each an all a Happy New Year!
