January 8, 1904

 

 

The last curfew has tolled for the departed year. At 12 o’clock on Thursday night, 1903 joined its predecessors and registered one more year on the calendar of the past; and 1904 was ushered in with the ringing of bells, the firing of guns, and all of the circumstances that a joyful acclaim could give it. The old year is gone, yet it will be remembered by many on account of events that have come to pass under their own personal knowledge. There are but few but who can recall some pleasant event, or sad remembrance of 1903. The year has been propitious to our country in everything desirable as a nation, and except the muddling affairs in the “far east,” and the manufacture of a new republic on the Isthmus of Panama, good to the world in general. We have kept no necrological list for Milton, but its mortality has been considerable; and many of us have lost friends and relatives, if not here, in other towns of the land. But the old year is gone; its pleasures are over, its hopes are buried and we are one year older by having passed through its turmoil of hilarity and disappointment. We stand today upon the threshold of another year; another era of time; the appearances are the same, the sky is as blue, the wind as biting cold as it was the last days of the old year; there is no visible metamorphose in the appearance of the natural world, nor any change in the stellar observations of the universe, yet chronologically speaking we have entered on another period of time and while we discard the past, we look forward, as man is ever doing, to the future, to the year that is now before us, with buoyant hopes for a something, which if we were asked; What? We could not tell. But it is a something; an innate longing in the mind of man; a something that is never satisfied, verifying the oft repeated adage; “Man never is but always to be blessed.” With the above remarks we leave the subject, and wish the reader all the happiness possible during the present year.

The Weather during the past week has been particularly fine for the season, and those who have had to move—and there have been many of them—have had a nice time making their changes. The first Sunday of the New Year was ushered in with wind and snow after a night of tempest, and during the day people were confined within doors and beside blazing fires.

There are many superstitions yet extant about New Year’s morning. One of these is, if a woman or a Negro come in your house first on New Year’s morning, it will bring you bad luck during the year. While there is nothing in such superstition, there are many who believe it; of course this is ignorant, as no sensible person will put a woman on a par with a Negro.

Mr. and Mrs. William Davidson, of Philadelphia, spent the holidays with friends. Mr. Davidson returned to the city on Monday but Mrs. Davison yet remains in Milton.

The household furniture of the late Mrs. Emma Jones was sold at public auction by her administratrix on Saturday.

Burton M. Robinson has resigned his position in Washington and removed to his farm near town.

In our report of last week regarding the election of officers at the M. E. Sunday School, the second assistant vice-president should have been Isaac W. Nailor. The space was left blank, because at the time of writing we did not know whom it was and expected to inform ourselves and fill in the space. This we forgot to do.

On New Year’s evening, Mrs. Hartman gave a necktie party to the young misses of town in honor of her visitor, Miss Kate Bussey, of West River, Md. There were many present and all enjoyed themselves immensely.

The pernicious practice the small boys have of using air guns in town should be stopped by the authorities. They are dangerous, and if parents can find no other use for their money than to buy these dangerous toys for their children, they had better throw it into the river. It would do no harm there.

There is another thing we notice. This is that some people—and a few of them have correspondence—will go into business places and use these business men’s paper and envelopes in writing their letters. This is a small matter for one man, but for many it is an item. The businessmen don’t like it; yet they don’t wish to be rude and say so.

Isaac W. Nailor has received plans and specification for the erection of a Penn Industrial and Agricultural Building at St. Helen Island, S. C., with an invitation to bid thereon. He will do so.

Mary E. Darby, wife of John Darby, died at her residence in Slaughter Neck, on Thursday evening, Dec. 31st, aged 33 years, 9 months and 19 days. Funeral services were held at Slaughter Neck Church on Sunday afternoon by the Rev. Joshua Gray, of Lincoln, and interment made in the cemetery nearby. S. J. Wilson & Sun funeral directors.

On Tuesday morning the thermometer registered 5 degrees above zero.

Extra meetings commenced at the M. P. Church on Sunday evening.

There were no services held at the M. E. Church on Sunday evening because the church could not be heated, or the weather was too cold; or something else. The members of the M.E. congregation in this town are fair weather Christians.