HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1931-12-31, Page 7A HAPPY
NEW YEAR
By JOHN EVERETT
Life
He came back to earn $200 --and
he found the real gold of life.
and tali love ffei" happened
to you. " ;
He led her genal bac to' her high-
backed chair beside the fire.. Now he
was beside her, he could see hew the
year or the loneliness had aged her,
'Very frail she looked.
°You ehoulde't have that door open,
lie said. "It'g cold tonight,
"I know, Garth," She answered; "but
don't forget it's New Year's Eve.
Other folk shut their doors, and wait
for someone to call and let in another
GARTH WATERFORD was return• Year. But I say: `Throw your door
ing to Little Petersham at last open to the world, to show that your
Considering the hiali hopes with which heart is open to it as well.' I don't
he had gone away—the many times he wait for someone to call, I hold the
had assured his mother that within' door open in welcome. And my open
two years he would have a business door has brought me my son. Make
of his own in London—both the mo-
ment and method of his return were
unusual, to say the least. For the
hands of the church clock stood at
eleven as the furtive figure slouched
along the muddy lane, keeping to the
gloom, and darting past the spots
where a ray of light showed the pres-
ence"of a house.
It was his mother who had brought
him back to the village, Unemploy-
ment, a hard time, his own children,
had sharpened his sympathies, and he
wanted to know whether she was still
alive and well.
Why hadn't lie written to her? Well,
he had written so hopefully at first,
and, somehow, he had shrunk from
exhibiting his failure to the one being
in life who believed in him. Now he
was doing worse than ever; in fact,
if anything went wrong that night—
He pullne,. up his thoughts, not daring
to pursue them.
What was more important was the
fact that, if everything went right,
Josh Hooker had promised him fifty
quid. With that he could make a
fresh start, he and Ellen and the two
children.
It was easy, really. They had only
let him in because he knew the Grange
like the back of his hand, having
worked there helping the gardeners
in his youth. All he had to do was to
meet Hooker's two cronies at the bend
in the wall by the brook, show them
the way over, and point out the library
windows. Then he would keep watch
while they were inside, giving a hand
only if they hit a snag.
They had all pointed out to him how
lucky he was. "Money for jam" the
gang called it. Garth Waterford was
not so sure. So far, he had never
committed a crime, or assisted in one,
and the fact that this crime was to
take place so near his mother's place,
amid the scenes ho had known so
well in his youth, made him loathe the
job.
The straggling group of cottages,
with one or two big houses which
made Little Petersham, was deserted.
Everyone would be at the concert in
the hall at the other end of the vil-
lage, waiting to welcome in the New
Year—except his mother, who was too
aid, and the major from the Grange.
He was in London. Hooker had found
that out by judicious inquiries some
days before.
Garth was by the village store now
—the weather-beaten little shop had
been his home and his father's home
before him.
There was a light shining through
the glass panels of the door behind the
shop, and the light lit up a flickering
flame that had never died within him.
His mother would be there. He
must see her just once. It would be
dangerous to• be recognized; they'd
connect him with the robbery. But
there could be no harm in slipping
into the garden and looking in through
the window. If he could be sure she
was well, then perhaps .he would not
Bate the rest of the night's work so
much. But lie hadn't many minutes.
Silently he lifted the latch of the
gate and slipped into the gloom be-
yond. With a queer little thrill, he
felt his feet on the old brick path,
Vali overgrown with lichen. He
rounded the bend by the outhouse,
and stepped into a path of light which
made the frost sparkle on the bushes.
The light only came from an oil
lamp, shining through the kitchen door,
but to Garth Waterford it seemed like
the limelight of a theatre. The kit-
chen door was open—wide open.
Mustn't let his mother see him. He
made to draw back into the shadow
6 -Year -01& .' oncler Child
some tea, Garth, just to show You
haven't forgotten where the teapot is."
As he busied himself about the little
kitchen she was looking at him, seeing
again the boy who went away. She
saw the new lines in his face—the
lines of poverty.. The grey -flecked hair
—the shabby clothes—the anxiety in
the restless eyes. Lilce an open book,
she read the story of his struggle
and his failure.
Together they sat beside the fire,
with their cups of tea.
"And is London so grand?" she said
at last.
Somehow, he could not deceive her.
"Things didn't turn out like—like I
hoped, mother," he said. "Work is dif-
ficult to get. At first it wasn't so bad,
but after I married—"
"My boy married!" she broke in.
"And his mother never knew! Oh,
Garth, why didn't I know?"
He shook his head.
"I couldn't write, mother," he con-
tinued. "After I married everything
went wrong. I lost my job. Jimmy,
the eldest, came. I tramped the coun-
try
ouptry looking for work. Things are very
difficult:" He pulled himself together.
"But the worst's over now. I'm on
my way to a job."
But the old lady was not listening.
"Then I was right," she was saying.
"My poor boy did need. me, and I
didn't know wehere to find him. Night
after night I saw you in my dreams
and knew you needed me, and you.
never came. Oh, Garth, my son, why
couldn't I help? Why didn't you
come to your mother?"
She was not looking at hint; she
was looking at his photograph that
still hung over the mantel. Her
breath seemed to he coming with dif-
ficulty; she was very pale. Shock.
Of course that was it. He was a fool
to have come back. The clockpointed
to eleven -fifty. In another ten minutes
he was due at the Grange. He looked
at his mother—not safe to leave her
until she felt better. Anything might
happen if he just went off now.
He knelt beside her, rubbing her
hands—hands knotted and old through
working for him and the brother who
lay in France.
"It's all right, mother," he said, with
a curious tightening in his throat.
"It hasn't been as bad . as that. I'm
all right now—fixed up fine. And one
day soon I'll bring Ellen and the chil-
dren down to see you—I promise I
will."
She clutched his hand with a grip
that surprised him.
"You won't leave me again, Garth,"
she demanded, stroking his hair.
"Never again! You must send for
your wife and the children. The
shop's too much for me now. I've only
kept it on in case you came back.
I'm too old to stand all day. It's
waiting for you, just as the house is
'waiting for your children. You must
stay, Garth—tell me you'll stay!"
She was clutching him still tighter
to her; her eyes were wild. If he
cleared off now he might be the mur-
derer of his own mother. He couldn't
do it—not for a thousand Hookers!
Gently he released his hand and
went to the door, stepping out into
the yard. Not a sound broke the
silence. Just the canopy of stars,
frostily clear above his head, and the
hushed world, waiting, it seemed, for
another year. Peace—a peace he had
not known for five struggling years—
enveloped him. Ile remembered that
this place meant home, love, security
—all those things he was in danger of
losing. It meant—
The silence was shattered by the
before the white-haired old lady in- sound of bells that echoed among the
side that doorway should know he cottages. The New Year! And Hook -
Was there. er's men waiting for him three miles
But already she was peering out into off. Well, they'd have to wait a long
the gloom. time, He had come back to earn $250,
"Garth," she said softly. "It's my and he had found gold=the real gold
boy come home or a ghost, I saw you. of life. He was 'going to take it and
Where are you?" fight for it,
The man crouched down. Why in He stepped back into the kitchen.
goodness had he come here at all? His mother had risen froiu her chair
He saw a frown overshadow his and was waiting for him.
Mother's face. "A dark man comes to bring me
"Garth," she said, louder, "five years New Year luck," she said, kissing him
you've been gone, but I knew it was again. "That means a happy New
you. If it wasn't I'm going mad— Year for both him and me, Garth,
mad from thinking about you. Speak, my dear, •no need to tell me that you
are going to stay. I know now."
He put Itis arni round her shoulders.
"Yes, mother I'm going to stay—
play a trick like that! Perhaps five always," he said. "And now you must
minutes, then an excuse to slip away.' rest."
He stood erect and advanced to the He helped her up to her room over'
light. the shop; then came down again to :
"It's me, mother," he' said. "Come turn out the lamp. But before he did
to surprise you for a few minutes. and taking something from his pocket
I'm"—he searched for a lie, and de- so he went to the end of the garden,
aided the truth Was vague enough— dropped it down the well. The jemmy
"I'm on my way North." , ho had never used, and which he
For a moment the old lady did not would neves' need to use now, for the
move, Then site took two tottering bad old year had gone and a bright
• steps to his side and caught his face New Year had dawned."—Answers
in her hands, kissing him in between (London).
hysterical little laughs.
"I Itnew you'd come back, Gorth," Wealth
she said. "You wouldn't forget your 7lie choicest wealth Heid from above
foldriends,
mother Cainebecause of "'Your grand Is reaceful health and trusting love.
friends. Cin, my 'Son --come in,
Garth, if you are here!"
She was clinging to the doorpost
for support Hang it all, he couldn't
Six-year-old Ruth Slenczynki of California, recently held Berlin
audiences spell -bound by her playing, When an enthusiast pres-
ented the child with a doll, her Polish father rushed forward and
threw it back into the audience.
A New Year's Suggestion i New Year's Eve
D. D. Twitchell I look up in the morning of the year,
Most people make resolutions for And I behold. Thee flooding all the sky
the New Year, This year when you ' With that bright wonder of a heart
make your resolutions why not include I outpoured.
some for the benefit of our animal The night of peace and stars has made
friends? These suggestions may help
you. Why not resolve that you -
1. Will not allow yourself to be too
me hold,
And :.from the humbleness of years'
• defeat,
hurried, too preoccupied or sufficiently I dareto rise again and lift a prayer.
unkind to fail to speak kindly to the .0 Father of a little trusting child,
dog who greets you with a friendly. Keep Thou my faltering steps upon a
wag. way
2. Will not fail to think of the hours That is unknown. And teach me how
of imprisoned loneliness endured by
the canary that sings for you and that
Yost will whistle to him or do some
New Year's' v€
No one ever regarded the 1?"lrt t of
January with, indifference. It is that
from which all date their time, and
count upon what is left, It Is the
nativity of our common Adam.
Of all sound of all hells—belle, the
music nighest bordering upon heaven
-most solemn and touching is the
peal which rings out the Old mind to
a concentration of all the images that
have been diffused over the paet
twelvemonth; all I have done or sus
fered, performed or neglected, in that
regretted time. I begin to know its
worth, as when a person dies.
The elders, with whom I was
brought up, were of a character not
likely to let slip the sacred observance
of any old institution; and the ringing
out of the Old Year was kept by them
with circumstances of peculiar cere-
mony. In those days the sound of
those midnight chimes, though It
seemed to raise hilarity In all around
nee, never failed to bring a train of
pensive imagery into my fancy. Yet
I then scarce conceived what it meant,
or thought of It aati a ree'koning that
concerned Me. Not Childhood aileaa ,,
but the young man till thirty, never
feels practically that he 10 mortal,
He knows it Indeed, and, If need were,
he .could preach a homily on the fragil-
ity of life; but he brings it not home
to himself. /alit now, shall I confQsa
a truth? I feel these audits but too
powerfully, I begin to count the prob-
abilities of my duration, and to grudge
at the expenditure of moments and
Shortest periods, like misers' farthings,
I care not to be carried with the
tide, that smoothly bears human lila
to eternity; and reluct at the inevit•
able course of ` destiny. .
I am in love with this green earth;
the face of town and country; the
unspeakable rural solitudes, and the
sweet security of streets. I would set
up my tabernacle here. I am content
to stand still at the age to which I
am arrived; I, and my friends: to be
no younger, no richer, no handsomer.
I do not want to be weaned by age;
or drop, like mellow fruit, as they say,
into the grave.—Charles Lanib.
Sunday School
Lesson
.--N-O-.•H-f-.-,-... e-o-r•�ta•V-�4i•4
ANALYSIS
I. THE WORD IN CREATION, 1: 1-8.
II. THE WORD IN HISTORY, 1: 4-18.
III. THE WORD IN JESUS, 1: 14-18.
INTRODUCTION—The Gospel of John
differs from the other three Gospels.
It dpes not claim to be a history. It
is no:• so much fact as interpretation
of fact. The author tells "what Jesus
has become to those who have'k own
him long and found in him the satis-
Lction of all their spiritual longings"
(Dow), and are now convinced that in
him they have experienced the life of
God himself.
The incidents recorded are largely
symbolic. If a multitude is fed, this
is not merely an event which took
place by the Lake of Galilee—it sym-
bolizes the eternal truth that man at-
tains to the life divine by feeding
spiritually upon Christ, the Living
Bread.
The Gospel was written toward the
close of the first century. Was the
auth.: John, the son of Zebedee, or
the preacher at Ephesus, or a disciple
• of John Zebedee known as John the
Presbyter, or some other? Scholars
differ. But its religious value is "in
to walk dependent of any name we may attach
Forth gladly, with no coldly shackling to it, and it has historic information
fears. that seems to carry back to some one
other of the many things, Which snake Lift me to understanding of thy love; 1 very close to Jesus."
a caged bird happier. A.bit of lettuce Give to my mind the firmness and the So convinced is John—which John
to peck at or his cage moved to a grace I he is matters little—that he is inspir-
different window helps to pass the Of grey stoup fences in the morning ed by the Spirit of Christ (as lie un-
doubtedly was) that he does not con -
time more pleasantly. ! sun, sider the words he writes to be merely
3. Will not be one of those people-: et .with all sureness on the warm (.his own, but theeworde of Christ'who'
who put the cat out if it disturbs you, brown earth, I inspires him. Hence Jesus' utterances
without finding out why it disturbs With little grasses growing by the and John's reflections continually
you. It may be that the cat is hungry, gate. l shade into each other.
thirsty, or wishes to be played with Make ,Thou my heart courageous for I. THE WORD IN CREATION, 1:1-3.
or petted, or it may bie you are dis- its days IJohn introduces his readers to a
turbed because you are irritable. As little purple violets blooming low being whom he calls the Word. He is
4. Will not laugh at, praise, or Beneath their searedged, frost -chilled doing what the preacher must do !o -
otherwise encourage, Dither a child or leaves. : day, proclaiming the truth in the
grown person who torments domestic And if the bending of the bare lean language of his own day. "The Word"
I was an eY cession
animals or hunts or traps -wild ones. boughs John's day, as "evolution" is iIa ours.
5. Will point out courteously but un Shall strike long shadows on the path The Herew, when he wished to speak born afresh in the hearts of holy
failingly whenever possible to fur's; .I choose,
`through' him." See 1 Cor. 8: 6. In
saying that "without him was not any-
thing made that was made," John dis-
owns the multitudes of intermediate
spiritual beings in whom many of his
readers believed,
II. THE WORD IN HISTORY, 1: 4-13.
Jesus was not God's first revelation
of himself to men. The light was al-
ways shining in the darkness, v. 5. In
every age God has been present with
his human children, teaching them the
lessons they were fitted to learn, pre-
paring them for a fuller revelation to
come. Every age has had its prophet
of righteousness, its Word of God,
Abraham, Moses, Antos. No sooner
did the Word come than the tragic
note is sounded. Men did not receive
him.
Verses 10, 11 sound the tragic note
of rejection. God was in his own
world, made by him, but his own folk—
the Hebrew people—did not welcome
him. But a few individuals who re-
ceived him, received power to become
sons of God, v. 12. Every man is a
bundle of possibilities. Jesus' chief
desire ....as to come into such relation-
ship with men that he might give
them the power to become.
Verse 13 is a rebuke to Jewish ex-
clusiveness and "'resumption. The
Jews believed that being born into a
Jewish family gave one special rights
in the sight of God. Jesus had taught
John that "blue blood" does not count
with God. To belong to him spirit-
uaIly is the true nobility.
III. THE WORD IN JESUS, 1: 14-18.
The introduction has been leading
up to the momentous declaration that
the Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us, v. 14. God, to a degree
hitherto unknown, -lived in the person-
ality of a human being. His eternal
mind and will were a' last revealed to
us in a man, Jesus of Nazareth. God,
we know now, is like J�e_eus, his Christ
(the Greek term for klessial`i) . It`is s -
not John's IZrpose to try to explain
the "how" of the Incarnation. He is
concerned only to impress upon his
readers the fact.
The Word is being made flesh averq
day. It must be if men are to come
to know God. Goodness becomes real
only as we know some man or woman.
So with truth, love, purity. Said an
old writer, "This word of God was
from the beginning; it is always being
1of God as he revealed himself to men, men.'
wearers, that the price of the fur that Help me to walk without a shrinking I did not refer directly TO him, but spoke ..agony, torture, fear, and death of sone , `known before. I Gen. 22: 17. These ..arms all means
animal. 1 the "agent" who carried out God's will
Great. Captain of all those who seek among men, The Greeks had a some -
TRUTH, for Thee, i what similar idea. Plato yearned for
Command my forward march, and lead "some word of God��that would bring
Point thy tongue on the word of the Supreme Being nearer to men.
they wear is not only paid for by their' step of 5110 angel of God, the �
wtis'1om, Resolutions
money, but is also paid for by the Through colder ways than I have the "spirit" of God. See for example, .
The New Outlook (Toronto).—How
would it be to put among our New
Year's resolutions one to the effect
that we will try to be better -natured
and more companionable for the next
twelve months. Crankiness doesn't
truth.—Pindar.
e on.
—Rachel Dunaway: A Prayer for the
rst New Year.
I should say sincerity—is the in
characteristic of all men in any w
any
Carlyle.
`IX A bargain is a bargain—even if the
other woman gets it.
John uses this terra to tell that Jesus
of Nazareth was the expression of
the mind and character of God. •
The Word was God -working -in -crea-
tion. "All things were made by him"
(v. 3) means, "all things were made
Aged Bridge Enthusiasts Follow Experts'
Play
!Even guests in. Hebrew I1:•;tuse for the Aged itt New York follow Lens-Culhertsen tilt ovet rade) and try
out c_,c.li play themselves just'4o make sure It's olcay,These are all over 80,
add anything to any one else's hap-
piness, andit certainly doesn't make
life any smoother for ourselves. If it
isn't as deeply -dyed as some of the
other vices it makes up by being pe-
culiarly trying on those who have to
live with it
Affirmation
It is ending now. I shall watch the
year
Lock its cold doors.
And the house of earth grow chill,
and the wind
Sweep the white floors.
Snow is so small a house to wall a
world
Eternity -burled!
But there are roots at the wall, and
grass, and trees.
I'll trust in these.
Howard McKinley Corning, in The
New York Sun.
Nan More Trade
For Canadian Ports
Ottawa: — The Dominion Govern,
ment is giving consideration to the
question of routing more of Canada's
trade through Canadian ports. Sir
Alexander Gibb and members. of hie
staff in making a report on Canadian
port facilities are particularly study-
ing this phase, it was stated in (,lev-
ele ment circles. Sir Alexander's re-
port is said to be nearing completion.
Gold Production in Canada
Production of gold during 1930 from
all sources in Canada amounted to 24,-
102,068
,102,088 flue ounces valued at $43,4530
801 as against an output of 1,928,308
fine ounces valued at $89,861,803 in
1927. This was the largest output
ever recorded in Canada,
ILLUSION.
Illusion, and 'Wisdom combined an
the charm of life and art, --Joubert