Automatic Age

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the a u t o m a t ic a g e
V
o l
. 6
CHICAGO, JA N U A R Y , 1930
No. 6
LONG LIVE T H E Y E A R
William Lyon Phelps in Delineator
“ There is always something inspiring about a begin­
ning ; a new day, a new month, a New Year. Goethe said
life was like a game o f whist: the cards are dealt out to
Us by the Unseen, and it is left to us, whatever the na­
ture o f the hand we hold, to play it as well as possible.
For surely it is not the kind o f hand given to us by the
dealer that determines our character; our character is
shown wholly and exclusively by the way we play. In
one of his novels, Howells said that a foolish or evil ac­
tion did not reveal the real nature o f any man, because
every man does something foolish or wicked occasionally.
It is the way the man behaves after he has done the fool­
ish thing that really shows him up.
“ Many people laugh at others for making New Year
resolutions, knowing they will not keep them. Jonathan
Swift, after writing down sixteen resolutions, wrote a
seventeenth as follow s: ‘Not too set fo r observing all
these rules, for fear I should observe none.’ Yet, al­
though he was one o f the most clear sighted and most dis­
illusioned o f men, he knew there was genuine value in
writing resolutions. What is that Value?
“ Well, life is not only like a game— it is a game, the
most exciting and the most complicated o f all games,
which owes its fascination partly to the fact that no one
has ever completely mastered it. Now in eve"ry game
there are pauses where the players stop for a moment
and get a fresh start. And the fresh start always has
about it a certain zest. You have just lost a hand at
bridge. Well, it is lost and you cannot change it any
more than you can change history. But there is a new
deal, and you glance eagerly at your handful o f ca rd s...
On the first day o f January, 1930, the. phrase heard most
often in every part o f the world is the greeting o f a
Happy New Year. Every one seems to take heart and
feel that what is past is past and gone, and a new and
better era is at hand.”
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