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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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