Scrapbook and diary: Mary Magruder,1886-1887

With us the Christmas present has to a great extent superseded the New Years gift, but the day is one of peculiar interest socially. as it is the day set of apart by the ladies for the reception of their gentleman friends. Beside the social features the day has two universal associations not quite so pleasant, the one being with the payment of bills which generally appear in unexpected number at time

Even the other of personal a mental survey of the past, and a outlook into the future seeming to be inevitable upon the day former by consecrated to the two headed god in this connection I can not do better than to quote.

1886 Birth Feb 24 Dorothy Brooke June 30 Alice Brooke July 27 Edith Shoemaker Dec 2 Ella Land Mildred Beattey

Marriages May 18 Francis Snowden July 20 Margaret Tyson Rowland Moore Oct 13 Venie Higgins Robert P. Magruder Oct 12 Charles Black Dora Fenin Oct 19 Annie Brooke

May 25 Sarah B. Slater June 9th Patience June 25th Lee Dagett July 8th Mrs. Bailey July 10 Bill Rudditch July 12th Oct. 18 Oct. 19 Mary B. Hall

THE NEW YEAR.-- The suggestive words of the poet Young, "We take no note of time save by its loss," come naturally to mind with the echoes of the bells from thousands of church towers that but a few hours ago rung the old year out in solemn tones and welcomed the New with more joyous music. In sympathy with the poet's lines are the words of Lamb, "Every man hath two birthdays, two days at least in every year, which set him upon revolving the lapse of time, as it affects his moral duration. In the gradual desuetude of old observances the custom of solemnizing our own proper birthday hath nearly passed away. But the birth of a new year is of an interest too wide to be pretermitted by king or cobbler. No one ever regarded the first 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 sounds, of all bells--(bells, the muic nightest bordering upon Heaven)-- most solemn and touching is the peal which rings out the Old Year. I never hear it without a gathering up of my mind to a concentration of all the images that have been diffused over the past twelvemonth; all that I have done or suffered, performed or neglected in that regretted time. I begin to know its worth, as when a person dies." Most assuredly, whether we be old or young, it is not only natural but proper that we should give ear to the thoughts and reflections which the Old and the New-- the pre-siding divinities of the hour-- bring before us at this season. The man who gives heed to these blended voices of the New and the Old Year, full of warning and instruction, yet strong with good cheer and hope, is no mere sentimentalist, but a man of deeper wisdom that he who scoffs at what he may consider the childish folly of such meditations. There is a proper season for everything, and there could be no better period than at the beginning of the New Year at which to review the past and manfully resolve for the future. Good resolutions are none the less good because they are afterwards broken; the folly consists not in making them, but in breaking them. And so, whether as regards for our individual lives, our business relations or our national affairs, we should not be ashamed to listen patiently to what the past may have to say to us about our failures, our mistakes, or even about the successes upon which we have most prided ourselves, with the confident determination to make the new year better in all respects than the year which has just departed. Of the past year we can think kindly and gratefully, as of a good and generous friend that has left us a legacy of rich material blessings. The New Year finds us with peace on all our borders, and in friendly relations with all other countries. Removed from the quarrels of European governments, from the wars they wage and the political complexities that beset them, we are free to work out our own magnificient destiny, and strong enough to protect ourselves against any foreign power that might venture to assail us. We have already a larger population than any nation having a foothold in Europe except Russia, and the close of the century may find us numerically superior to her, even with her Aslatic possessions. So situated, and with unrivaled powers of expansion, it remains for us to profit by our great opportunities, to preserve in their integrity the rights we enjoy and the

freedom bequeathed to us individually and collectively, and to maintain the just balance of the States in the federal system and our constitutional obligations to the general government, while resisting with all our strength every effort that may be made to bring about a centralization of power. With the past year we entered, politically speaking, upon a new era, for it was signalized by the return of the democratic party to control of the government after being kept out of it for a quarter of a century. Whether it will keep that control for many years in the future. as it did for nearly two generations in the past, will depend upon the wisdom of its leaders and the prudent manner in which the affairs of the government are administered. Aside from the affairs of the political world, is the fact that seems everywhere apparent, that we are entering upon a revival of trade after a long period of depression, so that if our exports of breadstuffs and provisions have fallen off, the new enterprises that the restoration of confidence will stimulate, and the activity that will follow in trade and business generally, promises to more than counterbalance the decline in one branch of our trade. But for a people to be prosperous it is essential that they should guard themselves as much as possible against those fluctuations in trade and commerce to which all nations are liable; for all are prone to take risks and embark in speculations which, ending badly, bring about reverses and end in bankruptcies that shatter the confidence of capitalsits, shut up mills and factories and workshops, and deprive thousands of operatives, mechanics and workingmen of employment, who thus become the chief sufferers from a condition of things for which they were not in any way responsible. If we recognize the new year as vantageground from which to review the mistakes of the past, and to improve upon the lessons they teach, we shall do well. We are in the enjoyment of blessings that are vouchsafed to very few peoples. We have a government of our own choice, laws of our own making, and it is our duty to be individually and collectively observators of good morals and guardians of public order. A republic is not without its defects, and its institutions may at any time be put to the stratin. But if we are true to ourselves, and are worthy of the name of men capable of enjoying liberty, while sternly repressing license, all such troubles can be easily brushed away. THE SUN has abundant reason to be thankful for the blessings of the past year, which has brought it renewed evidence from every quarter of its ever-increasing popularity. It feels that its efforts to provide for its wide constituency the best and highest type of modern journalism have been appreciated. and it is grateful for this proof of public approval But it does not propose to rest on its laurels or remain satisfied with its present standard of excellence, high as that may be. THE SUN never stands still, and it will signalize the New Year by even greater enterprise and energy than have characterized it in the past. Provided with an unequaled mechanical equipment and with all the modern newspaper improvements, it can promise its readers that it will strive to add more than ever to their pleasure and improvement, and to become yet more welcome to the thousands of firesides which it visits every day, and which it trusts may be bright and happy during all the coming year.

1886

GEN. HANCOCK DEAD.

LAST HOURS OF THE SOLDIER.

PEACEFUL END OF A GALLANT CAREER.

A Malignant Carbuncle and Diabetes the Cause of Death—Sketch of His Life and Services—Action of the President.

[Special Dispatch to the Baltimore Sun.]

NEW YORK, Feb. 9.—General Winfield Scott Hancock died at 2.51 o'clock this afternoon, at Governor's Island, in New York harbor, of a malignant carbuncle and a complication of kidney troubles.

In all the grand procession that moved up Broadway last August accompanying the remains of General Grant to the tomb at Riverside, no man was looked upon with more popular interest than the soldier who rode at the head. That was General Hancock. He looked so brave and so manly that the people who thronged the streets could not help repeating McClellan's famous description of him: "General Hancock was superb today."

None thought on that day that two great men who rode in that procession would die suddenly within a few months, yet VicePresident Hendricks and General Hancock are now numbered among the dead.

The death of Gen. Hancock has produced profound sorrow here. His long residence at Governor's Island as the commander of the Eastern department made him a familiar figure on our streets. His simple, direct, soldierly bearing made him very popular with all classes of citizens here.

No man was received at public gatherings with more acclaim than Gen. Hancock. During his campaign for the presidency he was brought into personal contact with thousands of our citizens who called on him at his headquarters on the island. He received everybody who called with all the open hospitality of the soldier, and impressed all who met him with the honesty and nobility of his nature. He felt sure of his election, and few appreciate how near he came to election; but his defeat did not sour him, and he has been as genial and as popular ever since.

A simple incident will illustrate the manliness which was so characteristic of the man. It was during the heat of his presidential canvas when all the malignant passions of partizanship were aroused that a newspaper of this city published a bitter attack on the General. The next day the paper was in quest of information that only the General could give, and dispatched a reporter to see him. The latter expected to be refused an audience or to have his request bluntly denied. But to his surprise the General received him kindly, and though suffering from rheumatism obtained in his army service, spent an hour on his knees searching through his papers, peering into closets and drawers in order to find the information desired, and yet an open copy of the paper containing the attack upon him lay on his desk where he had been reading it when the reporter called. Anecdotes of his kind without number can be related of the General.

When his death was announced the flags on all the public buildings and exchanges were placed at half-mast. The city as well as the business organizations will take action in regard to his death, and will be represented with the military at his funeral. Deep sympathy with Mrs. Hancock is everywhere expressed. Within a short time she has lost two children, and is now suddenly made a widow. Gen. Hancock's last public appearance in the city was at the dinner given last week at the Hoffman House. Gentlemen who saw him then did not dream of his near death.

DEATH OF JOHN B. GOUGH.

Close of a Notable Career—Interesting Sketch of His Life.

PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 18.—John B. Gough, the eloquent temperance lecturer, died at 4.40 o'clock this afternoon at the residence of Dr. R. Bruce Burns, in Frankford, where he was taken on Monday night when stricken with paralysis while lecturing at the Frankford Presbyterian Church.

The deceased's wife was at his bedside when he died. There were also present Mrs. Pidge, his sister, Mrs. Burns and two nieces, Misses Mary and Fanny Whitcomb, Mr. John Wanamaker, Rev. Thomas Murphy and Mrs. Jacob Wagner. It was recalled today that almost the last words spoken by Mr. Gough were: "Young man, make your record clean."

John B. Gough is a native of Sandgate, in England, and was born on the 22d of August, 1817. His father was a common soldier in the British army, too poor to furnish the premium necessary to secure his apprenticeship to a trade. So, when he was twelve years of age, he was entrusted to the care of a family about emigrating to America. In consideration of the sum of ten guineas, they agreed to take the boy with them, to teach him a trade, and to provide for him until he came of age. On August 3, 1829, he arrived in New York, and was soon after taken to a farm in Oneida county. His early life in this country was one of poverty and hardship, and when his mother, who had joined him here with his sister in 1832, died, he ran behind the pauper's hearse which bore her body to the Potter's Field. Learning finally the trade of a bookbinder he worked at it for very low wages in New York and elsewhere, but gradually fell into habits of drunkenness. His experience at this time was varied by a brief career upon the stage, commencing with the singing of a comic song at a Chatham street theatre, and terminating with a small part in a lurid melodrama in Boston. Settling in Newburyport, Mass., he went from bad to worse, and finally found himself at Worcester, in the same State, where, in October, 1842, he was rescued from the degrading habits of drunkenness into which he had fallen through the influence of Joel Stratton, a worthy shoemaker. He signed the total abstinence pledge, but soon relapsed. He signed again, and then kept it. Soon after his reformation he began to lecture on behalf of total abstinence, first to a few country-folk in schoolhouses and churches. Then he went to Boston and made 300 public addresses, rising at once into prominence, and drawing larger audiences than any speaker then before the public. He married Mary Whitcomb, of Worcester co., Mass., on the 24th of November, 1843.

During his first year as a public speaker Mr. Gough made 383 speeches, and since he began he has appeared before an audience altogether 8,567 times up to the beginning of the present year. At a fair estimate he has spoken before 9,000,000 people, more than any other man, and has traveled over 450,000 miles in meeting his appointments. He made three visits to Europe, and made 1,260 speeches in England. Up to 1860 he lectured only on temperance, but he was persuaded to deliver in New Haven a lecture upon "Street Life in London." This proved a great success, and was followed by "Lights and Shadows of London Life," "Eloquence and Orators," "Peculiar People," "Fact and Fiction," "Habit," "Curiosity" and others.

His voice was of rare compass and flexibility. In the delineation of character he was inimitable, enacting the mother, child, pleading wife, brutal husband, plantation darkey, Scotch deacon, polite Frenchman, raw Irishman, pompous coxcomb, and poor, besotted toper, all in an hour's lecture.