The Daily Gazette

New Year's Address of the Carriers to the Patrons of the Wilmington Daily Gazette.

To-day let every heart lay by
Its cares and join in the good cheer
That moves the world with glad acclaim
To hail the coming of the year.

The New Year with its golden hopes,
Its promises of goods untold.
Its pleasures, all without the pains
That marred the beauty of the Old.

The past shall teach us how to shun
The errors that beset our way,
And where the past was dark and sad
The future shall be bright as day.

And we shall tread the upward path
Of progress without stop or turn,
If from the eventful by-gone years
We may our lessons rightly learn.

To-day, one hundred years ago,
In this vast Western Continent
A few brave souls in freedom's name
Outlined a model government.

This year our nation celebrates
The first Centennial of its birth,
And priceless tributes honor it
From every nation on the earth.

Then, but a few sparse settled States:
A nation of an hour-or age,
As might be-but now limitless
And boundless in its wealth and power

There yet remains a destiny
That leads us with the march of Time:
Achievements nobler, prouder aims,
And heights beyond still more sublime

And we, proud of our State that gave
Its fealty the first of all
To the grand contract that unites
And binds us as an iron wall;

Enjoy, in this Centennial year
The rich rewards that from it flow :
We live to taste the golden fruits
That in so fair a garden grow.

We live to see the mantles fall
On worthy sons from noble sires,
As Bayard, whose genius, phoenix like,
Is only brightened by death's fires.

A name that is a synonym
For all that's truly good and great;
A statesman whom we soon shall call
To grace the nation's chair of State.

Tho' dark the present outlook seems,
And sad misfortunes on us crowd,
Why should we e'er forget there is
A silver lining to each cloud:

Oh! there are happier days to come,
And brighter fortunes for us yet:
With patience let us wait and work,
Dear patrons of our Old Gazette.