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Trying to find the cousin "Joe Ryan" from the New Yourk area who wrote this letter to my Uncle when he was a small child. "Joe Ryan" was berlieved to be the child's uncle or "cousin" and if you have a connection please contact Mike Miller at mmiller@the-box-office.com to exchange family history data.Master Paul A. Miller Dec. 31, 190844 Amherst Ave.East ClevelandOhioMy dear little friend -- It was my intention to have written you at an earlier date, for it is my first letter to you, but I differed writing in order that I might recall some of the brevity and purity of childish speech, -- but alas, I find myself to-night wedged in between the expiring hour of 1908 and the approaching moment of 1909. The respite I sought has not awakened the language of my childhood, nor can I invert the hands of time. I can do nothing more than to hum this incantation: "Backward, turn backward, Oh Time in your flight, and make me a child again just for to-night." Yet with all my longing and yearning, the sombre age of manhood hang over me with its weight of weary years like an abyss that separate diminutive divinity from the stern discipline and defection of time. If re juvenescence were possible, I would at once avail the present stage, with its oracles of boasted method, to abide with you to-night and tell you of this provincial legend called LIFE, - This life where mankind endeavors to encircle the earth to - only to find his lot a 6 ft. grave I would tell you that the measured march of modern method means madness and leads its unweary victim to religious liberties which conflict with the harmony existing between Science & Religion. I would tell you this, and more about our dwarfing morals, our restlessness, our inclination toward appetent greed, and our cold. damp, meadow-covered-spider-webbed-thing called: - charity. But conditions are inevitable, and you and I must make to best use we can of them. I have passed through several degrees in the association of life called VETERANS - OF - EXPERIENCE. You will of necessity, enroll in this legion, -- all mankind is in it and none can ever resign from its fraternity. It only remains for you to select your degree or rule of experience, and Time will apportion your reward of merit. Each life has its monarch or rule of method, and each moment its mark of experience. The mind is monarch of method and can expand in virtue or in villainy at will, and each moment will record its reward or its remorse. You are about to start out in this sea of life, and I wish you God- speed & Good will through it all. Dear Paul, I expect (and naturally so) your advance in virtue, both Devine and natural, because your advent is enshrined in natural virtues, and such material qualities afford you a means to handicap your companion in the acceleration & possession of a higher moral plane. You were born with such virtues as: -- sobriety, self-reliance, physical form, color, health, economy, industry, tact, thrift, honorable ambitions, energy, studiousness, and seriousness. In due time the LAW - OF - COMPENSATION will reward the good use you have made of them, or will with equal precision, censure your carelessness. Therefore I have only to say, let your life conform to the purpose for which it was given you, and if you make it a practice of DOING and SAYING only that which you would DO and SAY in the presence of your mother and father you will adhere to that line of virtus most efficacious to your soul, your mind and your body. Purity of life elevates the mind. Patience strengthens it, sobriety fortifies it and charity confirms it in blessings here and here-after. I may reasonably say that CHARITY is as important to human life, as God is to eternity. If a man's mind & ways are magnanimous he himself will be great. The bells, horns, and whistles are announcing the birth of 1909. Therefore I wish you and your mother and father, and your relatives & friends A Happy New Year, and may God's blessings be with you & all. Loyally & your friend, Joe Ryan
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