And procrastination whispers softly,
  Wait a little longer yet;
Rashness will defeat your purpose, mortal,
  And be cause of deep regret.

Wait with patience just a moment longer,
  Then with safety clutch them fast—­
Thus the spirit of delay beguiles us,
  Till the lucky time is past.

Moments freighted deep with joy ecstatic
  All unheeded pass away;
While we musing scan the misty future,
  Hoping they will ever stay.

Bye and bye! may gaily point us forward,
  Unto scenes with joy o’ercast—­
Only mirage of Life’s barren desert,
  They are found to be at last.

Bye and bye! with all its artful scheming,
  Though it may seem most sublime,
Wisdom horror-stricken spurneth from her,
  Knowing only present time.

Reason tells us now’s the time for action,
  And this truth will ever last,
Written as it is throughout all nature,
  On the pages of the Past.

WILLIAM JAMES JONES.

William James Jones was born in Elkton, August 25, 1829, and received his education at the common school and Academy in that town.  His youth and early manhood was spent in mechanical pursuits and in the improvement of his mind by a desultory course of reading, and in perfecting himself in the knowledge of the Latin language.

In 1852, Mr. Jones purchased a half interest in the Cecil Whig and became the editor of that journal for a short time, and until its founder P.C.  Ricketts, who was then editing the Daily News, of Baltimore, returned from that city and resumed the duties of editor of the Whig.

In 1853, Mr. Jones commenced the study of the law in the office of John C. Groome, Esq., in Elkton and was admitted to the Bar, September 21, 1855.

In politics Mr. Jones was a Whig, but allied himself with the American party when it was in course of formation and continued to be an active member as long as the party lasted.  In 1857 he was appointed State’s Attorney for Cecil county, to fill a vacancy, and in 1859 was elected to the same office for the term of four years.  At the outbreak of the war of the rebellion Mr. Jones allied himself with the Union cause and was elected to the House of Delegates by the Union party in 1863, and was appointed two years afterwards, United States’ District Attorney for the district of Maryland, and held the office for about a year, and until he was removed by President Andrew Johnson for opposing his policy of reconstruction.  In 1858 he married Miss Mary Jane Smith, of Connecticut.  They are the parents of one son and two daughters, the eldest of whom is the wife of Rev. Walter E. Avery, of the Wilmington Conference.

Mr. Jones is one of the most earnest and successful members of the Elkton Bar, and though not a voluminous writer, in early life contributed poetry to the columns of the Cecil Whig, of which the following poems are specimens.