The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-11-29 00:00:00

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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 29th, 1879.
-
THE COMING WINTER.

The dosing days of November have been
marked by weather which seems to promise
a repetition of the experience of last year,
and which was then regarded as being of a
very exceptional character. The month
came in amid predictions of a hyperborean
autumn. We had at last got behind the
north Irina. There were prophecies of a St.
Martin's summer, assurances that there
never had been so fine a season for saving,
and that the bounty of next year's crops
would more than compensate for the losses
and vicissitudes of the twelve months now
drawing to a close. But Nature, with a grim
sense of humour," resolved to discredit the
meteorologists. Everything depends upon
the direction in which the wind may set, so
it swept in upon us from the north-east,
across the stormy German Ocean, bringing
fog and snow, and sleet, and hail, and mist.
These unwelcome visitants were not confined
to the bleak and exposed coasts of that tem-
pestuous main; but were carried far inland
from the shore, conveying colds and illness
in their train. But the weather in these
islands is very capricious, as we all know.
Suddenly, and without warning, the wind
often veers round to the south, bringing
bright blue skies and white fleecy clouds,
with a fewhours of transient and joyous sun-
shine, wherein the swallows yet lingering
with us flit to and fro in the oblique rays,
and the winter flowers in the garden put
out their latest buds as though to welcome
the brief period of returning cheerfulness so
soon to pass away.
One of the characters introduced by Mr.
Dickens into the most popular of his numer-
ous works was a Russian count, who ex-
pressed some degree of surprise that the
weather was among ordinary Englishmen
the principal topic of conversation. No
doubt, amid the snows of Russia, where
perpetual winter seems to settle down upon
the land, people don't talk about the weather
at all—they are so accustomed to what they
get that they ceas3 to murmur, or even to
take any interest in the prevailing atmost-
pheric conditions. But in this country we
talk about the weather just as the French
talk of politics—there is no knowing what a
day or an hour may bring forth. Some-
times winter after winter will elapse with-
out a flake of snow or a symptom of frost.
A succession of warm south-westerly breezes
presses over the land, forcing vetigation
prematurely on, to be "nipped by the winds'
,unkindly blast," that too often sweeps over
the country in what used to be regarded as
spring. But instead of grumbling when the
snows come upon us unexpectedly, bringing
every kind of discomfort with them, let us,
as a practical nation, learn the lessons
which a severe winter teaches. When the
days draw in, and the sun is sparing of his
light and warmth, we need longer periods of
rest and more abundant cheer and confort
Man, like many other animals, is reduced by
cold to a semi-torpid condition, and if he is
to work at the normal pressure, requires
creature comforts abundantly supplied.
Children especially need more assiduous at-
tention. They must be encouraged to take
exercise, must be kept warm both during
and by night, and above all must be tempted
to eat. The notion of our fore-fathers that
children ought to be "hardened" by sleeping
in cold rooms, and otherwise being denied
winter's appropriate comforts, would have
been cruel and indeed almost wicked had it
not been the consequence of well-meaning
ignorance. The warmer they can be kept,
and the better fed, the more conducive to
their health.
Should the winter prove as hard in its
severity as that of last year, benevolent and
charitable organisations will find an ample
field of exercise. No doubt, in spite of all
that charity can do, we are constantly face
to face with the fact thatthe poor are always
with us. Cases of distress are numerous
enough where a little relief, given in time,
can anticipate greater sorrow impending;
or at any rate, cases of hardship if not of
distress where, although downright cha-ity
is uncalled for, sympathy and kindness,
with a small show of generous bounty, will
brighten hearts otherwise dreary, and throw
a brief light over lives all but uncheqnered
in their gloom. "Blessed is the man that
provideth for the sick and needy" is a truth
which can never be better exemplified than
in a hard winter such as that which we may
again be called upon to face