The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1888-02-18 00:00:00

CAPRICIOUS SEASONS.

CERTAIN words used to describe moods of
the mind and manifestations of feeling are
also applied to aspects and conditions of ex-
ternal nature, and this double application
indicates the mysterious symbolical relation-
ship subsisting between the material and
moral worlds. Everybody knows that it is
customary, without reflecting much on the
full import of the phrases, to speak about
smiling skies, laughing waves, angry seas,
wanton winds, surly blasts, frowning pre-
cipices, and placid lakes. In a similar man-
ner the seasons of the year, when they ex-
hibit exceptional changeableness, may rightly
be described as capricious, since the opera-
tions of nature, though they are governed
by fixed laws, seem to be actuated by im-
i pulses of their own, more wayward at one
period than another. It was, no doubt, this
capriciousness, as it affects the British Islands,
which induced almanac mongers of the old
school, who have still their followers at the
present day, to venture on producing hap-
hazard forecasts of the weather from the
beginning of January to the end of Decem-
ber. A mere offhand guess, miraculous in its
luckiness, which caused snow, sleet, and
hail to be entered under a certain date in
July on a particular year, is said to have
originally established the reputation of one
of the old-school almanacs, which continues
to be issued and to find a place among the
wares of street hawkers. The concocters of
weather-charts for the year, who set them-
selves above all the modern experts in met-
eorological science, would do well to restrict
their forecasts to the high gales due at the
time of the vernal and autumnal equinox,
when the sun enters the first points of Aries
and Libra. While changeableness of climate
is naturally, and indeed necessarily, asso-
ciated with our insular pesition in the tem-
perate zone, we attribute capriciousness to
the seasons when they do not sustain their
proper characters, and create an impression
of making fitful attempts to try to imitate
each other. In some parts of the country the
name of " borrowing ' days is given to days
which, on account of their unseasonable
mildness or bitterness, closeness or boister-
ousness, seem to have dropped out of their
proper places in the circuit of the year. lt
would certainly be an altogether better ar-
-1 rangement, tending more to our health and
comfort, if the seasons would exhibit greater
strictness in keeping themselves to them-
selves, in abstaining From borrowing or lend-
ing, and in agreeing to uphold the essential
distinctness from each other which is asso-
ciated with the names of Spring, Summer,
Autumn, and Winter. Capriciousness has
certainly characterised the present winter
both at home and abroad, in the Old World
and the New. At home there was the advent,
somewhat earl./ in the season, of genuine
wintry weather, hard frost and heavy falls
of snow being general, and the ice thick
enough to afford skaters and sliders some
opportunities of exhilarating enjoyment.
Sudden thaw, howevk r, wrought a speedy
ohauge, and the spell of open weather that
followed continued till atout the middle of
January, when there was asein keen frost,
with accompanying fslls of Snow. But the
ice, in most districts of the country, did not
get into sufficiently good condition to admit
Of the winter sports being renewed. Skaters
and sliders, too passionately devoted to
their favt nrite pastime; were frequently
immersed by venturing on treacherous ice,
and fatal accidents in numerous instances
were the result of foolhardy exploits. Once
more there came a return of open weather,
with occasional days of springlike mildness,
and certain members of Parliament, who
came back from their holiday quarters abroad
to be present at Westminster on the opening
of the new session, found the air to be more
comfortable in England than in Italy, where
cutting winds prevailed, or in the winter
health-resorts of the Riviera, where invalids
deem it the most prudent course to keep
within their rooms till more genial days ar-
rive. But the kindlier temperature at come,
experienced by travellers who had come back
from what are commonly recognised as sum-
mer lands and warmer latitudes, was not
destined to last very long. In a few days an-
other atmospheric change occurred, the
wind, as it were, canght the keenness of the
air at Cannes and Mentone; frost again set
in, and falls of snow, whitening the lsnd-
scapes and housetops, and creating slush in
the streets of towns, came in due course.
This fresh change seem to make it appear
that there must be some truth in the old
proverb which specifies the results that are
sure to follow when Candlemas-day is fair.
Frosty and snowy weather in February is
greatly more in accordance with the wishes
of gardeners than successive days of spring-
like mildness, either in that month or the
preceding one, the effect of which is to bring
about the premature np-springing of flowers
and bursting of buds. Gardeners, who always
keep an eye on the future, like the revolving
seasons best when they exhibit their proper
characteristics. The wonderful effect of a few
mild days in January or February makes it
appear that the animal and vegetable creation,
which gets under hiding in winter, is lying
in wait, watching intently for the earliest
and feeblest indications of approaching spring.
It may even be imagined that the warming
touches of sunshine which in the early weeks
of February cause house flies, in a half-dazed
state, to come out of their nooks and corners,
and midges, eager for a little recreation, to
join in an airy interweaving dance, have
likewise the effect of inducing the mummi-
fied inmates of chrysalis cases to stir in
their long sleep and dream of coining life.

Er', COCOC—GIitATEFUL AND 0011F0ELTING
' thorough knowledge of the natural laws whi(o.l g,,yer
the operations of digestiou and nutriti.m. -nd by
ful application of the fine properties of welbsel etc
Cocoa. Mr. Epps has provided Our breakfast tables wt
a delicately flavoured beverage which may save us
many heavy doctors' bills, it is by the judicious use of
such articles of diet that a constitutiee nity be grada-
ally built up until strong enough to resist every tewl•
ency to disease. Hundreds of lubtle maladies are
floating around us ready to attack wherevei there is a
weak point We may escape many a lat..t shaft by
keeping ourse:ves well fortified with pure blood and a
properly nourished frame." Civil Service G,ciette.
Made simply with bolting water or Milk. Sold °al iu
packets by Urocers, abLl.it•• JNICia EPPI &
Iluwasupathic Cheinieti.
3) autkira of
pt a fterivion Chocclate

FOOD ADULTEHATION Cast al. 1 n ing at
ths Health Exhibiti,u, auid : I.lo:nce 'pa hie
Coco s vro well named, as they contain the 11 es,
(I.ltutttj a Cocoa." CADBURT'S COCOA is guaranteed
puce, and we recorginerd the tublic to buy no
o,h. r.

w vs drink CAD lie UT'S COCOA, it iS w .oi •
Some, bubLilittiLig, nutritious, and agreeable, ant is
a universal favourite from the Cott; ge ti the
"No 131-iZAILFAST, NO MAN," iS ail old slying, but
these who cant at wake a hearty inoin lig. wed,
thil.Citdhur7's Coe .e, a oare r, fin d b Ter,g •
ceiu:orting, exhilarating, and sustll'‘ lug
fu 1.1 alth and sielo,es- idorniman.d Pur.: :s
elwar, preferrid becau tis what i: pro' 4,
ale y Aro g, lich, deli e snl ab,o U, ely g i
;il at Lo a Cued price by .cia!*
.L Oe.tt-14 Nupeli,l 0
Lukas, OA gall aim Pk. Altila