North Branch democrat. [volume] (Tunkhannock, Pa.) 1854-1867, 1863-11-25
COMMUNICATIONS.
For The Democrat.
NICHOLSON, Nov. l9, 1863

\ Most OF last week was fair sample of the
season; and now, that the two-days storm of
rain and snow with which we have since been
visited, has blown over, the cob webs are
again floating in the air, and the warm sun.
shine and hazy atmosphere mark further
! continuance of the weather which is, to the
best of my reco lection, every succeeding year
remarked upon as being remarkably fine
and beautiful, for the time o'year." It is not
easy to discover why the season is called In.
dian Summer. Is it, perhaps, name deriv-
ed from early colonial experience Is the
brief, bright cluster of days called 'Indians'
| Summer because they are a delusion, a vain
promise, the smile of painted savage? Is
Indian" here, synonymous with treachery,
as in the case of gifts among children, where
! present made, and then revoked is called
an "Indian gift q This is, to my fancy,
the reasonable explanation of the name. For
you must remember, that in no other country
is this season so remarkable and brilliant as
with us ;-and the early settlers, al first en-
chanted by the exquisite apparltion, and then
bitterly grieved at the evanescent muckery.
would, suSely name it from their type of
whatever was most delusive, and call it the
Indian Summer-Winter masking as Sum
| mer-the fiercest foe as the truest friend,
1t was Daniel Webster, if I am not mstak-
en-, who gave an entirely different account Of
the origin of the name. According TO his
story, the settlers believed the haze and heat
that mark these days TO proceed from the
prairies which the Indians were accustomed
to burn at this season. The westerly winds
prevailed at the same time; and thus
the great map of smoke, and the fervor of
endless reaches Of fire, drfted over the plains
and forests, and enoculated with June, des-
pairing October. Perhaps the early settlers
may have believed this story but certainly
we, later ones need not give much heed to it.
For in other countries where there are no
Indians, and have been none within historical
knowledge, there is yet the same season, al
though known under other na mes. 1t is nev
er, however So beautiful nor Of so long dura
ton as our own Indian Summer
There is, certainly, no more poetic srraih
in all the seasons; an il seems, too TO have
its correspondence elsewhere, in the decay of
individua! and of natural life After acute
agony come often moments of serenity and
self-consciousness, when all the mental pow
ers are in perfect play, and mortal pains dis
appear. lt Is brief intervaI-the hne Of
clear sky between the cloud and the horlzon.
along which the sun b!azes for an instant, IL
limltabiy giorious--then SINKS forever. So,
too, after years of ruin, the sp.endors of I'm
perial Rome revived, for season, in Papal
PoDp. The elimination of the Roman Cath
olic rule in the world was the Indian Sum-
mer Of Rome of the scholar and Of history
but the decline from its second power to it's
present comparative imbecIlity was no less
sudden than the fall Of the year, from the
warm beginnings of November, to the sharp
frosts of mid winter.
The season, though, however splendid, is
necessarily sad for the pilgrim of the year
understands that these bright days are the
last green points of the pleasant Summer
al ong which he has been idly eoasting, and
that he must now stretch. straight away iuto
the barren winter. lie gazes wistfully at the
landscape; but it's crimson CLEAN is only tho
hectic OF disease. But over ALL like an at
mosphere of Sleep lies the dreamy haze
Nature, gazing upon the stripped fields and
the fallen leayeS-or hoa rinr tbo ora,L ,,f ,Lo.
wagon in the Afternoon, and the rustng OF
the corn husks as they pass, has fallen into
pleasant reveIie. We follow her and as we
gaze from the landscape in its spirit, and seem
to find in the aspect of the world a vague
sadness, harmonious with that which lies
deep in every heart. 1t is only mirage that
We behold-only. the shadowy reelection Of a
season, sunk behind US in Time, Yet, as we
gaze at the gittering phantom Of Summer
and recognize the form 50 familiar and fair,
what wonder that we believe that IT has not s
deserted US, and refuse to ALLOW that to-inor
Tow will he winter The air is fresh and We
rejoice but we mistake the frosty klndli ng
of age for the eager sympathy Of youth.
In my last descanted rather largely up
on the biting frosts and driving SHOWS of
wlnter,- being incIted thereto by frosty
morning and cold, cheerless day. 1t prov
ed to be only II" Squaw winter,nn and was
quickly superseded by the summer softness
which now touches the air, and the clouds.
which cluster in the west at sunset with ger-
geous atfinence that paints upon the sky the
splendor of the tropics. .......,
presume that many Of our Nicholson
friends have taken look into your sane
tum'' during the present week, and hope that
all who did go either brought you the brown,
elonga ted triangnla r-shaped grain whereof af
ter having passed through the miller's hopper
-buckwheat cakes are made in quantities
adeu,lata q to the wants az the winter ar thn !