The Portland daily press., 1865-10-11
The Real Use of October.

Most of our contemporaries, with varying
degrees of elegance and enthusiasm, have sung
the praises of October. There is no danger OF
OVERRIDING the Iaudation of the royal month.
They have not wasted their rhetoric who have
expended it upon its splendid skies and glow
| ing sunsets; or upon the widespread beauty
| of the foliage, the glory OF the painted ave-
nues through which we drive. the eolored
arches underneath which we walk the scarlet
| crests of lodges, the burning bushes by the
wayside, the tongues of fame in the lowiands,
the gorgeous richness of the hillsides, all the
pomps Of the forest, all the mysteries of the
purple distance, all the softness that the air
lends to the enchanting colors; or upon the
fruits of the full year, the golden orchards, the
empurpled vintage: or the elastic air, dreamy
and delicious, yet full of electric vitality. and
with spur and spring in it. as''f
All this is true; the best pens cannot over
color it, and the poets have been at the task
thousand years. Yet the real glory and crown
ing use of October is not limited at tits the
month of marriage. Not more surely do Ju-
ly, August and kindly September mature and
ripen the apple, the pear and the yellow corn
in the ear, than they hasten to completion
the matrimonial coquetries of the season.
People will marry at all times, such are the
necessities OF life; and grapes can be ripened
under glass in February, but they naturally
points the way, it is not singular that weddings
crowd this golden month.
Ii summer were to last forever, now, the co..
quetry and wooing might go on indefinitely,
with no reminder that soft nights and moon
lights would have an end But the colored
leaves and a warning frost, perhaps only the
certainty they will come, mature the plans
and wishes of the idle summer, and the maiden
that said She never would consent, consents,
\
This is the legitimate result of the summer
season, and, we take il, that genial summer
months have as much to do with the crop of
marriages in October as with the crop of corn
and wine. We are discussing the subject
from statistical and not a sentimental point
of view. There are bad seasons Ior all crops:
last summer was propitious one for most
TO be sure there are many who have been
vigilant at the seaside, daring and dashing on
the mountains, and who have yielded them
selves to all the romance and sentiment of
some charming country place, who say that
the summer is past and the harvest is ended,
and they are singularly saved. But how many
thousands there are, the columns of the news
papers tell, who have found out the true use
and meaning of October. ~ awu =
Z Ii they have not it is not natures fault.
which always urges to this conclusion. In
deed, all nature is in league with the, lover,
ana consplres TO heip him. Everybody takes
his part, itmay also be said, and rejoices in his
success. They who outwit the prudent guar
dians and elope always have the sympathy of
the discriminating public. Like farmers who
always erumble at their harvestS we who have
a. habit of "dineing OUT against matrimony,
yet are always delighted with a wedding If
there are dozen IN a week in the town we
are al conscious of some new beauty on earth.
We are speaking statistically now, and not SEN
timentally. When the woedbine is scarlet on
the church tower, and the high bell rings a
wedding chime to the blue October sky, we
count those who go in at the church doorand
come out single nevermore, with the certainty
that our theory is correct. Marriage is the
Der is the Wedding Month"; Hartford Press.