Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1868-03-04

A snow storm n shower Of Flowers.

II a great and active Association ior
the Diffusion Of Useful Ignorance were
in operation, it could hardly add to the
number of people who know little OF
nothing Of the wonderful constituents
of common things. Even the pictures
in water-color painted with our breath
on the window panes fail to awaken us
TO a perception Of the truth that Jack
Frost makes as many blossoms as be
mars ; and it is only when the common
place is made curious by some extraor-
binary agency, such as the microscope,
that we appreciate the wonders over
which modest Nature throws her veil Of
concealment.
Did pater famdlids, as he trudged
through the recent snow storm and
crushed its atoms under his double
soled boots, have the remotest idea that
he was walking in q shower OF flowers,
odorless and colorless, but still as truly
flowers as simple shape could make
them? As he put his foot down in
stern determination to make his way de-
spite stress of weather, did it become
manifest to his understanding that he
was very near realizing the wish OF the
Sybarate who sought to repose on roses;
that he was literally treading on bios
SONS? Did Master Junior, as with red
cheeks, and a nose rivaling their hue,
he shoyelled off the sidewalks in front
of the paternal premises, deem that he
was throwing into the street q perfect
Winter Garden Of ice-clad vegetation ?
Truly, he knew it not nor would the
knowledge have made him one whit the
less reckless in his shovelling, or less
eager in his work Of removal.
Were young Tite-Pants to rise in his
seat at the opera and hurl at the comely
countenance Of the Duchess dc Gerois-
tein q SNOWFALL as a substitute for u
boquet, that cool manifestation of en-
thusiasm would raise such a row that
speedy appearance Of policemen would
ensue, and Tite's removal in a rough
and rapid manner would be the calam-
itous consequence. Yet, in fact, micro
sc~opically manifested, that petriied
projectile is o boquet, handsome as any
for which tenor ever stopped, and per-
feet in all regards ave those we have
already exccpted-color and perfume.
Yet is the snow redolent Of an ele-
incentive may not say fragrance-not
cognizable to sense a v by a certain
SAVIOR Of freshness, yet an element truly
life-giving and benefcent to all nature,
animate and inorganic. Long ago, a
profound explorer Of nature declared it
to be pure oxygen and it was but the
other day that q high contemporary Sci
entific authority declared it to be the
highest and most potent form Of oxygen
ozone. Yes, viewed under the micro
scope, snow, whose fakes in our boyish
flights of fancy we were wont to call
feathers, is in truth flowers. Every
fake is not merely a blossom, but q bo-
quet-almost q nosegay but 1t makes
up for lack of smell by stimulating the
membranes Of the nostril to healthful
secretion, as we noted abeve in the in
stance of Master Junior, thus giving
proof of its identity with ozone in its
elementary constituents.
Snow is hardly less remarkable in
other characteristics. Cold itself, it is
the warmest clothing the ground can
have in Winter. II is not good to eat
nor to drink, unless melted outside Of
the mouth. For in its crude state it in-
creases thirst; melted previous to be-
ing drank, it is as refreshing a beverage
as rain or spring water.
This article has not been written
without a higher purpose than the state
ment of the facts contained, (which
every schoolboy ought to know" fit
shall servo to modify the manifestation
of wrath with which every adult cels-
brates the occurrence Of accidents Incl
dent to SNOWFALL, and, in fact, expressed
in that phrase-if 1t shall convince the
luckless one that he falls oI fowers-it
will do well. If it shall add to the JOY
with which every boy halls the oPpor-
tunity for snow-balling and shedding,
ignorant though he be that he peits
with punches Of blossoms, and guides
his sled on a tramway Of flowers, it Will
do better.-N. Y. Sun.