The Republican journal., 1871-04-06
Farm. Garden, and Household,
Winter.

We may mourn the summers departure,
and sigh over the fallen leaves and faded
flowers, may shrink from the chilly blasts
aud biting frosts Of December, and long tor
more genial skies, and softer atmospheres :;
yet it is wise? Is it not true that winter
has its pleasures rs well as sorrows? Can
we gaze upon the beautiful forms it pre-
Sents to our view and not find Joy as well
as sorrow in its presence? 1 may often
subject Us to Inconvenience and deprive
US of privileges OF tie other seasons, but
only to give us privileges not found in them
and to keep rs from still worse evils.
DO we seek the beautiful in Winter? We
only have to turn our eyes to the delicate
penciugs on the panes, the work of that
lumitahle artist, Jack Frost, OF his crys-
tai teckings of twig ana bough of the for
est trees, We have only to examine the
delicate snowflake, or the solid purity of
the tinly ice-biock, or the pure white field
of driven snow resting down like benison
apon the dead, scre bosom of earth, hiding
the wrecks of Autumn's devastation We
have only to gaze upward at night into the
deep, clear, blue dome of the heavens stud
,leti with gems of unsurpaSsed brilliance,
standing out with pecuiiar lustrc and light
ness unknown in the hazy skies of Summer.
Then the snow drifts whirled up by the
wind into fantastic forms Of loneliness and
weird shapes. Like miniature mountains,
plateaus, and valleys, with deep ravincs
and abrupt ellis, scanned with assures and
channels like the more majestic mountains
Of rock and soil that ridge and variegate
the surface of the carth Long lines and
gentle slopes, with undulating swells of
less altitude and extent, all here mirrored
in truthful type and prominent 10 the eye
that seeks their beauties. over the wide
lelds we see imaged the oceans toamy sur
face, when the winds ircshen and the spir-
its are abroad for frolic or for fury Pitted
and wrinkled, waved, ,scolopcd, like sheet
Of water Suddenly turned to snow in its
ganbos
Winter brings it- wealth of snow and
ice; It covers our avenues of travel with
its smooth slippery covering over which
glides the!tleet team with its freight of light
happy, hearts, or the heavier burden of
produce of the bountcous harvest That
goes before the winters reign. In our
northern woods ring the voices and sounds
of the stalWart lumbermens axe aud his
operations go briskly on. From their ma
tive place Of growth, the huge pines and
other timber trees are cut and hauled to
some near lake or stream, and departed up
on its frozen bosom to lie till the melting
SHOWS shall swell its volume, and the mild
breathngS of Spring shall dissolve its icy
tettcrS, and then away with rush and foam,
careering ever onward bearing its wealth
of entrusted ra fits Of logs, it speeds to the
river to swell its bulk and mlngle with
other kindred currents, on the way to their
future home in the oceans depths.
On the sheeted, CLASSY, surface of river
and lake. long lines Of icc-cutters may be
seen securing the frozen treasures, that
winter spreads with liberal hands free as
the air above. The rreAhing machinery
lifts the huge blocks from their beds and
upon the slcds that wait to draw them to
the packing houses to await future useful
ness, when Summer with its heats shall
render these doubly 4 blessing. What Wis
iou7 ot GOODNESS lie ia these clear, pure,
nmps Of solid crystal ice. X.