New-York tribune., 1872-12-10
WnRnS ~ SEASON

As December wears apacc signs OF winter
multiply on every hand The present cold
snap. which is our sharpest warning OF the
death of the year. extends from Dakota to the
Indian Territory, eastward, and from New
England to Maryland. Last night the air bit
shrewdly; the sky was clear and frosty the
sidewalks cleaned with stray splashes of sud
denly formed ice; the streets were wind
swept and early deserted; the benumbed
drivers Of omnibuscs, street-cars ard belated
wagons smote their hands rs they struggled up
AGAINST the gale For this is Winter-time.
" Low temperatures and high pressures," says
the weather-wise Chief MeteorolOgist OF the
War Department. It is the season when deli
cate frost-work CLEANS on the window
pane; when drifts of snow eddy up the
doorsteps and on the outside balconies ;
when ice-hoes drift in river and harbor; when
the unwary pedestrian falls and does not
stand on slippery places. 1t is the season OF
Christmas and NewYear of balls, parties,
and social cheer by blazing firesides or under
the glare of wax-lights and gas-burners. Now
are sown the seeds of those tender plants
that will blossom into bridals when Spring
and pairing time shall come again. With the
snowfall and the party-going, in city and in
country, mingle thoughts Of homo and do
mesticity; the artificial cheer which the soli-
tary bachelor found in the fleeting outdoor
life of our short Summer is gone with the pic
mic. the regatta, the seaside lettering and the
mountain climbing of q dead season. Both
men and maidens turn indoors to seek new
Joys and new suggestions for another phase
of life. The husking-bees and rustic. quilting
parties in hamlets grouped amid snowy, ghostly
wastes and fir-clad hills as well as the more
brilliant gayeties of the city, are the wintry
blossoms which come and 60 with the revolv-
ing year. They deck the same dear old story
of loving and wooing everywhere; in velvet
OF in Calico in broadcloth or homespun, at
the German or the apple-paring bee-human
nature is pretty much of muchneSs" after
all.
AS thoughtful consideration runs down the
social scale to the miserably pOor-the poor
whom we have always with us-we must
shiver for the hOuseless, the homeless and the
freless. The great city is full of those to
whom Winter comes with real terrOrs. As the
low temperature and high pressure spread out,
fan-like, from the Rocky Mountains to the At
idLtlCt lutoo pour uCSpoldJblJ
of the price of coal, the thinness Of their looped
and windowed clothing and the hungry
wolf prowls in city lanes and alleys. To
these is due something more than shiver of
sympathy and a sentimental "God help the
"poor" when the thick curtains are drawn and
the evening lamp is lighted in happy homes
of contented ease. In city, more than in
country, there is q great woe when iccles
Chang by the wall, and Dick the shepherd
"blows his nailn Not forgetting these, we
must think, too, as the hard season draws upon
us. of the stQrp-tost sailor, whose dangers
and whose suiferings have given name to rocky
cape and headland from Norman's Woe to
Dead Mans Bay. The lee shore, the icy rig
ging, the wintry blast and the binding snow
are the sailors welcome on our
coast when landsmen nurse their
petty cares by glowing tiresides, forgetful of
the dark perils which haunt the rim of the
outer world.
1t is the pleasant fancy of one of our plilo-
sophical thinkers that in the twilight of the
race men thought out the doctrine of immor-
tality by observing tho decay and revival of
nature; that as they saw the flowers, herbs,
aud grasses. fade and die in Autumn, take on
the pail of Winter, and grow again in tho
Spring, they said. So there must come to Man
q spring time, return 10 Lite aud warmth.