Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1875-04-30

During the past somewhat severe winter
season, our fellow. citizens on the other
side of the continent have talked very COM
placently about their delicious climate.
When man is short of money, II is ag-
gravating to have his neighbours wealth
shaken in bis face and il is irritating, in
the midst of an Arctic winter, to read Cal
ifornia newspapers which prattle sweclly
of balmy airs from orange groves, flower
beds crowded with bloom, aud that tout
door bliss of Paradise" which some norid
writers declare TO be found only in the
Golden State. But the California summer
all the year round, which we should sup
pose might in time he bore, seems to
have been interrupted by frost aud snow.
There really is no good reason why cll-
mate which is naturally mild should I've
forever boosted about, as if il were q Won
derful phenomenon, that could never lose
interest. Perhaps our cxasperaling and
clamorous sons ofthe Pacific may find their
sympathies for less favored people chilled
by their own frosts. on the 9th of April
we read that ice formed at Los Angeles, to
the great damage of the grape crop. AT
Tulare, also, in the lower part of the State,
the roofs were white with snow, and in
Vsalia the frost was severe. In the vicin-
ity of several Of the valley towns in the
central part of the State, the cold was in
tense, and vegetation was cut down. In
Marysville, for example, in the great Val
ley OF the s ,cramento, the young fruit was
covered with sleet and ice, and much de-
struction was expected TO follow. Consd-
ering that all 1his was in region which
we have heen led to consider an American
Garden of the Hesperides, the reports must
strike us with something of chill. If the
spirit of the man who died at Port Yuma
sent back for his blankets, what must he
the feelings of the average Californian who
wakes from his dream of straw berries all
the year round to find his roof white with
snow?
This remarkable experience only proves
how very exceptional the past season has
been. 1t is pretty well settled that the
whole world has had what may be rea-
lively called hard winter. The oldest in
habitant, wherever he may be found, has
never known anything like it. We have
heard from Southern Europe, Western
Asia, Northern Africa, Australasia, and
sundry islands of the seas, notably those of
| the Equatorial Pacific, and all tell the same
| story. We are certainly not alone in our
| discomfort. In fact we are not such great
sufferers as some who have higher win
ter temperature than ours. 1t is colder for
the inhabitant Of the land of the fig and the
vine with the thermometer at thirty-two
| degrees, than it is for the New Yorker with
the mercury at zero. We have no infor-
nation from the shores of the Red Sea, nor
from Timbuctoo; but we have no doubt
that even in those regions the heat has been
less torrid than usual, to the great incon-
venience of the people, who economically
| wear no clothes worth mentioning. And
| when Boston has ten inches of snow in the
middle of April, we need not wonder that
same quantity on the 9th of the month
But any twitting from our trans continen.
tai neighbors is manifestly improper. The
observing gentlemen who write about the
earth as modified by human action have
a new class of phenomena TO investigate
We know how fertile fields have become
sterile wastes, streams have changed theii
courses or disappeared, in consequence OF
mans destructive labors. Perhaps some
philosopher may be able to tell us why the
globe is practically belted with one long
winter.-N. Y. Times.