Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1877-09-06
No more Of Summer,

I'VE were thinking OF tipping our
hat to Summer and saying food
Bye in E seasonable Way to the dear
old girl, when we came across this in
/ the Post q, Nad, whIch is almost as
good as VIC could say ourself; so VIC
/ clip it There is some hope even for
/ Chicago, while it has soul that can
pour itself out as this one has done.
When one thinks Of Chicago, money,
blood, sel6shness, thieyings, the devil,
bursted savings banks. corrupt officials,
murders, and all sorts Of pollutons are
apt to rise up and vail the &c sthetic
and humanitarian in the great city !;
SO it does us go5d to rend the vail and
see something good even in Chicago.
According to the calender this is
the last day of Summer It is ninety
two days since We said good-by to May
and woke up the next morning in
new season. Nature has grown apo,
plectic since then The fields have
hardened with the bronze of growing
grain, or flashed with the emerald spots
Of luxurient vegetation. Fruits have
rounded to .shapely substance and been
flushed with the life-blood of tree and
bush. Birds have mated and reared
their chirruping families to beauty and
utility. The farmer has sturdily
tramped his acres and seen the earth
send up to rich fruition its million
spears tipped with food, and he has
been blessed with haryestS we'll won if
they serve as tribute to the country
and pay the debts of man to man.
The period has been a battle one
resonant with war in the East, angry
with a mob passion in this land, that
was no punny fame of wrath, but the
savage outburst Of savage men. Mob
rule and mob ruin have blotched with
blood and fame and smoke the fair re
cord of a magnificent Summer. The
teaching has been sad but the lesson
that has been is one that will not BE
forgotten for many a year It was
the reassertion Of the power of a Gov
eminent sneered at and jeered at until
men really believed it to be ouly a |
sham. Ninety days and See what his
tory has been made Go back over
the record and note what events have |
crowded into the little time, and mark
the sweryings ane complications Of ma
tionai and individual destinies. A
fat, a very fat, Summer goes out to-
night.
Tomorrow ought, according to pop.
ular sentiment, to witness Nature be
ginning to pack for the Winter. The
harvests must go to the granery The
birds must get ready for Southern re-
sorts. Half mourning in gorgeous
raiment for tree and shrub and vege-
tstlon must assume a dismal shrinkace
in sap and fibre, and old earth grow
brown rs a berry. Humanity with
rheumatic twinges will shiyer at the
thought of the blasts on the way to
their keyholes from the north and
the balance Of the world will begin to
put up storm-doors and rim their win
1ows with weather strips. The Sum
mer has been SO very hospitable in its
many ways that we hate to lose it.
Its heat has been endurAb!e, its cooI-
ness acceptable Pestilences have re
NAMED away, and the shadows of
death have not been more numerous
than the laws of mortality lead us to
expect. At midnight tonight the
oyster will be at our door, and the
feast Of shell-fsh will be inaugurated.
Summer is dying. Its funeral begins
tomorrow.