Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1879-02-07
OUR CALIFORNIA LETTER


ANbA TN JIM. ~, 1919
FRtESD TlNNoSs Having become
accustomed to Cal. climate and scenery,
they have become rather commonplace to
seem interesting, yet Mt this time, when
according to eastern exchanges you are
having deep SHOWS and intense cold wealth
er, picture Of our climate will receive
deeper shades 10y contrast. A look at the
snowy Sierras, dazzling like silver in the
sunbeams carries my mind back to former
days, when ] used to hurry forth at the
dawning, across the fields and woods,
through newly fallen snow, on the soft
white bosom OF which no impression had
yet been made but some playful eddies by
the wind with his acoliun minstrelsy mar.
shalling the storm. Yes, used to hurry
forth to save my own nose and feet from
freezing, and to warm up the school room
to receive the many luck less little peles-
trians, who, like myself were doomed to
beat their own pathway through life and
who were apt to be there early with car.
mine ears and noses and feet that ratified
like sticks of stove wood. But, although
| can see snow in abundance whenever the
clouds lift, we have no snow here, nothing
colder than some slight frosts, forming ice
on water pools to the thickness of quar-
ter Of an inch. But those frosty mornings
are mostly followed by bright day, so
that by nine IN the morning it would be
warm and pleasant. The chilIest wealth
er we have here is when it is rainy and
the damp sea breezes prevail. My school
room is only ceiled with boards, and three
large window lights have been ont all win
ter, and yet we have kept comfortable for
over FIVE months, with less than two cords
of sixteen inch wood, and in the one hum
dred and five days that / rode from my
home TO school and back, distance of four
miles, have only twice found it necessary
to protec: myself against rain. Up to last
week we did not have rain sufficient to start
vegetation, but within the last week we
have had several splendid showers, which
have moistened the ground nicely, and
under the influence OF the warm sunshine
between the showers, the grain fields have
put on color and the faces of The Ranch
ers," $50 long distort,d by looking at the
distant cl0uds) have frightened no less
: than their fields. The rain has brought
down the snow from the lower mountain
sides, and the mighty Sacramento and its
tributaries are gushing nearly to overflow
ing with debris-laden wafer, which tells
us that miners as we'll as farmers are hope
full of the good time coming. The trees
are bare, but the buds are swelling, and
the birds make The morning joyous with
their songs. l miss many of our warblers
of Ohio, and even the birds we have seem
TO lack melody. | think n few weeks of
intense cold weather are necessary to make
even the feathered tribes appreciate n
bright morning. Ween the "Ualcyondays"
(as Mary Clemmer would cal! them, last
all the year, they becon4 monotonous
alike to man as well as the bright little
minstrels, the birds.
Jan. 2Ist was Chinese New Years, and
with the Gong and the Tom Tom they did
Ring out the old, ring in the new"
But unless Tennyson had been TO a China
new year Boomerang" he hardly felt the
full force of the quotation. When the
hour of the advent OF the Chineses New
Year approaches, every laundry and Chi.
nese headquarters in Marysville seemed
suddenly to be converted into blacksmith
, cry or tinshop. Every old tin boiler or
salmon can, or indeed anything that would
ring when beaten by stove.leg or mon
key wrench was made an instrument in
this Asiatic troutadour band, and what,
with thousands Of snch,ike instruments
and the tootings OF bagpipes in the upper
part of buildings) was wanting to make
the noises collide, was made up by showers
OF fire crackers, until the air became sui
phurons to the nostri and the whole
. earth trembled with the discordant volca-
. no OF oriental symphonies. think Kearn-
ey himself doubted for moment the eff
cHcy of English poetry, or modern civil.
cation. Al we'll. S, ii, Il.