New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-10-01
Jobs He learns these lessons reluctantly but
he is learning them
OCTOBER.

| I'm each others laps so promlscI0usly that the
only forecast we can confidently make Is that
Tomorrow will be another kind OF day In
the long run a certain amount OF weather Is
worked in between the equinoxes, and uncon-
sclously we average this In our experience, ana
n cru lie conception is thus developed OF what
the ideal season may be like. But after all
n summer or a winter is almost certain to get
an unfair start or come to an untmely end, and
any month is likely to crowd itself into
part of the procession where it does not belong.
This wilfulness is more striking because
the eccentIcities of any one period nave no
apparent influence upon the demeanor OF the
next. A given spring may determine to DC
early or late, but its behavior will offer no pro-
phetic hint of how the summer or the autumn
will conduct itself. Six years ago the winter
did not begin in earnest till after New \ ears
and reckless prophets asserted that this Tore
bodied evils for the springtime We must have
sour annual allotment of cold" they SAID,
aand if il does not visit us In December IL
" will be freezing us when the blue6rds should
be singing" Nevertheless the winter paid
no heed to the prophets or their tine theories,
and barely furnished frost enough to hold the
flowers shut for sixty days. The dandellons
which unseasonably, if not unreasOnably,
gemmed the turf at Christmastide were open
again as bright as ever IN the last days of
February.
This particular year of grace set out with
brave show of forehanded energy, giving
us bright March weather with swelling maple
buds and willow catkins in mid-February. But
the effort seemed to be exhausting, aud March,
which was so forward in its appearing, kept
clustering about until late April, while from
that time on the belated season has not gained
single day upon the calendar The cattle
never found good bite of clover until long
fortnight after schedule time. June was
already here before the orchards were showed
under with apple bloom Harvest Jagged be-
hind as seedtime had done. The deadlicst OF
midsummer weather dealt its sunstrOkes IN
September, and now October finds the corn
hardly ripened. the woods still fresh and green
and not chestnut-bur cracked open by the
frost Throughout the entire season nothing
has been promptly Oh time except the potato
bug. the tent caterpillar and the Line storm.
But although the forest has not yet kndled
into crimson and exhales no odOr of decaying
leaves, the evidences that autumn is at hand
air, flavor of nuts and pippins. Those are
not the delicate tints of spring or the dazzling
colors of summer along the wayside. The
crowded clusters on tall woody stalks. that
fairly overtop the shrubbery or the wood
borders, the subdued splendOr OF purple and
gold spread over lowland and upland-these are
the banners carried by October in the floral
procession. And then the wind. There Is
no installing that minor music. 1t is the same
wind no doubt, that blows the year through,
but fresh pipes are opened and new strings
frightened every day in the great instrument
over and through which it sweeps. One who
should wake from a Rip Van Wrinkle sleep
could tell the season with his eyes shut II he
listened well. 1t is only in winter, when every
thing is stiff and dry, that the wind can howl
or whistle. In early spring, when every
branch that waves and vine that swings Is
mufed with soft LEAKAGE, gentler tune Is
played upon muted strings. Acres OF standing
corn tul-foiaged forests, dense growth on
every hand, offer new continuation or stops
through which summer breezes blow richer
harmonies. With autumn comes rpened
wood, hardening the fbres of every twig on
shrub and tree, holding aloft myriads of dry
seedpods on the stiflened stalks of herbaceous
plants, and .uning up the matured leaves to
sharp metallic vibrations. Upon these the
wind plays that wild music which always brings
the sentiment of pleasing melancholy.
No doubt the people doomed to live amid
unvarying tropical luxuriance are to be
commiserated Flowers which bloom the
year round become vulgarized. IT is con-
slant vicissitudo and surprise which in
vest every day with neverfailing charms.
We can never tire Of fragrance or
melody or prospect which is new every
morning and fresh every evening. The year
would be dull enough if it were all October, or
all June for that matter, but just now we are
prepared to hold that October is the most de-
lghtfu month of the whole dozen. Perhaps
when the Indian summer comes this positive
judgment will be open for revision.