Seattle daily post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, W.T. [Wash.]) 1881-1888, 1883-08-03
AUGUST.

August, nOtWithstandlnC It's rODu8t
name, is sort of fabby, watering place
month. It is fy-time, it is dog-days
time. it is Irritation time. 1t is period
of general listlessness and indecisiOn.
II Is said to be very difficult in August
to either accept him or reject him. And,
worse still, il is apt to be the latter part
of the month before he makes up his
mind to propose. IRdeed, to speak of
making MP the mind az all in August is
nearly absurd, for there is no mind to
make up. Nature and people-if the
expression may be permitted-feel
seedy. Inland it is muggy, on the sea-
coast il is foggy. In the cities all the
taste has gone out of life; even in the
hills everybody 10 languid, and disposed
70 lounge on piazzas and watch things
simmer. The world, like the garden,
owns itself played out. The days are
growing short again, and it might be
expected that the heat of July would
abate, but the heat continues, although
1t Ii not the clear sun heat of the lusty
growing season, but a sort of oven heat
steaning up from the earth. 1t ia the
month to get away from every
thing, even from ones self.
Even the churches slow down.
Yet there are good things about Aug
ust. The schools are shut mp, the ever
lasting process Of education is eased of
and chance is given for the mind to
stretch itself and grow little naturally.
People forget that the mind needs these
periods Of semi-doze in which to ripen.
We understand all about the convolu-
tions and the gray matter Of the brain,
and know Just where the memory cells
are. and where lie the coils of magma
ton and ideality, can put our finger on
the spot that, IL excited, makes q man
willing to pay his debts, and on the spot
where Ell sts the impulse to forgive our
debtors il our creditors will forgive us;
but no one can tell how il is that If q
thought is dropped into the brain
oyer night, and left to simmer there,
UNDECIDED, it will be found, when again
called mp, to have blossomed into SER
mon, or an essay, or a magazine paper
worth ten dollars q page. l know a
clergyman who Ia obliged to set his SER
mon over night in this way, exactly like
batch Of bread, or IL will not rise in
the morning. The little idea seems to
b yeast, and that furnished, the brain
will go on unoonsciouslv, and work out
the rest itself. The trouble with good
many sermons and essays is that they
have no yeast in them. Perhaps Aug
ust, which seems % stupid, is the yeast
month Of tho year, and perhaps this Is
the reason that % many authors ind
September the most fruitful month Of
the year.
August is also lawyers vacation, and
their clients have q rest, and an opPor-
tunity to settle up their differences in an
amicable way. When the lawyers quit
the ship IL Ia sign that everybody else
ought TO go-to be of TO the Rockies. to
the North woods, to Norway, to the
rocks beside the sounding sea, II there
10 by that time rock anywhere ON eur
Thousands Of miles of coast that has not
Q young lady sitting on il, with p0rasol,
and novel in her hand, and . still
more interesting work of nature and art
at her feet, talking TO her languidly
about friendship, and how you can know
II two people are suited to each other,
don't You know. Il Ia the harvest
month Of the novelist. for then If ever
ono wants novel-t0 put In the pocket
In the woods, or to carry down to the
beach, or 10 leave lying round with the
split zephyr. People will bay nov
els in August, II they can not
borrow them. and IL they are in
cheap editions. 1t IL nice holi-
day, August, Just because It has no
vitality In IL. Pity il can not be more
Of holiday 10 more people. For the
shops ought 10 shut, and the banks, and
the life-iusurance meu ought TO 90 Of
into the wilderness with the lightning
rod men, and the oanvasser ought TO
cease from canvassing, and the weary
BE- ct rest. Il would be good thing il
the politicians would clam-bake and
barbecue, and make no speeches; they
wouldn't make any IL the speeches were
not reported. Il might be q good thing
II all the newspapers would suspend.
Then the world would have nothing to
talk about, and perhaps would repose-
fully grow in grace and sanity.-Har-
per's Magazine.