Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1884-02-15
Midwinter.

While it cannot be said that people
are in any special hurry to get through
their lives, il is more true than other
wise that they are eager to get through
the winters. In the fierce frost-bitinp
and wind-.Htting weather of January,
they are ready to forget the scOrching
heats of July and the s.eaming atmos-
pheres of August, and t. 50 they are
willing and eager to make the welcome
exchange. And in the same way they
will say in midsummer that they would
gladly exchange their present discom-
tort for the congealing air of January.
SO little do we know of what we enjoy
in the passing. or of what is the best for
us in the averages of our current expe.
rience. Midwinter is IN the heart and
core of the season; the time when, in
well appointed country homes, the fires
on the hearth snap and roar the loud
est. the frost on the morning panes looks
most picturesque, the beds are the
warmest and hardest to abandon. and
ruudJ cheeks and sparkling eyes attest
healthy circulation in the veins and
dancing spirits in the brain.
Those writers who are addicted to
handling this subject in its different
branches and relations are apt to be
shy OF the wintry aspect of things, un-
less 1T be indoors, before a blazing fire
and around u smoking table. They do
not seem as yet to have conceived any
particular grade of sentiment for win
ter scenes and the silent life that goes
on under the white coverlid of this sea-
son. Their fancy is chilled and their
sympathies are in a SILVER. They do
not stop TO discover what beauty there
is on field, wood and pasture, but run to
cover and thrust their hands into the
hre as If all the life there is consists in a
warmth that will continually GERM
nate, and stew. and boil. But the habit
ual livers in the country know better
than this, and without being aware Of
what they are doing inculca.e far diff
terent and a deeper lesson. one that is
all the more truly poetical for being
nrst practical. The man who keeps up
his wintered stock in the stalls. his
poultry IN their houses, and his family
IN comfort and happiness, knows much
more OF the richness and tenderness of
the domestic associations during these
silent months of winter than ANYBODY
can possibly tell him.
Midwinter in the cities and towns NAV
have more social sides to present. and
many of them of irresistible attrac,.
iveness; but it does not possess the
purity, the ,unstained whiteness the
still current, the deep and permanent
sentiments that attach 20 the domestic
life in the country. This is the season
when the man of acres is in the undis-
puted enjoyment of his annual term M
leisure. Is there anything in any other
mode of life TO compare in this mar.
ncular with his long and serene mid.
days, and his cheerful and restful even
ings? What known life is there for
man that thus furnishes him with such
close and healthy companionship with
Nature for one half of the wear. and
such sweet and deep domestic deliqbts
Tor the other? The complaint of work
and drpdgery that attends it is one that
Is heard in all modes of human life and
In al human svocatious. Happy above
other men Is he whose life is thus passed
wholly at home, on his own ground
among the trees of his own plantino
and trimming, with his herds and fiocEs
sheltered or pasturing around him.
the blaze of the freight always visible.
10 him In his home windows, and the
smokes that suggest comfort and cheer
ana peace curling from the chimnevs
tnatare everi In his sight Massachusetts
Pl0nGhman.