Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1884-02-14
MidWinter.

While 1t cannot be SAID that people
are in any special hurry to get through
their lives, it is more true than other
wise that they are eager to get through
the winters. In the fierce frost biting
and wind-cutting weather of January,
they are ready to forget the scorching
heats of July and the steaming atmos-
pheres of August, and to sa, 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. Midw. nter 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. tie frost on the morning panes looks
most picturesque, the beds are the
warmest and hardest to abandon, and
rudy 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, I'M
less it be indoors, before blazing fire
and around = 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 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
fire as If all the life the e is consists i'm q
warmth that VIII 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 a~e doing inculca:e far diff
ferent and deeper lesson, one that is
all the more truly poetical for being
first 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.
Midw;nter in the cities and towns may
have more social sides to present, and
MANY of them of irresistible attract
iveness; but it does not possess the
purity, the unstained whiteness, the
still current. the deep and permanent
sentiments that attach to 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 of
leisure. Is there anything in any other
mode of life TO compare in this par
ticular with his long and serene mid
days, and his cheerful and restful even
mgs? What known life is there for
man that thus furnishes him with such
81 Sc and healthy companionship with
Nature for one half OF the year, and
such sweet and deep domestic delights
for the other? The compla mt of work
and drudgery that attends it is one that
is heard in all modes of human life and
in all human avocations. Happy above
other men is he whose life is thus passed
wholly at home, OF his own ground,
among the trees of his own planting
and trimming, with his herds and tiocks
sheltered or pasturing around him.
the blaze of the fire Il ght always visible
TO him in his home windows, and the
smokes that suggest comfort and cheer
and peace curling from the chimneys
that are ever in his sight.-Massachusetts
Ptoughn,Gn.