The Russellville Democrat., 1884-04-10
Midwinter.

While it 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 st-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 say 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- fort 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. Midwin.er is1 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, tba beds are the warmest and hardest to abandon, and ruddy 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 it's different branches and relations are apt to be shy of the wintry aspect of things, un- less it be indoors, before a blazing fire and around a 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 aod their sympathies are in shiver. They do mot 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 there is consists in warmth that will continually germi- 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 inculcate a far diff ferent and deeper lesson. one tn at 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.
 Milwinter in the cities and towns may have more social sides to present, and many of then 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 unds- 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 ingsp What known life is there for man that thus furni 'hes him with such close and healthy companionship with Nature for one hall of the year. and such sweet and deep domestic delights for the other? The complaint of work and drudgery that attends it is one shat is heard in all modes of human fife and in all human avocations. Happy above other men is he whose life is thus passed wholly at home, on his own ground, among the trees of his own planting and trimming, with his herds and iiocks sheltered or pasturing around him, the blaze of the fire ght always visible 10 him in his home windows. and the smokes that suggest comfort and cheer and peace curling from the chimneys that are everin his sight. Massachusetts Plough'aan.