Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1886-11-27
NOVEMBER SADNESS.

~ HAS MOI Deen long since we
chatted with our readers upon the
beauties of spring and summer, but
almost unawares autumn has taken
the year upon his shoulders, and is
bearing him in his parti-colored
jacket toward the ice pits of winter.
The soft advance of Indian summer,
with its harvest moons, round and
red, and its sunsets deep-dyed with
blood and gold, is stealing smokily
across the horizon and witching us
to a last smile of warmth and to a
farewell summer joyousness. In
spite of the royal flush of natures
beauty in November, there is a sad
side to its enjoyment. The sadness
arises from the knowledge that the
next step after this full calm beauty
is decay. The sadness is not because
of November at all, but because of
the suggestion. It's symbol; it
calls to memory similar relations of
human life, in approaching age
When we are young, the way before
us is so long, we are so full of vitali-
ty, over flowing life, that in some
way growing old and dying seems a
matter belonging to others, not our
selves-one is well enough satisfied
with middle life in itself, one is at
rest, at peace with ones self and the
world but one is aware all the same
that it is the first step in old age
And although we may love the fall
months, the naples redness, the
elms' gold-and great is the splen-
dor-but the aohite frost follows
We are apt to number our lives by
summers. $50 many summers have
passed over my head" we say, and
1t is not only the middle aged and
old that feel the November sadness.
l have heard bright young girls-a
type of perfect nature themselves
a face with perfect oval outline, a
full curve of the red lips, lustrous
eye and ripping sunny hair, and
usually bright as the falling sun
shine, exclaim: "Oh! how sad
feel. How the weather saddens me.
There is something in the weather
that seems prophetic,-a feeling that
l cannot escape" 1t is an evidence
of how directly we are related to ma
ture; that we more or less sympa.
thize with the weather, and take on
the color Of the day.
It's now and then the happy for
tune of a human being to be so rich.
ly endowed with all those qualities
which kindle the enthusiasm and
eonduce to the joy of his kind that
even the weather and atmospheric
changes can not touch their sun
shiny natures. A lady asked Sidney
Smith to recommend remedy for
low spirits. He said: "Always have
a cheerful, bright fire, a kettle SIM
merlng on the hob, and a paper of
sugar plums on the mantel,piece.n
We often get some of the best
touches of nature from children
Childhood is world by itself, and
we listen to the children when they
frankly speak out Oft with strange
interest; there is such freedom
from responsibility and worldly wis.
DON'T is heavenly wisdom. They
can never understand why grandma
does not appreciate the falling snow
or delight in Santa Claus and the
Winter King, as they do; they long
for the time when the apple. bins
may make ready, the cider vats foam
with juice, and the nuts fall. There
is more mirth than melancholy to be
found in this season with it's faint
perfume of sweet and mild decay to
them, and perhaps it is unwise to
borrow sorrow and trouble. and it
would be better to take life and the
years as we find them, and remem-
Der if the mellow season does pres
age death, it is the death followed
by the resurrection.
MRS. A. E. HENTON.