New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-10-12
WOuAN AND AUTUMN LEAVES.

The idea is advanced by scientists that as the
education of the human race becomes more
thorough and general, and all that goes to make
nm higher civilization more universal. In
stinct crows TO be less and less factor in the
canse Of human actions, until, in q highly Gull
tivated man or woman, it at last practically, in
the words of a distinguished investigator, whose
name has unfortunately escaped our memory,
drops into innocuous desuetude" But the
human race has hardly reached this point as yet,
certainly not as race, whatever given lndl-
vdual members Of it may have accomplished
The feminine portion Of the race may, we think,
be safely said to be especially far from having
wholly outgrown instinct; and this view Of the
matter is suggested by an apparently uncontrol-
able impulse which invariably moves it at this
season Of the year, to wit: the desire to gather
autumn leaves and press them in the family
Bible.
From October until December the experienced
visiting clergyman who has occasion TO refer to
the family Bible does with great caution,
opening the volume with it level on his knees
and with either hand ready to catch an out
pouring of yellow and scarlet maple leaves
Much experience hath made him wary. During
October and November no other man, save the
visiting pastor, has the hardihood to open the
sacred volume at ALL IL is Stunned by the male
members Of the family the same the current
fashion paper or the cookbook and is visited Dy
the feminine portion Of the household only to in
sert more red leaves.
woman gathers autumn leaves as Falstaf
knew the true prince, on instinct This is
proved by the fact that she can give no reason
for making the collection. She attempts to
palliate her actions in an undecided sort of way
by dcscantng on their beauty, and most men
will admit that they are beautiful-on the tree
and as she bears them away dark hints are heard
that she will make something" with them but
the eve Of man hath never beheld this some thing.
They go into the large Bible, and there slumber
till they gradually disappear. 1t is the ash-man
who gathers them in the end. Some times colo
MES are established in Shakespeare" and the
unabridged dictionary, but their fate Is the same.
While they last find books on fancy work
and home adornment' about the house open at
fhe CHAPTER on autumn leaves as If the fair
collectors really had an intention of making the
threatened something" but nothing comes of
it; read the chapters and you will find that the
author does not even claim that anything was ever
made of autumn leaves. She guardedly says
that such-and-such things can be made from them,
but she does not say that they ever have been.
In the end the ash-man gathers his own.
The autumn leaf season is coming in, and the
feminine mind is in Autter. Leaves alone will
calm her. These she will have, for if she has
returned from the country and cannot convent
emily reach it again, she will fly to the parks.
To her warning signs do not barrier make nor
mark policeman n hindrance when the irresistf
BILE impulse TO gather autumn leaves drives her
on: she will return with portfolio filled to
OVERLOOKING. But the paths of autumn leaves
lead only to the ash-man.
Yet after all we cannot see any possible OBJ
lection to the gathering of autumn leaves lheir
number is imtless, and it is pleasant pastlme'
We have not written To discourage the practice
in any way, but purely in scientific spirit to
show how an instinct will move half the human
race at certain season Of the year to strip the
trees of their foliage and put it TO press between
the pages OF the bullkicr of the house hold tones
II every family is provided. as it should be, with
n smaller Bible for use during the autumn-leaf
neriod. not O word can be urged against the