Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1889-11-01
AUTUMN ON CAMAs PRAIRIE.
1t is not the Most Melancholy
Season OF the Year.


cts, but as rule there is more
prose than poetry in the make
up of the average agriculturist,
and the poet and the farmer
often entertain different views
of the same thing.
One of Americas greatest
poets has sung of these Au-
1umn days as
"The saddest of the year."
but then he never had lived on
our beautiful prairie, where
the calm mild days he speaks
ofas exceptional to the season,
are with us the rule nearly
down to Christmas. There is
little that is sad and melan-
.choly about Autumn on Camas
prairie. No other season i'm
parts to the atmosphere so
much of inspiring quality (the
ozone of philosophers which,
with each breath we draw in
health, diffuses an energy and
vigor to our physical natures,
and a buoyancy and hopeful
ness to our spirits that, com
bined with a reasonably clear
conscience, gives as much of
earthly happiness as Divine
providence ever intended us to
enjoy in mortality. We seem
to plant our feet more firmly
upon the earth, and inexpress-
ible gratitude warns the heart
and irradiates the countenance
rs we thank God for q mere
existence in a world so beauti-
ful and fair.
At this season Camas prai-
RE is as green as growing grass
can make it, and the loneliness
of the picture is enhanced by
the squares of golden stnbble
and by the varying colors of
the decaying foliage of the fruit
and shade trees, with q large
proportion of the unchanging
dark green of the mountain
pine for an appropriate back
ground, which, as we write, is
crowned with the first white
herald of approaching winter.
The harvest, or what there was
of it, is garnered, and although
it was not a bounteous one, it
should not inspire sadness.
Unlike the poet the farmer
does not weep for "the death
Of the flowers" for to him it is
the birth Of the golden grain
and the development of the
DEMONSTRATING and money-pro-
ducing vegetable, and the ex-
acting labors of the year are
beginning to relax their tyran-
meal grip,and that which talks
OF death to a few tender and
highly sensitive natures, sug-
gests to the hardy husband
man the thoughts of a near
and well-earned rest.
Indeed, to farmers prac-
tical and experienced eye there
is little of actual death in ma
ture. Winter itself is but
season of comparative rest, not
only for him but for his init
mate and cver-present COM
panion-Nature. Even the
mantle of snow that covers her
still face, TO a farmers imagi-
nation, not a shroud that wraps
the dead, but IL pure white
sheet that covers the sleeping,
and which reviving and rested
nature will throw off in the
spring as lightly as the young
housewife throws from her re-
i'reshed limbs the coverlet of
her bed, when she arises TO
the labors Of another day.
The poet also tells us that
this season is peculiarly sug-
gestive of thoughts of our
loved ones who have persisted
from earth as the flowers with
er in garden, field and forest
when touched by the cold
breath of the first frost-laden
breeze Of Autumn; but the
farmers experience in the won
drous operations of nature
makes easy to his mind the
inspiring conception of "a re-