Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1890-05-04
CUSTOMS OF MAY.
New England Clings with Curious Tenacity
to some Old Ones.
Yomh's Competition.


New England clings with curious tenac-
itv 10 ancient customs. In some country
districts on May Day thereis holiday at the
schools. there are Mav-tlower parties, there
is a general feeling that we all ought TO be
very gay and cheerful: for is it not tine
merry month of Mayo The actual day Is
apt to be chilly and forbidding; often there
are intimations of snow in the air; some
tsmes a merciless rain slants across the
brown Iields. But it is May Day, and we
must live up to its poetic reputation;
The Pilgrims and Puritans brought with
them from the land of their birth sweet
and fond reccOllections Of the May tnat
their defendants find only in the Engush
poets; the May of the nightingale and prim-
rose, the skylark and the blooming MAC,
the woods filled with "a thousand blended
notes" and the fields clad in emerald. We
havn not this May Wordsworth's lines
descriptive of a day in March are two
months too early for large part OF the
United States;
1T is the first mild day of March;
Each minute Sweeter than before:
The redbreaSt sings from the tall larch
That stands before our door.
There is a blessing in the air,
Which seems sense OF JOY 10 yleld
To the bare trees and mountains bare,
And grass in the green field
Then come. my sister. come. pray
With speed put on your woodland dress
And bring no book for this one day;
Wen give to idleness.
in this strain would be inclined to put the
date about June 10. and even then, II he
An American poet who should invite SIS
ter were a prudent poet, he would ike TO add
the particular year in which he issued the
W. l...I Non. in
which did not afford us a single hour that
could have suggested such lines to the
toughest and most sanguine Of poets.
In England. the May which follows the
March and April of Wordsworth is a month
of singular delight to young and old, be-
cause it is the month Of natural flowers so
abundant there. Milton sings of:
The lowery May who from her green lap
throws
The yellow cowslp and the pale primrose
English children do not have to wade in
wet woods and dig with numb fingers for
May-fOwers. Flowers abound on every
side On May Day the holiday seekers
come home after sunset, laden with lilacs
and primroses, often lettering on the wayto
listen TO the loveliest note that ever comes
from the throat of a bird
AT that calm hour so still. so pale.
Awakes the lonely nightingale;
And from a hermitage OF shade
Fills with her voice the forest glade.
The deep, gurgling note of the nightin-
gale is heard frequently in the May even
ings. Americans who reach England afew
weeks later are often disappointed in not
hearing the nightingale's song. But En-
glish children hear it as they return home
ward on May Day from long ramble in
in the fields.
90 10 low naf
awoke the poetic feeling of a little English
Girl eight years old named Felicia Dorothea
Browne who afterward became Mrs.
Hemans. This was her first attempt TO
write in verse. and it was addressed TO her
mother on her birthday:
Glad in all their brightest green,
This day the verdant fields are seen;
The tunefu birds begin their lay
To celebrate thy natal day
THE sea is still, the sky is calm,
And the whole scene combines to charm;
The flowers revive this charming May,
Because il is thy natal day
The sky is blue. the day serene,
And only pleasure now is seen.
The rose. the pink. the tulip gay.
Combine to bless thy natal day
These simple lines describe a May Day
very different from any that our Northern
States are likely TO see. III they are favor
ed with the sight of a rose blooming in the
open air by the tenth of June, we count our
selves fortunate. Mr.. Lowell in well
known passage Of the Biglow paper warns
little city gals not to be taken in by what
foreign poets say or sing Of this month, and
not TO 90 into the country on May Day and
dance their Threats sore in mOrOcker
Shoes
"Often, indeed, when we have seen the
blue-lipped children trying so hard to be
merry on May Day, in temperature 20
degrees below Old point Comfort, we have
felt strongly inclined to move an adjourn
ment to the first Of June, and we now make
the motion accordingly