The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1891-12-18
The coaaINo OF The noNsoon
HSw xts AvPes-..ss chasws. ths K.as
81 Katzrs In IadEa.

Hsw xts ApP~z-@.es chssxss the F4es
81 Nature IN India
Let me try" says an Indian cor
respondent TO give q pen picture OF
the end of an India summer and the
beginning OF the period when the
monsoon rains descend Day after
day the sun pours down whitening
heat the air Is sick With it. the ground
is as hard as iron and gapes in great
cracks as though Open-mOuthed.
pleading to the pitiless sky for a drop
81 water, the vide expanse OF country
that 3 few months past was green and
-besprinkled is brown. the grass
L. crisped with fierce heat and fall
ing 10 powder If rubbed; the trees.
mostly evergreens. are parched and
dusty, no breath OF air rustles
through. no leaf stirs- They resem-
BILE great toy trees with leaves OF
painted wood There Is no sound OF
life anywhere; the noisy green parrots
are silent and hide from the sun in the
heart OF the densest and leahest top.
You may. perhaps see q crow or
mynah sit solidarity on a bow. with
dropping wing and gaping Oeak- help
less in this great purgatOry of fire
The monsoon. the mOnsOon-Wil il
never Gomez you ask as you toss half
naked on your bed. worried by prickly
heat and insects which shall be name
less not the worst of which is the per
sistent blood-sucking mosquito Heat
apOplexy has perhaps FRUSTRATED one
or TWO of your friends and a second
in the open air unhelmeted would be
certain death. Will the monsoon
never Gomez
Every evening the sun drops down
in the west like a great ball of fire.
but leaves the heat behind him. Morn
ing dawns and the sun sets TO blowing
his heat furnace strong as ever. the
sky is once more n great dOmc OF bur
nished bra The monsoon at last
blows his warning trumpet and the
soughing OF the wind to the far-away
horizon calls you out from your bed to
the veranda
Hal here comes the monsoon
Away on the western horizon a great
black cloud wave surges up toward
the zenith. blotting out the FURNISHED
sky in its progress just as though you
poured ink slowly into a brass bowl
Behind this black wave and moving
with il is a great dense ebOn mass cut
every instant by forked lightning and
believing. deafening thunder The
quick darting adder tongues of flame
fash everywhere, search the believing
heavens throughout from top to bottom.
throughout the whole cloud PAGES
dome
Now for a second only for a sec
ond the auick-fashing lightning
ceases. and an inky blackness. the
blackness of Erebus, succeeds and
the thunder bellows as Englishman in
his sea-girt little isle never heard it
below. 1t is no distant rumble grs du-
ally growing nearer and eliminating
in a resembling crack overhead No;
around, about and just overhead the
internal din never ceases.
Inside your bungalow the first ad-
vancipg wind that heralded the mon
soon carried wi h it clouds of binding
dust which is now piled up an inch
high on table and chair and shelf
And still the war of the elements goes
on. You cannot hear your neighbours
voice, though he shout his utmost;
the birds affrighted shrek in the
thickets and the native servants huddle
themselves together in dark corners
for safety. The sky opens its food
gates and rain in torrents pours down
without intermission for eighty or
ninety hours on the parched earth
Splash! splash! on the rOOf-not in
showers. but in sheets. That is the
monsoon"