Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1892-01-15
WAITING FOR THE MONSOON.
A Period of Dreary Suspense in India
and the Joy That Follows.


A Period of Dreary Suspense in India
and the Joy That Follows.
Day after day the sun pours down wither-
ing heat, the air is sick with it, the ground
| is hard as iron and gapes in great cracks,
as though open mouthed, pleading to the
pitiless sky for 4 drop of water; the wide
expanse of country that a few months past
was green and flower besprinkled is brown,
the grass crisped with fierce heat and fall
ing to powder if rubbed; the trees, mostly
evergreens, are parched and dusty; no
breath of air rustles through, no leaf stirs.
They resemble 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 leafiest top.
You may, perhaps. see crow or a mynah
sit solidarity on bough, with dropping
wing and gaping beak, helpless in this
great purgatory of fire. "The monsoon,
the moonson-will it never Gomez" you ask
as you toss half naked on your bed, worried
by prickly heat and insects which shall be
nameless, not the worst of which is the
persistent, blood sucking mosquito Heat
apoplexy has, perhaps, Frustrated one or
two of your friends, and a second in the
open dlF uuuelIutUeu WOQIus- Do SuuUou
death. "Will the monsoon never comer'
Every evening the sun drops down in the
west like great ball of fire, but leaves the
heat behind him. One evening you notice
with great joy two or three black clouds
climb up the east to take a peep at his de-
scendng majesty They are the advance
guard, you think, of the monsoon, and it
will surely rain before morning. Morning
dawns and the sun sets to blowing his heat
furnace strong as ever; the sky is once
more great dome of FURNISHED brass. The
monsoon at last blows the warning trum-
pet, and the soughing Of his wind to the
far away horizon calls you out from your
bed to the veranda. Nature holds her
breath; great calm, strange hush-the
hush of expectancy-fills earth and air.
Hal here comes the monsoon. Away on
the western horizon a great black cloud
wave surges up toward the zenith, blot
ting out the FURNISHED sky in it's progress,
just as though you poured ink slowly into
brass bowl. Behind this black wave and
moving with it is a great, dense ebon mass,
cut every instant by forked lightning and
believing, deafening thunder. The quick
darting adder tongues of flame flash every
where, search the believing heavens
throughout from top to bottom, through
out the whole cloud packed dome.
Now for a second, only for a second, the
quick, flashing lightning ceases, and an
inky blackness, the blackness of Erebus,
succeeds, and the thunder bellows as Eng
lishman in his seagirt little isle never
heard it below. 1t is no distant rumble,
gradually rolling nearer and eliminating
in resounding crack overhead. No;
around about and just overhead the in
fernal din never ceases.
The bellied clouds are pregnant with
thunder, and the fame forks, flashing hither
and thither, pierce their wombs and loose
the thunder from it's prison. 1t reminds
one of Michael and the celestial host war
ring with Lucifer and his legions 1t is ter
rible.
Inside your bungalow the first advancing
wind that heraled the monsoon carried with
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 ele
ments goes on. You cannot hear your
neighbours voice, though he about his ut
most; 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 inter
mission for eighty or ninety hours on the !
parched earth. Splash! Splash! on the roof
not in showers, but in sheets. This is the |
monsoon.
And when it has passed what trans
formation it has effected! The arid plain |
is one great lake, through which rise in
Vulnerable trees of glossy green, and crowd |
ing their leafy cathedrals, flocks of parrots |
and mynahs chatter their thanks to God |
for the welcome rain. The great lake.soon |
disappears, absorbed by the thirsty earth, |
and reveals far and fair expanse of YER
dure beautiful beyond words in its dazzling |
grcenery, and sprinkled with flowers that |
have shot up in a night, earth's embodied |
hymn of praise to the Creator for the bless |
ing of the monsoon.-London Hawk.
Shoe Buckles. |
The manufacture of buckles contributed |
largely to the employment of WARWICK |
shire and Staffordshire ingenuity during |
the last century. In ISL all gentlemen of |
tone sported on their shoes a large square |
buckle plated with silver, and as the ladies |
soon adopted the reigning taste, sit was |
difficult" as Hutton, the historian of Bir- |
mngham, remarks, ''to discover their beau
tiful little feet covered with an enormous
shield of buckle, and men wondered to see
the active motion under the massive load" |
The massive load soon after this became |
unsupportable for both sexes Strings |
came into fashion, and consequently |
large class of ingenious artisans were COM
PEELED to suffer the loss of their usual en- |
ployment
In 1871 deputation of master buckle /
makers from the towns of Birmingham, |
Walsall and Northampton obtained an
audience of the Prince of Wales (afterward !
George IV) at Carlton House, where they
presented a petition setting forth the dis |
tressed situation of thousands who had
been engaged in the different departments
of buckle making, consequent upon the |
fashion which was then prevalent Of wear
ing strings. The prince promised not only |
to wear buckles on his own shoes, but to
order the members of his household to do |
the same. But the commands of royalty |
ware nupatOrv when onn0spd IN Sho mon