Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1893-02-09
For the Ellsworth American. f
Our Town.

ii Is fdCt, lamented here al times as
deplorable fact. that we have slipped into
the habit of being summer town II has
Crept upon us slowly-this hsbit-ss habits
generally do; but it is here We feel that
it has become, If not intensely, yet perma-
nently characteristic " US that we are
resort" but we cannot, in justice be
considered actively responsible for the con-
dition OF affairs. II all rests upon de-
cree issued by the geographical bureau Of
Providence that We should be situated up
on the Maine sea-coast, and every one
knows what the Maine sea coast Is coming
to.
Our climate and our scenery. Joined with
fashion and literature. are forming our
destiny. We scquiesce and for some
three months Of the twelve feel justified
and competent to rise and shne-mildlv,
very mildly as yet before the nation. But
there are other months in the year. nine
OF them, and here We are with all our
scenery and all our climate left upon our
hands, divorced from the literature and
fashion to which III summer gsrb they
Joined themselves with sedste and becom-
Ing wililngness-left-sn We cannot put
them upon the shelf They are not 40 &C
cpmmodating, so trsctable as to permit 1t.
They are with Us, they are Of US, they will
leave u neverm nre; emphatically the eli
mste.
J. III
streets in July, praisiDg the cool breezes
that refresh our heat-stricken summer
sojourners. do you ever in January think
what overgrown and bolsterous creatures
these same breezes have become; how
from the airy holiday playfulness OF their
summer time they have worked themselves
up through series of autumn gales to
stern, strong. self assertive maturity. able
t watt out Of the country with me breath
any triiing suggestion Of leniency' They,
indeed! What will you have of wind
that comes to you straight from its birth
place among the polar bears. over leagues
OF ice and snow, beaten by bare boughs Of
snivering, vengeful forests, stunned by
man and beast? Shall this creature be
mild and amiable? Shall he gently kiss
Iur cheek and wave your bang becoming
L. above your brow? Try him and see
And as for the lant where he has chosen
| to come and blow his horn We are not go
ing to claim even in growlful and frost
| bitten mood that our rain is wetter. our
snow in deeper, colder drifts. our ice more
| treacherously slippery, than are the rain,
snow and ice of other lands, but without
! cherishing In ourselves an undue amount
| of local brag, We feel able to righteously
claim that our winter climate gives US an
unapproachahle combination of all these
welded together and driven in by that pc
the human thermometer drop from ten to
twenty degrees lower than Fahrenhei. is
willing to admit every time
With all this, and our seasons when fog
and mud break in and struggle for suprem-
acy with the more orthodox winter ele-
ments. We feel that We have climate that
cannot be palliated or condoned. The only
way to get along comfortably with it is to
like 1t, and very many who cannot get
away from it claim to have achieved this
phenomenal mental attitude. 1t makes
them interesting, even more interesting
than the weather or the landscape.
This last, by the way, is really worth
having Do you know the beauty of the
winter world-you who shiver and run
away? Not that it's worth staying for
unless you are peculisr-and in an entirely
irrelevant aside, let me say, don't be pecu-
liar. It's a damaging quality. But you
are here; then look. Is there ever in sum.
mer such deep, intense blue of the ses
that stretches away from the white slope
at your feet to the far-off line where q
white sail is dipping out Of sight between
the upper and the under blue1 And wher
the sun goes down behind the Camden
hills and they are seen between the fam
ing splendor of the sky and the an
swering opal beauty of the waters, you are
glad to have looked that way, and-youI
feet are getting cold, so cold that yol
turn your back TO the celebration ant
hurry home.
That's the bother of it with nature il
her winter beauty. She is so frigidly In
trenched in her keep pyour-distance atti
tude that even when you most admire yo,
cannot love her. She makes US wonde
how one Of her professional admirers-sa!
the young man with the rubber blanket
would get along with her at this season o
the year. The young man with the rubbe
blanket was feature of our landscape on
summer. He was q super-enthusisstic de
votee of nature and-personal safety
Hence his peculiar manner Of peryadin
the slightly localities of the village and it
adjacent territory.
For the whole summer, as we recall
now, in whatever direction one walked, o
sailed, or rode, one might be REASONABLE
certain tnat the spectacle Of this short an
slim young man, sitting in the middle Of
, rubber blanket and gazing forth upon tn