The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-12-27
WHEN COMES TnEIyDIAssUMMEH.
Sometime Between Michaeimss am
 Chrisimas, Perhaps.

among those who are wise in weather
 lore as to the exact time when Indian
 summer makes It's appearance; some
 weather prophets declaring that 1t in-
 cludes every warm day between Mi
 ehaelmas day. the 2sth of September. and Christmas. while others locate it
 in the month of October. Indeed. the opinions of scientists do not agree any
 better than those of ordinary individ- uals. but seem to be as hazy as the sea- son itself.
 After looking up much scientific data on the subject. and making a consen- sus Of popular opinion, the fact seems established that this phenomenon of seasons really belongs to the month of November although the signal service notes say that if Indian summer does not come in October or November, 1t will come in winter. as if it were a sort of movable season. Neither do scien- tists agree as to the cause of that hazy atmosphere which accompanies the season. q condition peculiar to North America. It was attributed by early settlers in this country to the smoke from prairie fires kindled by the Indi- ans-hence the name, Indian sum- mer." But 1t Is now said by scientific investigators that the appearance of smoke Is an optical illusion produced by a peculiar condition of the air, which might be compared to dry fog. sentimentalists declare that 1t Is this | dreamy haze which gives It's great charm to this short, delightful season, when the whole world of nature ap- pears like beautiful dream. It Is the fifth season, the mellow ripeness of au- tumn, when creation stands still in lazy, languorous mood, and the picture Is vanishing and indistinct like one of Corot's landscapes. It Is the golden sunset of the year, brief and evanes- cent.
 Like a mirage. the Indian summer does not wait to be investigated. It Is here-it is gone-before the would-be investigator was aware of its presence. It Is such a restful, happy period, that people are content to enjoy 1t without asking questions, yet there is much in its phenomena that is worth the most careful scientific investigation. It has been suggested that the dreamy haze which accompanies the season is com- posed of animal life of such a minute form as to be incapable of microscopic examination, but of such innumerable quantities that they obscure the at- mosphere and redden the sun. It is also charged to vegetable matter; but these are mere theories which have not yet been proven. So far, no unhealth- full influences have been evoked nor any fashionable malady produced to shake our confidence in the chance season, which, for aught we know, may be a celestial estray, giving us foretaste of a more delightful climate.
 Another token by which this genial Indian summer makes itself known i9 the absolute silence of nature herselft as if she were taking a vacation from winds that blow and clouds that shade. There is such 8 stiffness in the air from sunrise to sunset that sound itself seems to have gone asleep. But there is no loneliness in the silence, it is only as If everything were resting, bathed in the happy sunshine. The flowers are gone, the singing birds have flown to their southern climes, the leaves have dropped from the trees when the Indian summer comes trailing her white veil to cover the desolation, and filling all hearts with the tranquility of her gracious presence. There Is a tonic in the airsshe brings which chemists cannot bottle nor charge commercial rates for-whiffs of summers that have been, contracted into a few days, and gone before we can analyze them to say, this is balsam, or that is balm." It is a draught for the gods.
 The subject of Indian summer was investigated as long ago as 1885, when Dr. Lyman Foot of the United States army in his report says that the Indi-, ans gave the season its name by call ing it their fall summer" which oc- cured in November. The doctor was stationed at Fort Winnebago, Missouri territory, at the time, and wrote from observation. He says:
 We arrived at this post the third day of last November. We had three weeks of Indian summer, with all the peculiar redness of the sky in great perfection" He adds that he had long observed the season with curious atteu- tion and calls for an expression of opinion on the subject from other ob- servers.
 Professor Willet advanced the theo- ry in report made to the government in 1867 that the dry fog is real smoke, not produced by prairie fires, but the product of chimneys. The late Profess sor Henry, of the Smithsonian Institu- tion, reported that a portion of the haze filtered, was found to contain the lava of volcanoes and fragments of burned vegetables. Neither of these distinguished scientists added any, thing to the literature of our Indian summer; so. when doctors disagree it is not expected that ordinary observers will be able to formulate any tena ble theory of it's cause. The next best thing is to enjoy its opportunities, leay- ing its origin to the unknown source whence 1t is derived. p
 New England is especially favored by this after-summer guest. In that land of rocks and rills the stiffness of the occasion .is more delicious the haze more poetic. and the winds more lam guorous in their passive acquiescence in this meditattye mood of jpature. Emerson must have written of this pe- riod: gsS
 Twas one of the charmed days
 K When the genius of God doth flow, i The wind may alter twenty ways,