Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1899-12-17
SUNDAY. DEG. II, 1909.
Winter at Hand.

w lnlST al AdltNs
Winter has been duly installed, and
the new administration has begun, and
all are looking forward with interest
to the policy which will be pursued
during tenure of office. The weather
wise are busy with their prognostica-
tlOns as to its course and character.
But we will know more about 1t in
three months time than we do now.
have often during the many interven-
ing years had occasion to recall lit
tie Incident of my boyhood days when
my teacher was the embodiment of all
wisdom, and cne Friday, at the close
OF school, the question was eagerly
asked him by one OF group Of boys,
as it going to snow tomorrow well
YOU ccme around tomorrow afternoon,
and I'll tell you," sair he. With all
the advance of science in meteorology
and atmospheric conditions we still
find that we know more about wealth
er the day after than we did the day
before. But winter is winter. We
shall need about as many tons of coal
and gallons of oil for fuel and light,
and as many heavy ffannels and as
warm pvercoats and furs, as in prev
ious seasons We will consume the
average quantity of buckwheat and
pork, and might as we'll plan to do the
usual quantity of banking up out of
doors and calking in doors whether we
can determine the amount of snowfall
or estimate the ice harvest or not.
We should net suffer the coal bin or
the wood pile to run below the guage,
lest some blizzard execute a sudden
raid, block the track and highways,
create famine and turn our firesides
into miniature Arctic huts. And SO, as
we pass on into the uncertainties of
experience in the season whose thresh-
hold according to calendar, we have
just crossed, it is we'll to take all con-
dltions and contingencies into consid-
GRAFTON and look winter squarely in
the face and prepare for the worst
and for the best as we'll.
The poetic and idealistic fancy
which makes winter appear in antipo-
dal relations to summer and represents
it as the symbol of gloom and desola-
tion, is scientifically and philosophi
cally false. Winter and summer are
correlative, not contrasting. The win
TER campaign is carried ON as actively
and vigorously and effectively as the
summer. Secretion is as important as
fruiton, and the enc is the essential
complement Of the ether. In the win
ter the stored forces are assimilated
and arranged for distribution in plant
life. In the winter the soil is rested
and refreshed by the action of frost
and snow. Great work goes on in the
winter season below the surface of the
ground and in the roots and hearts of
trees, and up in that great laboratory,
the atmosphere where the winds and
snow and mighty storms arrange "the
balancing of the clouds" and adjust the
ground equilibrium.
Our northern climate is a grand in
stlbution despite those who in their
unwisdom and peltulency grumble at it.
These variations and alterations,
some people say, are so trying. OF
course they are, and why net? What
Is there worth having and worth be-
ing that is not tried? We need to be
tried. Strength GENES from antagon-
ism, not from calm acquleSence and
torpid submission. 1t is this that
gives vigor and endurance in mind and
body. 1t takes the grit, as well as the
oil, to give hard wood its best polish,
and human nature needs sandpaper
tco.
After all, like many other conditions
and experiences in life, winter is very
much what we make it. A ncte due,
with no funds to meet 1t, Is a disagree
able contingency, while It is a simple
and rather pleasant affair when one
can walk boldly up to the desk and
take it up There is glcry in a Con
quered winter" and in our climate we
have been educated up to the standards
of preparation, and Aeolus has no
breezes in his cave which can assault
or intfmidate us in our snugged up
intrenchments. Thus we face the pos
sibilitTes of new experiences on this
line in the season now opening before
us. Just what this will be we do not
know. 1t is not likely any more than
its predecessors to prove a Christmas
card winter, for we have found our
winters no more POLITICALLY ideal than
our springs. There will be some ty-
pical days of sparkle and Jingle, and
there will be some of mud and mist
New York Tribune.
Strange if True.