Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-12-04
IOWA NEWSPAPERS.
THINGS OUT OF SEASON.
[Washington Press.l

In this latitude, it would not seem
quite right, would it? to have two OF
three crops, say, of strawberries a
year. There is a strict relation be-
tween diet and climate The Esqui-
| maux crave blubber and other pure
fats, and eat candles like celery; q
dottentot or any equatorial man s
gorge would rise at such stuff
We are keen set, as they say of saws
in the spring, and relish bitey, acid
things, -sarsaparilla, horse radish,
rhubarb, currants, cherries, straw
| berries, but we get over that taste in
hot weather and seek cooling dishes.
Things come along just right to match
our mood. Apples, peaches, pears,
plums, grapes seem good only in their
season. Refrigerate them, and eat
them out of season, we have not the
same zest for them
In the fall, again, we crave things
that have a tang, but it's a different
tang we want. Wintergreen and hard
cider and things of that like Just suit
us.
Change the climate on a man. plant
him in Cuba or southern California,
and perhaps he could stand and enjoy
as many crops of strawberries as the
farmers cut of alfalfa. For they say in
Florida, New Orleans and California
that they like to see oranges on the
trees all winter, and they never tire of
seeing roses blooming most of the
year.
1t is sort of relief to have the birds
go south in the fall. They have gone
silent, and have lost half of their
charm and yirtue-let them go for
few months: We'll be all the gladder to
greet them in March and April.
We also get a little tired of butter
flies, the prettiest things God ever
made, yes, prettier even than flowers,
for they are animate flowers, flowers
that can move about. On Thanksgiv-
ing day we looked thro' two books in
which all the varieties OF butterflies in
this country are reproduced, hand
painted, their colors exactly duplicat-
ed. Their painted wings are the
petals of flowers, just as ETHEREAL and
delicate and dainty and exquisite. If
butterflies exhaled odors. bees would
be deceived and alight on them to Sc
cure nectar. But these mimic butter
flies were out of season, and did not
please like the real creature zig
tagging in the air in summer. Their
peculiar flight is not affectation. They
can't help going that queer gait. 1t is
structural They can steer themselves
to degree, but their devious course is
not the result of choice or of whim.
They are geared to go in that crazy
way, to battle their enemies, the birds.
A bird rarely catches butterfly.
We guess it's about right to have
only one crop of anything a year. We
get variety and avoid sameness and
staleness. We go thru cycle of veg
etables, fruits, flowers, butterflies,
birds, etc, as the earth's orbit cuts the
consultations in the zodiac. If the
circle of the starry heavens did not
seem to move and change, we'd get
sick of the sky. We get tired of any
thing that sticks and stays. Take our
muddy. rough roads-if we could put
them on panoramic rollers, and set
them a-going on the principle of the
moving pavements in Paris, how fine
that would be! All we'd have to do
would be, to get on, and be carried
thru the landscape on this moving
apron. A rigid, stationary road in
Iowa, in bad weather, is a nuisance.