The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-11-02
NO INDIAN SUMMER.


Scientific Men Trying to Beat MortaIs
Out of Best Season of Year.
Erasmus Wilson. in P~ittsburg Gazette.
But here comes a savant, or something of
the sort. who tells US there is NO such thing
as Indian summer, that there never was
such a thing, and that there never will be.
This bold. bald statement is calculated to
jar those of us who nave been laboring un-
der the impression hat We had enjoyed
Indian summers every year for ever so
many years.
And yet it may be a misrepresentation and
nothing more, for he comedies there is a
peculiar atmospheric condition at this time
of the year. May it not be that our differ
ences are merely differences in names for
the same thing?
However, the fair thing will be to let him
say his say, for he is the official weather
observer at Cincinnati, and his name is
Bassler. He says:
There is no such thing as Indian summer
There is an atmospheric condition to which
the term is applied. but just what causes
it is not positively known. This fancied
season does not appear regularly every fall
as most people seem TO think, and when the
writer intends fixing a date by saying it
was in the glorious Indian summer what
ever he is describing could have occurred
in September or in December, or not at all,
as Ii is not necessary for the so-called In
dian summer conditions to arise at all. And
1t may happen that IL is Indian summer
here and not in the South.
The origin of the term is a matter of
uncertainty. There are various opinions,
the favorite being that it started among
the early settlers. 1t was the custom of the
Indians after the first cold snap to set fire
TO the prairie grass and forests, and the
hazy hue of the atmosphere was attributed
TO the smoke from these fires. Whatever
the origin, usually after the first cold
weather a period of calm, mild weather fol-
lows, and IL is thought the smoke and dust
particles. instead of passing off, are dis
tributed evenly through the atmosphere,
lending to 1t a hazy appearance. The first
rain clears Ii all away. The so-called sea-
son has not yet made its appearance in this
section, though il has in the Northwest,
where there have been SHOWS. Indian sum-
mer is another ground hog myth"
There may be no Indian summer on the
Rhine. nor lover the Rhine" but we have
them up here in the foothills, and in the
dales and wales for many miles round
about. We know we have them, because
We see and feel them, and no mistake.
Thank heaven! Even though they should
take away the name. rob the season of all
the romance with which il has been in
vested. and chuck it in along with COM
monplace fall-of-the-year, and call the mess
autumn-just plain autumn-they can't take
away the sky-tinted haze, the leafy carpet,
the hazelnuts and c~hestnuts, and walnuts,
and hickorynuts; nor the wild grapes.
fox grapes, chinkapins and persimmons.
No, sir, they can't do ft-never.
And what is more, and not to be forgotten,
We Will call 1t Indian summer till the cows
come home for good and all. The title fits
the occasion. and the occasion becomes the
title. In short there is a sense of eternal
fitness throughout the whole matter
that is Enthusiastically unmistakable.
Go and bang and batter something de-
structable, thou spirit iconoclastic, for you
40 A-lr a ff-14 -. -
despoil the rarest and most heartsome sea-
son the entire year-the farewell to sum-
mer. by the hills, and the mountains, the
dales and the wales. the leaves and flowers,
the birds and the Dummies. and all who have
loved IL, and who hope 10 hail il again and
oft. Can you blame the Indian If he should
have claimed IL as his good summer time?
Where is the man who wasn't once a
boy; and was there ever a boy of the coun-
try stripe who didn't look forward to In
dian summer more anxiously than to the
coming of the Four of July, Thanksgiving
or Christmas?
| + This delightful season is not limited to a
single day, rain or shine, but spreads over
a whole week or m~ore-maybe two or three.
1t is neither too hot nor too cold to either
work or play, but seems peculiarly adapted
to playing at gathering hickory nuts, hull
ing black walnuts. shocking hazelnuts and
scooping up cheStnuts.
At this particular season a properly con-
strreted country on boy y r rs not Tot. the xac Sweetest t;t
hands are stained to his wrists with walnut
bulls. and his mouth shows signs of his
having eaten a few goodies that had been
| picked out with juicy fingers.
And as though IL was not enough to have
blackened lips he stains his teeth with black
haws, for they, too, are ripe now and hang
ing in most tempting punches within easy
| reach, except some of the finer looking ones
perched on the very topmost branches.
Being still in his bare feet, and wearing
his old clothes, the boy doesn't care much
how high the hickorynuts. chestnuts. and
black haws hang, for climbing trees and
clubbing down nuts, or game. is right in
his line.
Don't you remember how mother used to
make you soak, and scrub, and scour yoUr
feet along in Indian summer time? You
know ii was largely a waste of good soap
and energy for you had been tramping over
walnut hulls, cider pummice, and crushed
fox grapes until nothing short of being
skinned would remove the black.
But he had to do IL, for mother could not
bear the thought of such looking feet being
tucked between clean sheets OF one OF her
beds. IL your feet happened TO be chapped-
in a handful of bran. or maybe a sprinkle OF
salt, or a dash of borax.
Did you have TO cut and shock corn
Well. that isn't boy work.. nohow, and yet
we had to carry our two rows. or maybe
cut a whole side. while one of the men went
ahead and tied horses to hitch the shock to.
And yet there was fun enough at the
husking bee and In regular boy work to
make the Indian summer time a sort OF
heavenly season TO the healthy, hearty,
stub and twist country boy.
Nor can he forget Ii. even In the midst
of the hurly-burly of the great city.