Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1906-10-24

Truly the procession of festal days
along the course of the year brlghtens
the flight of time. Many live in the
calendar of the ina ,ination like so
many guesthouses with brightly light
ed fires stationed along me highway
of life. Every returning cycle of the
year brings the fete once more, and
the dreamer looks forward to its
coming and turns backward to its
memories.
Between Michaelmas ana Martinmas
is rich in recollection5 OF the saints
st. Michael is the slayer OF the dragon
the knight sans peur ct sans re-
proche-as gallant as Galahad. as
ideal as Parsifai. St Michael ana
All Angelsa shining host of the
spirits of righteousness-rule he
upper air on the twenty-ninth day o.
September. a glorious festival in the
orchards, an hour of countless bless
ings. Michaelmas is the elimination
faith and nope should prevail.
October is ushers in st. Luke's
summer. with its days of "gossamer
weather" Memories of this patron
saint OF physicians fill the prayers of
the devout The skies above are
! blue, the air is balmy and soothing.
Surely this does not forebode the
death of the year--departiug summer
has no hint Of death--it has but en-,
tered into sleep and forgetting, ana
the sunshine reminds that there is
spring beyond the darkest days.
There is magic in autumn days
when purple Michaelmas daisies linger
along the waysides when the mists Of
early morning vanish from the still
atmosphere, and the scent of burning
leaves and dried herbs fills the nostrils
like incense from the altar, In the
afterglow of sunset, the wreaths of
smoke from many chimneys rise high
{ er and higher in ever-ascending col
umns as if pagan fires were blazing
n the wood and pagan deities were
being appeased.
! Those abroad in the fields in st.
Luke's summer are spellbound at the
curious phenomena of "gossamer
weather The early straggIer who
brushes with hasty feet the dew along
TO meet the sun upon The upland
lawn" finds his way lies through d
fairyland draped in ieweled tissues.
Gossamer weather returns with st.
Lnkes summer. The scribes Of the
middle ages. whose lives. it may be,
were closer to nature than are ours
today. loved to weave legend and
truth fiction and science, into their
chronicles They write that these
gossamer cobwebs are the remnants
c: the STROUD in which the Virgin
Mar made her joyous flight froln
earth to heaven. The mystic weav-
ings We're eagerly copied by the spir-
its of the air and the garments OF
fairyland came from the same looms.
Such. too. were the robes spun by
the fair Arachne, whom a jealous god.
dess changed TO a spider, and though
face and form were transformed, yet
the unhappy maid retained the gift
of spinning, and Arachne, the mother
of the spider world. has handed the
art down to a material age Of workers,
who have well-night forgotten the Wis
ion and the dream.
Gilbert White, that Incompatible
naturalist, was intent on field diver.
sions" a morning before day break al
this season of the year in f741, and
thus he writes:
when I came into the Enclosures. /
found the stubbles and clover
grounds matted all over with a thick
coat of cobwebs, in the meshes OF
which copious and heavy dew hung
so plentifully that the whole face of
the country seemed. as it were, Gov
cred over with two or three setting
nets, drawn the one over the other.
AT an appearance very unusual
began TO attract our attention, a show
er of cobwebs, falling from the very
elevated regions and continuing with
out any interruption until the close
Of the day
"These webs were not single blmy
threads, floating in the air in all direc-
tons, but perfect flakes or rags; some
were an inch broad and FIVE or six
feet long. which fell with a degree Of
velocity which showed that they were
! considerably heavier than the atmos-
! phere.'
Gilbert White forgets superstition
and looking farther discovers that
these tiny webs are the air ships Of
small spiders which swarm the fields
in autumn and have the power of
shooting out webs which render them
bouyant and lighter than air. Since
! that time special naturalists have
! s-~-------------------------