Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-01-18
These Cold, Cold Days

Did any one say that Boreas had laid
aside his ambition to overcome the
earth? Well there was a struggle be-
tween the king of the north and the
snow sprites. Such a time as they had!
And to this day l can't say that either
was the vanquished one. l know that
old Sol refused to be umpire. He HID
his face. entirely shut himself out OF
the combat and left Dame Nature tc
turn the account to good or i'll for
Mother Earth Just as she sees fit- Moth
err Earth's children were caught De-
tween the supper and neither millstoneS.
the winds whipped them, the snow
blinded them. The thermometer in the
hall had been rather ambitious Tor
day or so, had promised all sorts OF
climbing antics and it had such
drop that one could almost hear it hi
with the dull thud" the novelists so
often write up.
There has been cold weather enough
it seemed to this one Floridian. This
adopted country shouldn't be so lavish
with the white trimming and the
freezes, they would be more appreciated
if thinly, very thinly, scattered in cool
ing breezes and balmy zephyrs through
summers reign; it's shame to pile al
his associates.
This farm and its inhabitants had
just about recovered from the prosaic
duties of hog-killing and the festivities
of Christmas. A New Year resolution
TO finish up the loose ends that 1917
had left was progressing when this last
visitation made il necessary to see that
the creatures we stand i'll place of
Providence to were protected.
L say that two or three winters in
succession with the mercury actually
trying to get out of the lower end of
the thermometer might teach the farm
ers to provide winter conveniences, but
the general plan now is to shoulder the
ak and go to the we'll and chop the ice
out of the trough so as to make room
for fresh water. There is an old saying
that the eye of the master fattens the
stock. 1 heard a man say when telling
of his own and some neighbors' losses.
I'VE can't carry all we possess in our
pockets" There have been little pigs,
old hens and dozens of eggs frozen this
winter. Just now I've a basket of baby
chicks that I've had to mother. AS the
weather grew more intense the problem
of keeping them from freezing after the
room began to cool was up to me. Once
in Atlanta 1 had twenty-six incubator
chicks delivered in freezing weather, and
it under them, but this time said hot
water bag had gone astray and seven
long cold miles stretched between this
farm and a drug store selling anything
of the kind.
Finally [ thought of a substitute. L
heated an iron and put it in the basket
with them. Carefully wrapping the
homely thing 1 made it into the very
thing for the babies to snuggle against.
7 TOD vnTFf
under a hen and 1 put them in the same
basket. / had put fifty in the incubator
a few days ago, and that has been an
other problem. Zero weather does not
agree with cheap incubators, and mine is
nothing extra, l never use one when L
can help it, not that l object to the
chicks they turn out, I've had a great.
many, but 1 do object to the three weeks
constant supervision. have had as
MANY as a dozen hens acting in that ca
racity at one time, the hens are often
Eighty, they break eggs and get on the
wrong nests, but they have life and do
not need the sort of attention that
keeps one indoors.
BUSY Bee kept dozens and dozens OF
eggs from freezing last winter by
packing them on her feather bed and
piling quilts on them. Both OF our teath-
er beds were occupied this year ana
I've wondered if it would have succeed
ed if the opportunity had presented it.
self
Sister wrote me that even in her
Florida home there has been frozen
eggs. Her. children had never seen any,
and the next day as two of them were
playing ladies'" she heard them dis
cussing the weather, and the little five
year-old said, Yes, ma-am. it has been
very cold-why it was so cold that one
of our hens laid a frozen egg" There
have been at least three eggs, some
times more, every day this month, and
they have had to be brought right in
the house or they would have been frog
en-. l shudder to think of the canned
fruit and vegetables that this freeze
will spoil-they may be fit to eat, but
after a can freezes there is a change
that alters the flavor.
Have any of you had a visit from
Germany's secret agent, the one pos
ing as a member of the food commits
sion and demanding your canned goods?
There are such creatures abroad in
the land, and if such should come to
your community be sure to notify your
sheriff. 1 did not know that they were