The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1919-02-04
SNOW STILL A PUZZLE.
ALL THAT SCIENTISTS KNOW
ABOUT 1T is VERY LITTLE.
SEQ. F. Barba in Columbus, O., Dispatch.

n.
You know as much about snow as ANYBODY
else on earth-which is to say nothing at
all. You know that it is white, that it is eth
| er granular-composed of little round
grains-or fiaky If it is fiaky you know that
| each flake is a slx-pointed crystal formation
at least you ought to know it, for it is a
fact. But why is it white, why is it always
six-pointed, why it was made to come in
winter instead of summer-nobody knows
that, except that it is part of Natures way,
and therefore is the right way
| You can go to the library and get books
that have been written about the snow You
can see magniied pictures of it. You can
read where the scientists tell you about how
1T is formed in the clouds-and all of that
And when you have read everything that
has been written about it and have seen all
the pictures of the various kinds of snow
flakes, and have spent hours with the scient-
lists, you know what everyone knows and
nothing more. You know that it is a won
derful arrangement of Nature.
The snowfakes seem to form themselves
out of the moisture of the clouds. At first
there is tiny formation, maybe no bigger
than the point of pin-but six-pointed. A
number of these tiny six-pointed stars stick
together and make another six-pointed af-
fair, and they jab into another of their kind
and become a big snowflake, and fall to the
earth, and the whole thing is six-pointed
They are always forming high in the heav-
ems and starting toward the earth. But in
the summer the air of the earth is so warm
they melt and fall in rain drops; in the win
ter, when the air at the level of the earth
is cool, instead of having rain we have snow
Snow forms in the clouds everywhere in
the world. But in the tropics, where it is
always warm at the surface of the earth
they do not reach the ground. But if there
is a mountain in the tropics the top of it
will be covered with snow, because away
up there it is cool. 1t would snow at the
equator just as it does in the arctic regions
II 1t were not warmer at the surface of the
earth at the equator than it is in the arc
tics
Now that winter is upon US, and the SHOWS
are due, study the flakes; get out of doors
and allow them to alight upon your sleeves
They are beauties-six-pointe beauties: no
two alike, but all of them six-pointed. When
the big fellows fall you do not need a glass,
you can study them with the naked eye
And when the snow comes in drifts and
swirls about the face of the earth, and drifts
into every nook and Granny, look at it. Be-
hold not an enemy, but a friend See how
nature has woven a blanket for her little
children. Comprehend, if you can, the in
definite patience that so devised it that these
little particles should fall silently until they
formed great sheet to cover the region
wavy, warpy garment of purity to- shut
out the north wind, the biting tongue that
would lap up the tender, growing plants of
the earth. There is no more wonderful thing
than the snOw-and no more kindlier thing;
nor anything more universal over the face
of the earth. Despise not the snow, nor
complain about it; let it kiss your cheek in
affection. 1t is all right