The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1929-05-10
MAY MEAN SPRING.
Crank Sullivan in the New Yor
World).

World.
May is one of our oldest months
and really makes the moment at
which we shake off our winter
lethargy. A fake, or phantom shak-
i ing off of this winter lethargy occurs
on the first of April, when practically
every one except few seasoned old
savantS kid themselves into believing
that spring has come.
Year after year people bite on this
old chestnut They never seem to-
learn. Of come the winter flannels
the moment the first of April puts in
an appearance. Then it starts to rain
or snow and all those who changed
contract coryza, pneumonia and simi-
lar ailments. The mortality among
these ShortSighted persons iSF quite
high. 1t is the prudent men and
women, those who, when people
blithely tell them that spring is here,
cynically reply, yeah, in the pigs
eye it is" that survive. This wedding
out of the less discerning members of
the race is called the survival of the
fittest On May first, however, it is
generally safe to assume that spring,
or something closely resembling it,
has really come.
L
great many quaint customs, many of
them surviving from pagan days.
Moving day is for instance probably
pagan custom. Nobody with any
Christian charity in him would ever
have invented an institution like that.
/ The same goes. for housekeeping.
In addition to the time-honored
May customs of moving day and
1 hoUn
first of this month, the festivities of
the May Pole, and the passing of the.
oyster.
The origin of the May Pole is not
quite clear One can understand that.
The early participants in May Pole
dancing were undoubtedly too dizzy
after an hour of dancing around a
May Pole to have any notion of why
they ever started doing it. And, fur
thermore, any one whose idea Of a
good time is to seize one end of a
long ribbon attached to a painted
pole in the center of circle, and
skip about the circle for an hour or so,
singing Hey Nonny Mol" would prob
badly be case of arrested develop
ment anyhow, and quite unable to ex-
plain this eccentric behavior.
| The May Pole, which reached its
height of popularity in England dur
ing the reign of Good Queen Bess,
was abolished by Gladstone in the
middle of the nineteenth century, out
of pique. Gladstone was stout, rheu-
matte and could not skip. Disraeli,
his foremost opponent in the political
arena of the time, was very good
skipper and much sought after at
May Pole parties. At the close of
these May Pole parties Disraei was
| often so dizzy that when he went home
he would see an entire row of Mrs.
Disraelis sitting in front of him. On
one occasion he was so disconnected
by this phenomenon that he fled in a
panic to Scotland Yard and gave him
self up for bigamy. This is why he
| was called Dizzy"
| Possibly we Americans should not
laugh at the institution of the May
Pole. After all, we have institutions
like hat check girls, near beer and
| the Times Square subway station.
| The May Day Riot is time hon.
| ored institution, also. 1t is a kind of
protest against housekeeping, first
organized in Syracuse, N. Y, in 1876,
by small but courageous band Of
/ husbands who did not want their
wives to clean house. Seven wives bit
the dust in the first May. Day Riot at
Syracuse. The custom found great
| favor among husbands throughout
the country and today there is scarce
ly a town throughout the length and
breadth of the land but has it's May
| Day Riot While it must be admitted
that most wives still continue to clean
house like mad, apparently unperturb-
ed by this great organized protest,
nevertheless one practical advantage
has accrued. Very few wives have
the temerity these days to demand
that their husbands beat carpets. The
husbands, early in the campaign, drew
the line at beating rugs, and since
necessity is the mother of invention,
the carpet sweeper soon made it's ap-
pearance, followed shortly by the
vacuum cleaner.
The passing of the oyster is viewed
with equanimity by most people. !
think speak for great many red
blooded Americans when say that,
so far as we are concerned, the oyster
could pass two months earlier than
May l, and would we care? I can
think of a lot better uses to put re-
| spectacle condiment like horse radish
than covering old, slithery oysters.
Pah! Ugh!