Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-09-12
Equinox in Fiction.

Equinox in Fiction.
TT is wasted breath to try to convince
q people who do not want to believe
it that the equinox is not the time OF
Q regular storm, falling in the middle
Of September or soon thereafter, and
also in the middle of March. People,
indeed, become quite incensed II you
doubt their word on this point. 1t is
like speaking slightingly OF Christmas
or the Fourth Of July.
The middle days Of September have
no longer storm record than any other
time of year. When a storm does fall
on the equinox, and 1t often does,
people say, ST told you So" and THAT
proves it." But If the days go by,
serene and blue and balrny, the storms
are somehow not mentioned that year,
or the champions of the cyclones pick
on the next storm that does come and
say, TITS late this year"
All very well II you Ike but could
never see why the real meaning OF
equinox was not poetic and majestic
enough for anybody, without the melo-
drama and buster of storms. "a
The equinox is that moment In the
course of the earth's rotation when
day and night are of equal length. AS
every school child knows, this old mud
ball Of ours has three motions, a rota-
ton on its axis, giving us night ana
day, a circular course around the sun,
giving us our year, and q motion on
its axis which brings the North Pole
into continuous sunlight in Summer,
into continuous darkness in Winter.
Theoretically, there is one instant OF
time when this, our habitation, gives
equal length of night and day through
out all the world Even the very next
night the equality Is not, theoretically,
lee r%G
fine shades of time, which only an
astronomer would measure, are imma-
terial; for q week or more We have
days and nights Of approximately IL
If we could stand upon the moon,
these things would all be thrilling ano
visible. with the aid Of a good tele'
scope we silould see the earth so plainly
that no doubt even the colors OF the sea
and the .jungles and the SHOWS at the
Poles and on the Himalayas ana ANDES
would be visible. We should see the
great sphere of earth standing, at the
time of equinox, erect upon its axis, OF
apparently so, the shadow Of night rush.
ing forward as the earth turned, q
straight vertical line everywhere all over
the globe. And If there were any storms
they, too, would be visible as moving
wells Of cloud crossed the sea and the
land.
BIuejay Habits.
Books tell me that Master Bluejay
that bold, masked bandit of the orchard
ways, Is not a Summer resident in the
District Of Columbia. I have sometimes
thought that caught my betters in an
error on this point, that I heard his
rafting cry, like a boy with one of
those Internal razzle-dazzle toys, IN
July and August. Perhaps am wrong
though, and I must admit that / hear
more of him in April and May than al
any time, except for brief while IN
Autumn.
Now, on occasion, above all in orchard
country, you may catch half-an-earful
of his war-cry, only broken fragment
Of his bold Summer note, and rarer still
Is his Springtime call note, that sounds
like somebody jingling little bits of iron
a sweet, wild, liquid song that may be
a mating call, but to me merely ex-
presses that the bird is happy in the sun
and wind and his own life unburdeneo
by any conscience.
When you do hear this snatch of song
IN Autumn, as the bluejay fits through
our countryside on his Southwark way
1t brings back Springtime to the mind
as only bird notes and odors can do.
Strange, this resemblance of Spring
to Autumn. The resemblance find lie
in odors of earth and grass, in balmy
weather and soft skies and showers, in
the ache of the body to escape from
work and take exercise in country
places. While Summer and Winter have
nothing but differences between them
the resemblances of Spring and Autumn