The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1936-01-30
RANDOM REMARKS
Bad Weather Helpful
By J. A. HALL. in the DeKalb New Era

sunshine as it falls unhindered on the
bare winter landscape after weeks
of rain, ice and lowering skies. In the
midst of glowering winter, we long
for even the smallest suggestion of
spring. We quickly forget. We for
get that, as race, we owe much to the
fog and the cold, cutting winds of re-
gions which were anything but invit-
ing as place to live. Those regions
which have been blest by the most
inviting soil and climate have not pro-
duced the highest and most enduring
types of civilization. If they had, such
placid isles as Tahiti and Ceylon would
today be the homes of the most adj
vanced peoples.
The history of Europe is a prolonged
story of the tragic career of people,
who possessed the richest regions To-
Gated in the most attractive climes,
and yet who lost their inheritance
when a more hardy race came down
from the cold and cloud-hidden re-
gions of the north and took whatever
they wanted on the sunny shores of
the Mediterranean. The wild Germanic
tribes who inhabited the thick woods
on the shores of the Baltic Sea were
compelled through many generations,
to protect themselves for the weather
by substantial cabins and the con-
struction of serviceable clothing. In
der the cutting lash OF the fog-laden
wind, they were compelled to bestir
themselves. They were forced to think
or perish-and thus they became alert
and inventive. From this circumstance
have grown the leading peoples in
modern western Europe.
The ancient sheep herders of Scot
land and England found themselves
confronted very much like the woods
man along the Baltic Sea. Their eli
mate was gloomy and bleak.
A few hundred English peasants,
who found themselves set down in the
bleak woods of Cope Cod, soon discov-
cred that they were confronted with a
situation that required prompt and
effective action. The winter nights
were long and empty. There was not
much to think about except where the
next meal was coming from. AS the
New England emigrant and his family
sat around the fire and searched for
something to discuss, the problem of
food and raiment naturally came up
for serious consideration. They had no
money. The soil was poor and they
could not look to farming for all they
required. They must have something
to sell. They must make it. Therefore,
the New England Yankee was forced
by rigorous climate-the long nights
and short, bitter days-to devote HIM
self to inventing and making some
thing other people would want. He
became a manufacturer and trader. He
not only made things useful to other
people-things which he felt sure
they would want-but he devised the
means to bring these goods to the at
tention of possible customers. He built
ships and went to sea. He sought and
obtained much Of the cash which the
planters of the South and the sugar
growers of Cuba obtained from their
plantations and by the exercise of ma
tive intelligence managed to secure
for his own benefit income which had
its origin many miles from his own
bleak hillsides. The thrifty New Eng
land traders not only made shoes,
clothing and farm tools, but they
bought shiploads of rum, slaves and
other things considered legitimate
merchandise then but which neither