Evening star., 1944-11-11
This and That
BIZ Charles E. Truce1DeH.

1
Autumn brings the weather home to
every man.
Rain, fog. frost-tnese assume new
character in the fall. having a quality
which they possess a. no other time of
year.
In October and November weather
becomes intimate, something which
tries to get in, In peculiar sense
During these months especially almost
every one is willing to go out to meet
the weather full blast, for the cold is
tempered and the fog is not too intense
and the rains are necessary. Even the
person least interested in the growing
things of garden, forest and field knows
all this to be true.
Usually october is the most perfect
month in and around Washington. Per-
feet, that is, from the standpoint of
bright skies and crisp days.
This year, this momentous year of
1914, our October was strange, filled with
alternating cool and warm days, of rain
and more rain, and then came the foggy
mornings. These fogs seem strange to
this city, which is low, but which seldom
has much fog in it.
For few days the fog dripped every
morning, reminding those who had
never been there of London, about
which they had read so much. London,
the city Of fog and blackouts, city of the
stern brood, the unyielding men, women
and children; London, the city of writ
ers, men long gone, but whose names
and flames live on forever.
The imaginative person acquainted
with English literature could feel at
home in his little fog OF late October
days, and hope again for the time when
the National Geological Park would
have on display another dozen birds
of English literature" The skylark and
the real robin redbreast and the star
ing-who can forget the part starlings
play in many English books?
Fog has always made an appeal to the
imaginative because of the special
quality which it gives everything. The
strangeness of the familiar, the turning
OF familiar forms down the street into
mere blobs on the landscape, the dis
appearance of well-known places before
ones very eyes, the ever coming forward
OF things dimly seen, and yet the COM
plete disappearance of everything as
one walks
This is to be fog-bound. And it has
sense OF fear in 1t, because there is
real danger in it, especially in these
days of traffic changes. Lamps gleam
through the fog, but they throw little
real light. It Is a special quality of fog
to absorb light. No doubt the scientists
could tell why, but 1t makes no diff
ference.
Capturing the fog in a bottle has
always been a favorite theme. Perhaps
few persons nowadays know that WASH
ington's own Alexander Graham Bell
actually did imprison fog in q bottle
and turn it loose at his bidding.
Fog swirls around the throat, it gets
into the nose and almost into the
bones.
When 1t is heavy enough, as it was
those last few October days, it drips
from the trees and makes wet patches
in the street and along the sidewalks.
Cautious folk longed for overshoes, but
there was no need for them.
No need because another special
quality of fog shortly was to come to the
fore
Every foggy morning has It's sunny
afternoon. That is old weather lore, and
1t was true this time. This is the great
wholesome quality Of fog, that it usually
turns itself OF In the afternoon, Just as
1t turns on for the morning.
Without this self-ending, we might not
think fog such lark, any more than
the rivermen do. They know its dan
gers, but We pavement-bouhd citizens
feel sure that sunshine will end all this
In . little time, and usually it does,
much to the delight Of every one.
Fog must not last too long. F. H.
Heard, In his story, @The Great Fog"
told US what happens when it lasts too
long.
Fog Is dangerous mental fog, spir-
itual fog, physical fog. We want to get
out OF 1t. at last, and to see and feel
the sunshine In our minds, souls.
bodies. We must think our way out,
fight gut way out, hope ourselves out,
dream Yourselves out Of fox, or we peylsh.