Northern Weekly Gazette. — 1912-08-31 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

AUGUST.  " What's the date " August the first." '' Oh, yes, it: is." Then I mused, " August! August! what does it mean r' I a.sked my friend Brown. August." said he, heeitatingly. "Why, it means will tell you after. Excuse me just now, but I promised to meet Jones, and it's time 1 wils off." Hui•riedly avoiding my glance of inquisitorial scorn he depaited, and I. iixe Lord Ullin, • • was loft lamenting "—my own igora.nce of the meaning of the nomenclature of the eighth month. •• What's in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." No doubt the perfume would be the same. out, and it's a big but. no othe7 appellation would conjure up the sa.me memories and aesoeiations as the good old Anglo-Saxon word rose.- Then what does " A.ugust " men? The name August (Varries us far back into the morning of time, when the Roman sceptre heli) sway. A.ugustus, known as Ca..sar Octavianus, was the fi7A. I;mpe.ror of Rome, and it as after this most distinguished and powerful ruler that this month was named. Ile was the gra.wi-nephew of Julius Caisar, who adopted him as his son and heir. At the time of Omsa.r's murder, young °etavianus was strifiyi.rig in Greece. Razurtiing home, he was made Consul, and rebelled against Antony. ,rho had se.imid the inheritance. Reconciliation quick!y followed. A triumvirate of Octavia.nus, Antony and Tepidus defeated Brutus and Cassius— s'ay•ers or Julius C.r.sar--and the Empire was divided among them. Octavianus taking the west. Antony went to Egypt, and, as the whole world knows. he was ensifived by the boauty and wiles of Queen Cfleopatra. This was his undoing. as offered young Oitavianus. whose sister Antoy had Married. a pretext for renewing tne strife. Even tuallj• he crushed his opponent. Antony, and stoi.xt z.uprenne in the Roman world. He assumed divine honours, and his adoring subjects gave him the title of Augustus, which means " sacred " or "consecrated.- This month was previously kinown as the Se.xtilis. as it was the sixth month according to the Roman ca!ender.  ul y was named after Julius Ca, sar.  August  originally had thirty days, but imitation is sineerest flattery, so Augustus deprived February ef a (iay. and added it to August, so that, the number of days in these contiguous months might be the same. The truth of the aphorisin, "The roots of the present lie deep in the past." is abundantly confirmed in the genesis of our eighth molith. So, when we in our prosaic style again write August on our correspondence, what realms of the past can be opened to us; if we will on ailow "fancy" to wirt?. its flight to those distant ages of Herculean deeds. August is the harvest month when the bount7s of the earth is ga.thered. Harvesting operation commence early in this month, provided that th :•'-'3.5011 has been a good one. To the farmer it is an anxious time. Lack of sunshine will prevent the crop from ripening satisfactorily, and heavy rains will lay it flat., so that the cutting of it annot be accomplished. Many a concerned look does he give the sky, and his glance at the hammete,- reveals his own anxiety or p!easure, as the case may he. Gold and yellow are the outstauding ka.tures in August's colour scheme. What a feast. frx the eye is the billowy erpa.nee of golden Frain. dotted her a.nd there with patches of brilliant red poppies. The trees are still clad in "their green felicity," but the dierniig observer noti oes the presence, here anel there, of the "sere and yellow leaf." harbineeers of the time when  'A U twain TIF rushing ft the len ve.s. that a.re seanest. "  Wild flowers. heconie scarcer, nearly all ha.vt, reached t1:-..e frnit stage. prepa.ring for their part in the propagation of their ciwn specia. The purp ahc.le '' alrr lower for the L' • a welcome au,est. Than. too, the moors are re