Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 May 1895 — SYMPTOMS OF SPRING. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

SYMPTOMS OF SPRING.

• i—, - VARIOUS INDICATIONS THAT HERALD ITS COMING. iMvereified Occupations that Indicate the Opening of the Pleasant Season —The Time of Plowing, of Carpet Beating and House Cleaning. Advent of Worm Weather. In the spring a fuller crimson comes upon the robin’s breast; In the spring the wanton lapwing gets himself another crest; In the spring a livelier iris changes on the burnishe4 dove; In the spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of loTe. —Tennyson. The advent of the season of young chicken and tender onions Is gener-

ally seized upon by poets and sentimentalists as a suitable occasion for preparing their wares for market, and, with the first bluebird, comes the man who has spring poetry for sale. Not that he ever finds a sale for It, for to bring spring poetry to a newspaper office or magazine sanctum, when every man in each of these establishments la, ex-officio, himself a spring poet, is like carrying coals to Newcastle or cigars to Havana. But in spite of the fact that there is never nny demand for his work, the spring poet always comes, and comes so numerously aud regularly that he must be regarded as a sign of the advent of the season of budding leaves and blooming flowers. Writing spring poetry must, therefore, be considered a regular occupation of the season, as well as a sign that the sun is about to come up from the south, reviving all nature, and waking the world to a new life. But the advent of the spring poet with his well-worn rhymes and timehonored fancies, Is not the only Indication that the world is about tq awake from its long torpor. Both in city and country there are at this season of the year unmistakable tokens that the spring has come. In the rural districts, says She St. Louis Globe-Democrat, even a blind man could not be in error with regard to the symptoms. As soon as the ground is dry enough, the spring plowing begins, and with the plowing the miseries of the farmer, the farmer’s family and the farmer’s hired man. But the plowing is not the only indication of spring in the country. As the days lengthen, the farmer’s wife begins to take a more decided Interest In outdoor life than she has manifested during the winter, and all the indict tions point strongly towards the chlek-

en house as the center of her concern. For weeks she collects eggs from the most eligible hette, and when, by Illnatured clucking, one of their number manifests an intention to “set,” the wherewithal for her to set on is imme-

diately provided. In due time the fluffy little balls of down appear and immediately become objects of interest, for In them the farmer’s wife discerns hopes of future proilt. So they are carefully nursed through the various

ailments that youthful ehlckenhood is heir to; they are taken into the kitchen in baskets when it rains or turns cold, they are protected from rats and weasels and other “varmints," they are guarded from pips and gapes and predacious insects, and all, not that they may grow up 'and scratch for themselves and be happy through life, but in order that when old enough they may be crowded into crates and 'sent to the city, there to appear on the restaurant menus and hotel bills of fare a as chickep.’ . Whether or not the suburban resident Is affected by the example of the farmer is a question that can not be satisfactorily answered without a previous knowledge of the character of the suburbanite's wife. Of course, she was responsible in the first place for his going out Into the suburbs. No single man lives in the suburbs save under peculiar or exceptional circumstances,

for ths habitat of the single man is down town; nor does nny married man consent ..to a removal to the suburbs until after a year or two has been spent In Impressing on his mind the superiority of the suburbs, where the children can get fresh air, and where we can have a garden and our own fruits and vegetables. The unlucky wretch always tumbles Into this pitfall, moves out in the autumn, endures during the whole winter the discomforts of traveling to and fro on the cars, and finally In the spring discovers that the only way to get a garden in the suburbs Is to make it yourself. This discovery does

not burst on him all of a sudden, like the sunlight from behind a cloud; it comes slowly and by degrees, like the advent of the dawn. He hires a man to spade up the ground, and at the end of half an hour’s laborious toil the man disappears, and so does the new spade. Comforted by his wife with the assurance that if the ground is only spaded up she and the children can do the rest, he buys another spade, and hires another man. But even after tlie ground is prepared for the seed and the seed are sown, there Is always a hitch. The children must go to school, for, of course, it would not do to allow them to grow up in ignorance, even if they do live in the suburbs, and when school is over, they must play, being naturally too tired to work. His wife is obliged to make the round of the neighbors’ houses every day, and when she gets home her back feels like it would break, and her head Is fit to split. Of course, she must lie down and rest awhile. So it goes until the suburbanite comes home from the city, and by this time she is rested and quite equal to the fatigue of standing In the yard and seeing him do the work, and he does it, too, or she is duly provided by him with an excellent reason to the contrary. He may not like gardening, in fact, he may utterly detest and abhor it, but if his wife has made up her mind that the establishment Is to have a garden, he makes that garden or hires somebody as a substi-

tute, in which case it Is discovered at the end of the season that the radishes have cost 50 cents apiece and the cabbages sl. .In the city, too, there are indications of spring quite as pronounced as the

i budding trees, the blooming flowers and the piping of the spring chickens, j Women are subject to many peculiar I ailments, but among the whole number there Is none more oemarkable than that disease which makes its appearance with the advent of the first .warm days, and of which the principal and most aggravating symptom is a burning desire to “dean house.” The house may not be dirty; in fact, it may have been in the pink of condition, so far as cleanliness Is concerned, all through the but that fact counts for nothing; thg-rllsease, like the mumps or measles or cacoetbes scribendipmust I run its course, and everybody must be inconvenienced, and everything turned topsy turvy in order that the house may be clean. Only the youthful and inexperienced husband makes any effort to stem the tide, and any arguments that he may advance are triumphantly routed on the spot. His assertions that the house is clean enough are scornfully disproved by his wife, who points out to him certain finger marks on the doors, specks of dust and scratches on the furniture, and assures him, with an air of superior wisdom, that the carpets are absolutely filthy and must come up, for she can never get her own consent to live through the summer in a house that is little better than a pig stye. The old husband knows better. Like the willow, he bends before the storm. At the first preliminary symtoms, the appearance on the back porch of water buckets and scrubbing brushes. he girds up his loins and flees, to return no more until the tempest be over and past The enjoyment of the house-cleaning season by the woman is something almost miraculous. She fairly revels in it With a towel over her hair, and her husband’s last summer's straw hat on her head, with her oldest gown tucked up to be out of the mess on the floor, and her arms bare to the elbows, she gloats in the disorder that her own hands have created. In the languag% of a distinguished college president, “It is her occasion, ’’ and she feels, not only its importance, but her own as connected with it In her presence her husband dwindles into insignificance, for what does a man know about housecleaning? The darkles who beat thi carpets into holes are of more consequence than he; far more, indeed, as on such occasions they are persons of considerable importance, for, as adjuncts to the spring cleaning, they are by no means to be despised. Every one knows them. At stated seasons they appear in every neighborhood, as regularly as the cuckoo in England, and just as mysteriously, for no one knows whence they come nor, after the spring cleaning Is over, whither they go. I.ike the deus ex machina of the Latin stage, they appear just in time to execute their part at the annual spring sacrifice to the goddess of cleanliness, whoever she may be, and,' after the oblations have been offered, they disappear, to be seen no more until the next season. Where they live in the

meantime, or whether they live at all, is a question that cannot be settled by the denizens of the neighborhood. All that these can say is that at certain seasons sounds that suggest the open-

ing of a heavy cannonade may be heard from a dozen different directions, and, if followed up, their origin will be found in as many vacant lots where a couple of Senegambians are beating a carpet into Its original breadths. Every quarter has its own spring signs, however, and as the country and the suburbs herald the coming of spring in one way, just as certainly do the down-town regions detect its arrival in another. For, as the country bursts into bloom with the first warm sunshine, so, by the same means, do the showwindows of the milliri'ery stores also betoken the advent of the pleasant season. Why the soul of woman should glow with unusual fervor at the mention of spring hats and headgear is one of th(*3e problems that, like the position of the magnetic pole, must ever remain in doubt. Whatever the solution, if, indeed, there is omifat all, the fact is unquestioned, as any one may observe for himself who will take the trouble to note in passing, the enthusiasm displayed by feminine human nature when massed in front of the windows of a hat store. The word enthusiasm does not, in the least, express the idea, the feeling exhibited is closely related to that form of madness mentioned by the Greeks, which impels him who possesses It tb fall down and worship any beautiful object, no matter wbat its nature.

SPRING CHICKEN FROM START TO FINISH.

THE SUBURBANITE’S LUCK.

ONE KIND OF SPRING FEVER.

ON THE FIRST ROUND.

ANOTHER KIND OF SPRING FEVER.