Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 59, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 March 1914 — SHORT FURROWS [ARTICLE]

SHORT FURROWS

Ole windy (March, first month of spring, Flat dwellers grow restless an’ janitors sing. —Miss Fawn Lippincut. Ther’s three kinds o' spring- -forward, backward an’ th’ plain almanak variety which arrives with th’ vernal equinox s on th’ twentyfirst day o’ March an’ remains over. Ther’s many harbingers o’ spring which are regarded as bein’ absolutely trustworthy signs that th’ season we long fer is cornin’ soon. Wild geese marble playin’, blue eyed violets peepin’ out o’ th’ slush, th’ robin, th’ shaggy umbreller mender with the workhouse palor, th’ candidate fer sheriff with ihis fresh hair cut, an’ the display o’ onion sets, winter elbows an’ garden tools —all are looked upon as bein’ unmistakeable evidence that winter is heatin’ a hasty retreat. When a farmer sees th’ first robin he begins f wonder how many cirl cus passes he’ll be able t’ pull down fer allowin’ his barn t’ he plastered •with flarin’ (posters, while his sons stand near th’ corncrib sullen an’ morose while they contemplate th’ pring plowin’. Th’ political candidate has been fooled so often by th’ first robin that he withholds his activities till th’ umbreller mender shows up an’ th’ frost is out o’ th’ courthouse steps an’ it’s balmy enough t’ lean agin’ the pustoffice. We rarely have any sleighin’ after th’ ambitious offlceseeker gits his neck shaved an’ his cards printed. OBpt 1 1’ return t’ the first robin.

By Abe Martin, In The Indianapolis News

Nature in spite o’ her celebrated reputation fer lookin’ out fer everbuddy seems t’ have given th’ robin th’ worst of it. Unequipped fer anything colder than 30 above he’s more frequently th’ forecaster of a blizzard than th’ dandelion. Unaggressive an’ meek he’d sooner starve than question .th’ propriety o’ th’ chesty English sparrow. Th’ only thing a robin’ll attack in or out o’ its lair is th’ blind, helpless angle worm. Yit nature sends him north a full four weeks before th’ angle worm is available. Utterly lackin’ in th’ instinct t’ keep away from his natural enemies he invariably selects a buildin’ site within easy reach o’ th’ family cat or in th’ roof gutter, where he an’ his family fall an easy prey t’ th’ April freshet. But th’ amount o’ publicity th’ first robin gits is enough t’ make Gaby Deslys close her American tour. He’s th’ only bird that gits his name on th’ editorial page. Long before he gits fairly balanced on th’ bare twig of an apple tree his arrival is heralded broadcast by th’ nearest newspaper an’ discussed in every home. How many times have we drawn th* curtain in th’ mornin’ an’ looked out upon a bleak, snowy March landscape an’ beheld th’ first robin with a sad far away look in his eye an’ wonderin’ what kind o’ a metorological disturbance nature wuz going to hand him next! Napoleon, standin’ on th’ barren slaty bluffs o’ St. Helena lookin’ gloomily out o’er a vast expanse o’ skeckless sea, didn’ have anything on th’ first robin. .