Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 87, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 January 1918 — PHILOSOPHY’ OF WALT MASON [ARTICLE]

PHILOSOPHY’ OF WALT MASON

Now Groundhog Day, my friends, is here, most fateful day of all the year. The groundhog has all prophets skinned who fuss with maps and measure wind, who multiply the world’s distress with bughouse forecasts in the press. The groundhog scorns all lows and highs;- he views the landscape and the skies, and if the weather’s bright -and fair, with signs of springtime everywhere, he crawls right back into his hole, and sighs, “Oh, winter, let her roll! There’ll still be snow and ice to burn—you cannot fool me worth a dern!’’ But if the skies are overcast, and there's a chill and wintry blast, the groundhog says, “I’ll stay outdoors, and start to do my vernal chores. Old Boreas has came and went—he cannot foo‘ me worth a cent.”- The groundhog’s grammar may be punk, hut his predictions are not bunk. As we grow old our faith declines in goosebones and the other signs; and human prophets make us sore —-they don't guess right one time in four, and they are guessing every day, until they guess their lives away. The groundhog, most retiring seer, hands out a guess but once a year, with moderation most sublime, and hits the” bullseye every time.