Rensselaer Union and Jasper Republican, Volume 8, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 February 1876 — Spring in Winter. [ARTICLE]

Spring in Winter.

?or two orffifed Weeks, says the Boston Journal of a’ recent date, we have had weather which has taken all the conceit out of the oldest inhabitants, for they have been unable to find a parallel for it in their experience. It has been like a slice bf early spring taken from its proper place and sandwiched between two sections of winter.- People who went off to ' Fiori data December’are subjects of the compassionate regard of -their happier friends, who, without Budtang from this “bleak New England coast,” as tlie poets have termed it, have had taste of real Florida climate, with bright sides and balmy air—and without the muddy coffee ana greasy cookery which are the products of Floridian civilization. Only the other night we were treated to a regular thunder-shower, accompanied by vivid flashes of lightning. The very grass has been fooled, and is gettinggreen under tire genial influences of the sun. House flies and mosquitoes have resurrected them- , selves, ana are pursuing their accustomed avocations with the zeal which always distinguishes these industrious insects. The lilac buds have swollen and the willows have turned green. Suburban residents on Monday morning were treated to a concert by toe birds, who have Somehow become aware of the extraordinary weather and have come to enjoy it. In Canada farmers are reported to have commenced plowing, and New Year’s Day was celebrated with out-door sports In Merrimac on Saturday a May flower was picked. We have just received a well-shaped, fully-formed pansy, which was picked by Mrs. E.’ A. Kilham in her garden at the Highlands on Monday; and from Mr. John P. Townsend, of Bridgewater, there has qpme to us a box containing a,■ dozen of lhe liveliest kind of grasshoppers—so lively, indeed, that most of them escaped us as soon as we opened the box. Aim! yet—we have not been happy. Blighted beings have gone about the streets, with their heavy Ulsters on, exchanging growls about the weather. Inquiries about one another’s sore throat, or cough or cold have been the of the day. The doctors have been driven with business and harassed with multitudinous calls. Even when the air has been balmiest and the thermometer has been highest we have not dared enjoy the weather, but Have had a guilty consciousness that such enjoyment would be out of place, and a foreboding that we shall pay for |.t by and by. For this reason the change which has come at last will be a very welcome oiie. The keen, bracing air gives-a fresh tone to the system. It is a positive pleasure to feel the ears tingle again. In a few days, vgry likely/we shall be run- - ' ning our furnaces to their utmost, and sending for the plumber in hot haste—a haste which, by the way, seldom communicates itself to the personage so summoned. But even this extreme is better

and far more healthful than the other; aita we shall meet it, it may be hoped, with a wisdom and patience taught ua by the recent phenomenal weather.