Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 February 1904 — Tuesday Was Ground Hog Day. [ARTICLE]

Tuesday Was Ground Hog Day.

"Shadows we are and Shadows we pursue.” The above was not written by a ground hog about ground hogs in general because of their shadowm like thinness when they oome out of their holes, and the shadows they are supposed to oome out to look for. It was written, instead by some poet kind of a uhap. to apply to the general run of human -animals, though in a literal sense it seems to fit the ground bog better at this season of toe year than it does any other kind of fritters. Tuesday, February 2nd has been a day of note for centuries un* numbered, and before it was made a Christian holy-day, as Candlemas Day, it was a pagan festival. It has long been considered in northern latitudes as being the middle of winter and the old saying: “Candlemas day, Candlemas day. half of your wood and half of your hay, "expresses the idea that half the winter is behind ns and half of it before us. If that proves true this year, we can only hope that the halt that is before us will be a good deal milder ih its methods than the half be- - hind us has been. The belief that the ground hog otherwise the woodobuck oan foretell the kind of weather that is coming for the rest of the winter, illogical and groundless and uu -supported by records as it is, is very wide spread. It was believed in long before suoh an animal as the American ground-hog was ever seen by a white man. In the old countries it was sometimes the bear and sometimes the badger sometimes the hedge hog, or porcupine, that was the 2nd of February weather prophet. In the old times the animal had a definite time to appear, usually noon, and if he saw his shadow then or if he didn’t . aee it, that settled it, one way or another Now diye, the ground Uog is generally permitted to nose around ail day, looking for his shadow, and if he gets even a single clear glimpse of it, into his hole be go?s and holes up for another six weeks, Here are a few old sayings about “ Candlemas or groundhog day: At Candlemas Day, Another Winter is on its way. w If Candlemas Day be fair and briglrt jf* Winter will have another flight. But if Candlemas Day bring clouds and rain, Winter is gone and wont come again. If the ground hog is sunning himself on the 2nd of February, he will return >Jor four weeks co his winter quarters. If it storms on February 2nd, spring s near, but If that day be bright and clear, the- spring will be late. To sum it all up then, the ground hog could see his shadow ouoe in a while Tuesday but mostof the time not. The day also was mostly stormy and cloudy, at intervals clear. Therefore ' it if evident that the ground bog will prophesy mixed weather for the next six weeks; and it didn’t need any ground hog to prophesy that.