Show by ELMO SCOTT WATSON TS almost time now for a j 7 little to decide tor rai 3 we are allne x weeks more of ft inter or if spring Is near at hand for february 2 ts grouns hog day and according to a belief hold by many persons what mr ehnts what the scientists call the groundhog does on that lay will oc prophetic of weather conditions for the next six weeks if sir colw out of his hole on that day and becs fals shadow then he will return to lie bole and six necks more of winter must he endured if however the sun doean doesn t shine that day we can expect an early spring ow the joker in all athla business Is this regardless of what the ground hog does on february 2 and whether the bun Is shining or not when be comes out of his bole we shall have more weeks of winter enway for officially winter docs not end un til the spring equinox on march 21 and from february 2 to march 21 its all of fix and then some more than that scientists tell us that there s no dependence to be placed lie groundhog as a weather prophet government weather records for the last 50 years show that be lias missed it much more frequent ly than he has hit it but regardless of what the eclen lists say there are many people who more than halt believe the truth of the groundhog day superstition the reas onla that this superstition Is rooted in traditions almost as old as the human race certainly it goes back before the beginning of the christian era and the modern bradl alon Is another of those queer corn of heathen and beliefs one inspiration for it ably was the spring festival in honor of ceres the aloman earth goddess of abundant crops who was known as demeter by the greeks one day so runs the myth her daughter persephone was plucking flowers when she saw a narcissus of great beauty As she reached out her hand to touch it it deprang into life as hadea king of the dead in a golden chariot the hated monarch bore her away to his dark palace underground the abduction was noted by helios the sun and by hecate who told atie grief stricken mother when she abandoned her duties and the society of the gods to look for per she refused to let the earth produce until her daughter returned barrenness and mildew wasted the fields at last zeus who had arranged for the wedding of persephone to the powerful but unpopular lord of the dead sent his messenger to return her to her mother because fihe had eaten a pomegranate seed ghen hei by bades she was doomed to spend the dark months of winter with him but in planting and harvest time she belonged to the sunny fields and fruit laden groes of her mother somewhat the essential idea of this myth Is found in the beliefs asso clat ed with day the name alv en to february 2 in the early chris alan era day commee orated the presentation of the christ child in the temple and the alon of the mother the blessing of candles to be carried in honor of the virgin became a rite of the early church in ancient angland the corn of the christian and heathen belief was most strikingly shown by the fact that it meant the disappear ance of every christmas green for every leaf of holly left by n careless maid so it was believed she would be sure to see some terrible goblin just when weather prophecy became a part of the day tradition Is unknown but all over christendom there persisted n belief in february 2 as a time for weather forecast especially ally was it true that a fair day on that date portended much winter yet to come one scotch couplet says if day be dry and fair there 11 be winter in the year another assures us it day be dry and fair the halt 0 winters to come and rnald ac day be wet and foul the half 0 winters ean at yule A more version had it thus when day Is come and gone the snow lies on a hot stone german legend also chronicles that far as the sun shines on day so tar will the snow swirl until the may As for the association of the ground hog with tho weather superstition the origin of that too Is wrapped in con mastery so tar as Is known the germans originated that idea only they made use of the badger as their weather prophet in france and switzerland it was the marmot and in angland the hedgehog among the scandinavians there Is a legend of the bear waking up in his den after the winter hibernation seeing the sun shine into it and turning oer to sleep tor six weeks more knowing that winter Is only halt over just why the early english settlers in america should haze picked upon an animal similar to the french and swiss marmot tor the groundhog Is a species of the marmot family one of his scientific names being mar baota tor their february 2 weather prophet Is not clear they found badgers on this continent so why dlan t they follow the german tradition and select the badger or since they were english why they use the american counterpart of the european hedgehog the porcupine and have porky do their weather predicting for them but the fact remains that they dlan t and to the aal mal they did choose they gave two most inappropriate names woodchuck and groundhog part of the former title Is correct he does live mainly in the woods but where does the chuck part come in of course theres the old riddle about how much wood could a woodchuck chuck it a woodchuck would chuck wood to indicate a belief that this animal can manipulate hypothetical quanta ties of timber but that t solve the question of this name for him OT Is groundhog more than halt correct its true also that he lives for the most part tn the ground but he is not a bog nor remotely related to the hog like thoe other misnamed animals the porcupine and the guinea pig he Is a rodent and Is related to the squirrels and the rab bits it Is highly unlikely that whether the sky be bright or cloudy on can day the groundhog bothers to come up to look for his highly imbor tant shadow at least north of the mason daxon line he la a very sound sleeper and snoozes the winter away in his burrow rolled up in a compact ball with his nose tucked into his tummy if you find bis home and dig him out he will not awaken for the sleep of hibernation Is much more deathlike than ordinary slumber and a hibernating animal will stand te roughest kind of treatment without showing any signs of life even when he does come out with the real return of spring and plenty of green stuff to eat the groundhog Is still a sleepy head he has no oth er waking occupation except eating fighting occasionally and taking care of bis family during the breeding period so that he has plenty of leisure time on his hands in summer he spends that in sleep too the groundhog Is not a beauty H Is from 15 to IS inches tall and bis coat Is blackish or grizzled above and chestnut red below ills form Is thick and his bead broad and flat lie has a bushy tall and his legs are too short to make him handsome the groundhog digs burrows deep into the ground when on the plains or when he can find a hill he will bur row into the side of it he also views as a favorable site for his home a large rock under which he may dig his burrow slants upward to keep out water the groundhog Is a vegetarian with a strong preference for alfalfa and clover that does much to damage his reputation with farmers who an lose thousands of dollars because of his taste in the southern mountains where he Is known as the whistle alg he la all the more resented when on feb auary 2 bleet finds the unstopped cracks in a log cabin and able chill penetrates the coro husk bed with its scant covers but the violence that overtakes him there la due to his liking for the bark of tender young apple trees and garden stuff however despite all that the eel enlists may say about mr Arc tomya that he Is not really the animal that his common names indicate and that he his nothing whatever to do with deciding the question of can spring be far behind the belief in the groundhog day tradition Is pretty likely to persist indefinitely and on or about february 2 we can expect to see such newspaper stories as the fol lowing dodge city kan I 1 give up there must be something to if so declared J L hayea bodge city aa he watched hit groundhog playing about bis yard in th bright sunlight this morning the little animal iad dug bis way from his den where he had remained since november 27 last and was roaming about 1 I never believed in that gag he aid but what in thunder Is a roan to think I 1 hid all my calendars and that groundhog haan hadn t seen one 1 swear how did he know this was the second of february T this Is the first day be has been out sine november 7 when he holed up you can t blame it on me that groundhog jug out on his own initiative look at him it Is six weeks more of winter sure that groundhog bar convinced m there Is bogue in the old superstition or it may be a believe it or not item such as the following clr hayes brought the groundhog to dodge city from saguache park coto two years ago to test the old superstition last february 2 the animal emerged from abts hole at 4 tn the afternoon remained in the sunlight about twenty minutes and then re entered his den piling dirt in the opening until it was completely closed frank tells this one A man back in iowa says he Is a firm believer la the groundhog theory the man was out cutting wood on groundhog day and took off his coat and put it on a log when he came to get bis coat it was gone tie looked everywhere but could not fand it six weeks later be wf cutting wood in the same place BL happened Bapp ened 0 o look around and saw groundhog come out of his bole and out ats coat on the log where he bad found it six weeks previous now you tell me glen elder kan sentinel that invitation Is repeated by the writer of this article and if you can tell a better one he will incorporate it in his groundhog day article next yearl |