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Show THE COMING WJNTER. There is a suggestion of frost in the atmosphere atmos-phere these days, and the day is not far distant when the leaves will begin to fall and then winter will be here. It is the general belief among men who keep account of things that the winter is to be a hard winter. There will be more or less idleness among those who work for a living, and idleness makes it hard to provide three square meals a day for those dependent upon the worker for food. And idleness among those who work for a living will naturally affect business adversely, and the money will not flow in great volume into the coffers of the .business man. . Still, the outlook is more encouraging than those who see only the worst would have us believe-Some believe-Some one, more or less of a humorist, once said that in prosperous times the people ate their doughnuts and saved the holes for the seasons when doughnuts were hard to get. And there is some truth in the line. We have mo doubt been prodigal in our expenditures during the last few years when prosperity hung over the nation. Xow that the season has come for the consumption of the holes of the doughnuts, we are likely to find the holes rather slim fare. However, there is a new year coming, and preparations for new crops are being made all the time, so that if the present winter proves a hard one, it may teacli us a lesson in economy which will not be without value. If we learn to conserve our doughnuts, the holes may have something surrounding them next time the powers will that there shall be a season of more or less acute famine following a season of plenty. In regard to the coming winter, that it should be a hard one is the most natural thing in the world. Cold weather adds to the cost of living very largely. large-ly. It would not be a very rash estimate to say that to provide heat in the winter season of four or five months takes all of two weeks' wages from the ordinary working man. That may be considered consid-ered a dead loss. After the coal is burned it is like the holes in the doughnuts. You know you have enjoyed the coal, but there is nothing tangible remaining re-maining with which to console yourself. The ashes are even a source of expense. It is also an indisputable fact that business during dur-ing years of presidential elections is always just a little off, even in the most prosperous times. And the presidential election, following only a year after the collapse in stocks in Xew York which brought on the hard times, or which at least preceded pre-ceded the hard times, does nto make for those prosperous pros-perous times which all of us enjoy as we do the doughnuts, when we take no account of the holes which we must consume now during the leaner portion of the year. But wre can make the coming winter very much worse, or at least make ourselves feel very much worse than necessary, by brooding over the fact that the doughnuts are gone, and ' giving overemphasis over-emphasis to the ethereal quality of the holes as a food. It is not pleasant to know that business men in the east report the present conditions the worst they have known in twenty-six years, but the knowledge should be a guide for us of the west to live prudently, and while not engaged in the strenuous work of providing a living for ourselves our-selves and our -loved ones, together with perfectly just profits to the trusts and others who 'live on profits, to employ our time in devising ways and means of making a dollar do what two dollars used to do. In the pressure of modern business, this task will be found entertaining and profitable, and it will keep us from brooding too long on the high cost of living and other discomforts. We can at least be cheerful, for we have the richest land in the world, and we are living in one of the richest sections of that land. . We may know that things are not just right that peaches that sell for 35 cents a bushel in the orchard at Brigham City are not worth $2 a bushel in Salt Lake. Things like that will be remedied some day, for such things have made the country out of joint. But in remedying such things, it is better to approach the problems with a cheerful countenance and a cheerful mind. Gloomy forebodings fore-bodings will not settle the hard times nor right any of the wrongs of the day. They will not bring back the doughnuts to surround the holo which it is given us to eat at this time., So, in spite of the near approach of the winter season, and in pite of the circumstances which rather tend to discourage us, let us try t6 be cheerful and patient and helpful to one another. In this frame of mind 4 we will be better able, to go through the v. ii.t,. tj ' fl- 1 1 son and greet the spring in better cmj. ,;;.;,. j - If tally, morally, physically and fiuaneiaiiv. ,, ( , H i can afford to be discouraged, even ii; ,, many things which tend to discounts . t;.,j rules, and we can place our depend. ; ;., ;- as the people of the world always h : ... j can be assured that all will com.' : : P , the end. |