The Queer, the Quaint and the Quizzical Part 22

If Candlemas-day be fair and bright, Winter will have another flight; But if Candlemas-day be clouds and rain, Winter is gone, and will not come again.

When Candlemas-day is come and gone, The snow lies on a hot stone.

If Candlemas is fair and clear, There'll be twa winters in the year.

February fill dike, be it black or be it white; But if it be white, it's the better to like.

When the cuckoo comes to the bare thorn, Sell your cow and buy your corn; But when she comes to the full bit, Sell your corn and buy your sheep.

If the c.o.c.k moult before the hen, We shall have weather thick and thin; But if the hen moult before the c.o.c.k, We shall have weather hard as a block.

When the wind's in the south, It blows the bait into the fishes' mouth.

As the days lengthen So the colds strengthen.

If there be a rainbow in the eve, It will rain and leave; But if there be a rainbow in the morrow, It will neither lend nor borrow.

A rainbow in the morning Is the shepherd's warning; But a rainbow at night Is the shepherd's delight.

No tempest, good July, Lest corn come off blue by.

When the wind's in the east, It's neither good for man nor beast; When the wind's in the south, It's in the rain's mouth.

When the sloe-tree is as white as a sheet, Sow your barley, whether it be dry or wet.

No weather is ill If the wind be still.

A snow year, A rich year.

Winter's thunder Is summer's wonder.

St. Swithin's day, if thou dost rain, For forty days it will remain; St. Swithin's day, if thou be fair, For forty days 'twill rain na mair.

The bat begins with giddy wing His circuit round the shed and tree; And clouds of dancing gnats to sing A summer night's serenity.

At New Year's tide, The days are lengthened a c.o.c.k's stride.

If the red sun begins his race, Expect that rain will fall apace.

The evening red, the morning gray, Are certain signs of a fair day.

If woolly fleeces spread the heavenly way, No rain, be sure, disturbs the summer's day.

In the waning of the moon, A cloudy morn-fair afternoon.

When clouds appear like rocks and towers, The earth's refresh'd by frequent showers.

As the days grow longer The storms grow stronger.

Blessed is the corpse that the rain falls on.

Blessed is the bride that the sun s.h.i.+nes on.

He that goes to see his wheat in May, Comes weeping away.

_Signs of Foul Weather._

The soot falls down, the spaniels sleep, And spiders from their cobwebs peep.

Loud quack the ducks, the sea-fowl cry, The distant hills are looking nigh.

Puss on the hearth, with velvet paws, Sits wiping o'er her whisker'd jaws.

The smoke from chimneys right ascends, Then spreading, back to earth it bends.

The walls are damp, the ditches smell, Clos'd is the pink-ey'd pimpernel.

Quite restless are the snorting swine, The busy flies disturb the kine.

The wind unsteady veers around, Or settling in the south is found.

The glow-worms, numerous and bright, Illumed the dewy hill last night.

Through the clear stream the fishes rise And nimbly catch the incautious flies.

_First Meerschaum Pipe._

In 1723 there lived in Pesth, the capital of Hungary, Karol Kowates, a shoemaker, whose ingenuity in cutting and carving on wood, etc., brought him in contact with Count Andra.s.sy, ancestor to the present prime minister of Austria, with whom he became a favorite. The count, on his return from a mission to Turkey, brought with him a large piece of whitish clay, which had been presented to him as a curiosity on account of its extraordinary light specific gravity. It struck the shoemaker that, being porous, it must naturally be well adapted for pipes, as it would absorb the nicotine. The experiment was tried, and Karol cut a pipe for the count and one for himself. But in the pursuit of his trade he could not keep his hands clean, and many a piece of wax became attached to the pipe. The clay, however, instead of a.s.suming a dirty appearance, as was naturally to be expected, when Karol wiped it off, received, wherever the wax had touched, a clear brown polish, instead of the dull white it previously had. Attributing this change in the tint to the proper source, he waxed the whole surface, and, polis.h.i.+ng the pipe, again smoked it, and noticed how admirably and beautifully it colored; also, how much more sweet the pipe smoked after being waxed.

Karol had struck the smoking philosopher's stone; and other n.o.blemen, hearing of the wonderful properties of this singular species of clay, imported it in considerable quant.i.ties for the manufacture of pipes. The natural scarcity of this much esteemed article, and the great cost of transportation in those days of limited facilities for transportation, rendered its use exclusively confined to the richest European n.o.blemen until 1830, when it became a more general article of trade. The first meerschaum pipe made by Karol Kowates has been preserved in the museum at Pesth.

_The First Oval Lathe._

William Murdock, the inventor of the oval lathe, was a poor millwright.

He was a good workman, but rather s.h.i.+ftless, until he came into the employ of Boulton & Watt, the English manufacturers of steam-engines in the last century. The way in which the millwright first attracted the attention of these great machinists is thus told:-

Somewhere about the year 1780, a traveling millwright, weary and foot-sore, and with the broadest of Northern Doric accent, stopped at a factory in England and asked for work. His aspect indicated beggary, and the proprietor, Mr. Boulton, had bidden him seek some other workshop, when, as the man was turning sorrowfully away, he suddenly called him back, saying-

"What kind of hat 's yon ye have on your head, my man?"

"It's just timmer, sir," replied the man.

"Timmer, my man!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the manufacturer. "Just let me look at it.

Where on earth did you get it?"

"I just turned it in the lathe," said the mechanic, with a flush of pride.