06/20/2025
It’s the ! As we officially ring in the astronomical summer, take a moment to read the poetic musings of an anonymous 19th-century journalist, writing for the Lake County Star nearly 150 years ago, in 1882. After a brief moment of silence for "mourning over the loss of the first minute of daylight that follows," we wish you a bountiful and bright ! 🌞
Image of an article from the Lake County Star, June 22, 1882, p. 2, col. 6 - https://digmichnews.cmich.edu/?a=d&d=LakeLCS18820622.1.2&srpos=1&e=-------en-10--1--txt-txIN-%22out%252Ddoor+life+furnishes%22---------
The text reads:
"Out-door life furnishes the conditions of enjoyment, and earth, air and sky hold out separate allurements to increase the number of those who share in the general holiday. So delightful are the charms of midsummer that one longs to make them immortal, to hold back the sun in his course, and perpetuate the present conditions of his reign. But such are not the conditions of human life. The seasons come and go, swayed by an omnipotent hand; at the culminating point of solar intensity the picture changes, the supreme moment passes. Before the sun that rises on the 21st of June sinks below the horizon, his face will be turned from us, the earth will have traveled thousands of miles toward the regions of cold and darkness. A fraction of light will be lost from the longest day, a fraction of darkness will be added to the shortest night.
"No one can help mourning over the loss of the first minute of daylight that follows this summer solstice. No one can help rejoicing over the gain of the first minute of daylight that follows the winter solstice.
"On the 26th the decrease of one minute in the day's length is recorded on the astronomical calendar. It is only a minute at first, but minutes will be plied upon minutes, as the earth rolls on, until the last of July, the day will be forty-seven minutes shorter than it was under the beams of the solstitial sun."
