Evening Star Newspaper, February 2, 1930, Page 87

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, FEBRUARY 2, 1930. Sworn Detenders of “Arctomys Monax™ BY HARRY GOLDBERG. O the average citizen of these United States, today is just Sunday, Febru- { ary 2, but to an exclusive group in y Quarryville, Pa., known as the Slum- bering Ground Hog Lodge, this is the grand holiday of the year on which their patron saint, protege and prodigy—Arctomys monax, alias woodchuck, alias ground hog—yawns forth from his Winter lair and tells the world what the weather will be for the next six weeks. Made merry by a band consisting of a bass drum, cymbals, triangle and jewsharp, the members, adorned with their personal ideas of regalia, march out into the rolling farms, di- vide into squads and proceed to reconnoiter for the appearance of their prognosticator. To keep in touch with each other, runners dart between the squads with bulletins from the commanding officers, wigwag signaling also aiding in maintaining contact, and when Mas- ter Ground Hog appears, flicking an icicle from his whiskers, the army looks anxiously at the sky and devotedly at the chunky forecaster to see whether he casts his shadow. Thus is obtained from him a prediction of the weather from then, February 2, until St. Patrick’s day. For it is an item of faith among the mem- bership of the Slumbering Ground Hog Lodge that if Arctomys monax casts a shadow today, there will be six weeks more of Winter, and if the ground does not record the outline of his body, the spell of Winter is broken and the world may expect a return of good weather. ¢ Having ascertained the message of the ground hog, the fraternity reforms its lines. The ven- erable patriarch, the patriarch de, luxe, the ex- alted patriarch and the plain, common, garden variety of patriarch; the venerable past ex- alted hibernator, the just past exalted hiber- nator, the passing exalted hibernator and the exalted hibernating presiding all get into for- mation along with the first sleeper, second sleeper, chief eye rubber, assistant eye rubber, moral supporter, secretary and bondless treas- urer and the hibernating governors, and they march back to the town headquarters, where the twenty-third annual banquet is set before them and new members are inducted into this exclusive company. Mnm.g the Slumbering Ground Hog Lodge is a unique organization, its members stat- fng that it is the only genuine guardian of the faith in the world, yet it preserves a tradition which is older than the Chrsitian era. Many persons, hearing of this lodge of ancient faith, communicate with George W. Hensel, jr., a hibernating governor, and ask for &he rules and secret workings in order to en- able them to start lodges of their own. .“And we tell them,” says Hensel, “that we cannot transmit the spirit of the lodge and that without the spirit how can they start? They remonstrate with me, but we remain, so far as I know, the one and only Ground Hog Lodge on earth. Several of our imitators have started societies in Anderson, Ind.; Cincinnati, Ohio, and Roanoke, Va. but they can never amount to anything. A society cannot be com- pared with a lodge. “What is the difference? “Any one with $1.25 can join a society, but you have to be fit and worthy to join this Jodge. “How does one join?” he was asked. “We have a watchman by day and a watch- man by night, who look closely into the life of the man whom the membership may deign to honor, and when we consider that he suc- ceeded in inculcating himself in a mysterious way with the spirit of the lodge, suddenly the great privilege of membership is offered to him and, having attended the ceremonies on Febru- ary 2, and having been properly initiated with ‘high larity’ into the secrets of the lodge, he becomes a partner in our faith.” - When it was suggested to the hibernating governor that the scientific experts of the Weather Bureau had kept tabs on the ground thog and that it the last 20 years he he had been wrong half of the time, Hensel scoffed at the doubting scientists who destroyed humanity’s faith. [ A FELLOW named Bliss once attempted, by facts and figures, to confute the ground hog's observations, In reply, I simply quoted, “When ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise.” That ended that controversy. “Another fellow once asserted that the ground hog was a dangerous animal to have around farms because the horses broke their legs fall- ing into the ground hog holes, but our statisti- cian went around the country counting the horses’ legs and, finding that out of the mil- lions of legs only two or three had been re- ported broken, decided that the ground hog could not be accused of causing excessive damage. “As a matter of fact, the ground hog has many habits the human race might well emu- late. He is a devoted husband and father, raising his family of six or seven. Bué-when the family all come to the surface on St. Patrick’'s day and the young ones begin to scamper about, the parents, standing between their progeny and the Winter home, speak thusly: ‘Young people, here is the world just as we found it. Now you're on your own.’ Therefore the ground hog has none of the trou- bles we suffer. No son ever phones to him to be bailed out for reckless driving, and he never suffers the paternal disgrace of learning his son got mixed up with crime while on a wild pariy. “The ground hog tends to his own business and is not a pugnacious animal. You remem- ber Polonius’ advice to Laertes: ‘Beware of en- trance to a quarrel; but being in, bear’t that the opposed may beware of thee.’ “That sums up the ground hog’s character. He can fight, if compelled to, and can lick a dog his own weight.” The declaration of principles made known to the public tells the attitude of the Slumber~ Unique Secret Society in Quarryville, Pa., Known as The Slumbering Ground Hog Lodge, Meets Annually on Candlemas Day to Extol Virtues of Furry Weather Prophet and Guard Him. ’ A gathering of the Quarryville lodge around their patron saint, Sir Arctomys Monax, weather prophet extraordinary. ing Ground Hog Lodge toward its patron: “We believe in the wisdom of the ground hog. “We declare his intelligence to be of a higher order than that of any other animal from the tick of the blackberry to the elephant of the jungle. “We rejoice that he can, and does, foretell with absolute accuracy the weather conditions for the six weeks following each second day of February. “We rejoice, further, that he is magnanimous and permits other hogs, prophets and almanacs to enjoy their talents on the remaining 46 weeks of the year. “We assert that if he was more of a man and less of a hog he would forr: a trust and do all the prognosticating, thereby sending Baers, Hicks, Goose Bone and other hot-air artists to the woods. “To defend him, his family and his reputa- tion, we pledge ourselves. “To guard him as he slumbers, his habita- tions and his haunts, we pledge ourselves. “We welcome him in our clover fields; to bid him dig and delve; to invite him to sit on the top rail of our fences; to stay the hand of desperate men who would slap him; to kill the dog who would excite and ruffie his temper; to defend him with all our might and at all hazard, we pledge ourselves, our man servants, our maid servants, our oxen, our asses and our assets as a whole.” The Slumbering Ground Hog Lodge once caused a petition to be presented to the Legis- lature of Pennsylvania, asking that ground hog’ day be made a legal holiday. But it caused such convulsions among the members that it never came to a vote. Years ago Indiana passed a law requiring Mr. G. Hog to make his ap- pearance every year on the second of February, but with the rise of a heretical generation that law has fallen into desuetude. The faith of our ancestors in the prophetic abilities of the ground hog is attested by these couplets, which have been handed down through the centuries. If Candlemas be fair and clear, ‘There’ll be two Winters in the year. If Candlemas be fair and bright, Winter will have another flight. If Candlemas be clouds and rain, Winter will not return again. The German legend retains the following verse: For as the sun shines on Candlemas day So far will the snow swirl until the May. But the Germans laid it on the badger, and with the scarcity of badgers in the United States, it is quite possible that this ancient custom was transferred to the woodchuck. The 2nd of February was named Candle- mas day because the blessing of candles to be carried in honor of the Virgin became a rite of the early church. But the day persisted all over Christendom as a time of weather forecast. A Scotch rhyme says: George W. Hensel, jr., hibernating governor of the Slumbering Ground Hog Lodge, presiding at a Summer gathering of the faithful. If Candlemas day be wet and foul, . There’ll be twa Winters in the year. Another declares: . If Candlemas day be dry and fair, The half o’ Winter's to come and malir. If Candlemar day be wet and foul, ‘The half o’ Winter's gane at yle. Just how Arctomys monax knows when his day rolls around for the breaking of his long Winter's nap is more than even his stanchest adherents can tell, but true to tradition, he makes his appearance on February 2 after having disappeared into the ground some time in October or November. Never a day too soon or too late. It makes no difference what the weather is, he comes out anyway, even if he has to dig his way through drifts of snow. The length of time he has been hibernating has nothing to do with the time of his appear= ance, for if there is an early Winter he holes up early, but if the Fall is mild he stays out much later. Regardless of the time he turns in for his three or four months’ nap, he always wakes up on the same day. Although the faithful of Quarryville dote en him, there are others who attempt to extermi- nate the animal, for these skeptics say he is the cause of endless trouble and no small loss to farmers. Whatever good he may do in the way of eating bugs and insects is more than offset by the damage he does to crops. He will take up his home in a fine field of grain, and the very first thing he does is to dig a hole for a horse to break a leg in when the mowing is done. Then he begins a tour of investigation, searching for the choice spots of clover, for, be it known, he is an epicure and will eat only the best food obtainable. Wherever he walks, his short, fat body breaks down the grain and kills ib. At the end of the season the field in the vicinity of his burrow looks like a huge wagon wheel, the burrow forming the hub from whiclh many paths radiate like spokes. IP left alone, farmers say, woodchucks will quickly overrun a pasture, making it » Worthless, He is constantly on the move while feeding, sitting up every few moments on his haunches to take a look at the terrain. If he sees any- thing of a suspicious nature, off he hikes for home and safety. He may be short and fat, but he can outrun the average man and, when he fights, he has the cruel teeth of a rat, only many times larger and stronger, and can inflict a very painful and dangerous bite. His houses are so well laid out that if once he gets in, a hunter might just as well give up hope of getting him. He always digs his hole on a sidehill and burrows uphill from the - entrance, so that when it rains he will be dry. He digs deep enough to have it warm in Winter and he always has at least two ene trances, so that if you make it too hot for him at one he can slip out of the other, The Punxsutawney Ground Hog Club was organized to feast ¢n the ground hog and destroy the patron of the faithful in Quarry- ville. Hibernating Governor Hensel, putting on tmmkmtted nightcap which is the official ree gall