Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1875-05-10
X. WHITMORE,
Publisher and Proprietor,
The POntICal Language Of Flowers.

Paris Correspondence Manchester Guardian. !
The Bonapartist papers assure us that
the quantity Of violets sent to Chiselhurst
last week was so enormous that the I'm
perialists in Paris could not find the
smallest bouquet, though they offered
fabulous prices for even the ordinary
penny one which are daily hawked about
the streets by hundreds of vendors. For
my own part | protest against this in
PRODUCTION of politics and party spirits
among flowers. The violet has charms
for all eyes, and it is not necessary to
have an imperial nose to appreciate its
delightfully."- suave odor. Yet you can
not invest in penny bunch of this
charming flower without incurring the
suspicion that you regret the twenty
years of corruption" and long for many
returns of the same. Should you put
the modest nosegay in your button-hole,
every one you meet will at once conclude
that you have Napoleon Ills photograph
in your pocket, on the side which but
tons over your heart. The symbol of
modesty has thus come to be the distinc-
tive sign Of conspirator. The lily, the
snow white emblem of purity, has suffer-
ed just as much at the hands of the
Legitimists as the violet at the
hands OF the Bonapartists. The
lily, having just the same sigui6ca-
ton as the white flag, is perforce for
that reason alone, excluded from
the gardens of thorough-going Republ-
cans. Here, then, are two of the most
lovely flowers in nature exposed to the
hatred, contempt or neglect of great
portion of the French nation, because
one of them is the rallying sign of the
Extreme Right, and the other that of
the groupe de rappel au peuple. The
fate of the everlasting power, immor.
telles we call them here, is still more sad.
1t used to be placed in wreaths on tomb.
stones, to signify that the soul is immor-
tai the custom is still very prevalent, but
tends to disappear because those who
do not believs in the existence of the
soul at all, have taken to following their
deceased friends to the grave with nose
gay of immortelles in their buttonlhole.
The symbol Of Immortality has become
the emblem Of materialism in religion
and socialism in politics. Who that has
any poetry in his soul does not feel SEN
timental when he thinks of the willow by
the brook so pathetically bound by Shak-
speare to the unhappy fate of the fair
Ophelia, and made popular in the we'll
Known song of " ALI round my hat wear
green willow2" Yet this source Of
tender sentiment has been dried up for
the French ever since Jules Favre re.
ceived the soubriquet Of 1.-THE Weeping
Willow" " Alexander Dumas, by making
the beautiful camelia the favorite flower
of the most famous of his demi-mon-
DANES, has caused it to be banished
from every decent corsage, from
every honest chignon. The adop-
ton Of the graceful gardenia by the
creeves and the gommeux, the last "
young men Of fashionable society, who
pinch their feet in tight boots and dis
simulate their spindle shanks in trousers
q releghant, prevents a man of sense
from adorning their persons with it. If
now, bidding goodbye to Flora, we de-
scend into the kitchen garden, we find
that the mocking spirit of the French
has injured the reputation of many an
honest vegetable. The turnip, the med
lar, the cabbage, the gherkin, the potato,
the carrot have all been associated with
moral ideas either odious or degrading.
If you tell an extraordinary story to q
skeptical Parisian, he interrupts Won
with "des navets", (turnips), or hdes ne
6es" (medlars), which is as much as to
say, tell that to the marines;" and if
he sees that you believe it yourself,
he sets you down as un cornichon "a
ghelkin), and informs you that your
story is bette CONNIE chou (as stupid as
cabbage). The potato (pomme de lerre)
is synonymous with rural and reaction.
The honest tubercle has come to carry
that meaning because the members Of
the Agricultural Club, who reall royal.
ists are familiarly known as les pommes
de terre. The carrot has been the most
hardly dealt with of all, for tirer une
carrotte Ito draw carrot) means to
deceive with lying tale, generally with
the object of exto2ting money. Thus il
q Bohemian asks you to loan him FIVE
francs in order to buy Grape for his
hat because his mether-in-law is dead,
you may be sure that he is drawing a
carrot (Qu'il vouB tire une carrotte