Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1883-02-14
REMARKABLE IGNORANCE.

issue of that date is long article upon
the bill introduced in the Legislature
by Mr.. Donly, of this county, to sup
press the growth of the weed known
as the "ox-eye daisy" While we
hardly know what the Press is driving
at. vet its want of information as to
the daisies of our country is apparent,
as will be seen by the article itself, the
greater part of which we give below in
order that no injustice may be done to
our city contemporary. 1t says:
DoNLY AND THE DAISY.
Donly has presented a
bill in the House to suppress the
growth, propagation and going to
seed of the weed commonly known
as wild daisies, or ox-eye daisies. F."
The daisy cannot strike back at Donly
as Pattison struck back at the Senate,
but it can hold On longer, and with a
frmer grip then Recorder Lane him.
self.
X X
The daisy has won for itself place
in the fields of literature as well as I'D
the fields of Butler county. Burns
begins by calling the daisy
Wee modest, crimson tipped flower.
Donly begins: "Be 1t enacted by the
Sinate and House, etc., that it shall be
the duty of any person or persons, and
of every corporation holding lands in
this Commonwealth, on which wild
daisies or ox-eye daisies may be grow
ing. to cut the same and prevent such
weeds or wild daisies from growing,
going to seed, ETC., or otherwise pay a
fine of SIS. Provided, that the
provisions of this act shall also
embrace a weed commonly known
as the wild carrot" The critics tell
us that one of the most difficult things
in literature is TO give successful ex-
preston to a mood. We know that
the genius of Burns has surmounted
the difficulty of suitably expressing his
regret at overturning daisy with his
plow; and here we see how the
genius of Donly has scared over all
embarra ssments and hindrances, and
successfully given expression to an en-
tirely different mood-one OF hatred
felt for the man on the adjoining farm,
who permitted the daisies to flourish
in his fence corners.
But Donly has larger purpose
than simple to uproot the daisies; he
had higher aim than simple to make a
to the Legislative Record,
to enrich the statute book of Purdon,
and to improve the condition of the op-
pressed agriculturist. Over the tops
of the ox-eye daisy heads Donly
strikes a vigorous blow at Oscar
Wilde, at the boy with mans stat
ure everywhere who bangs his hair.
Donly is too much of an agriculturlst
himself not to know the hopelessness
Of a war of determination waged on the
daisy. But, with the manly vigor that
characterized the pioneer, and is still
happily preserved in a few isolated
cases in the pioneers defendants,
Donly has sought to express his dis
appreciation, his contempt for the male
effeminacy of which the daisy has OF
late years been the chosen symbol.
He hurls, as it were, across the wide
waste of waters to Oscar Wilde, the
self-selected apostle of @stheticism, the
message that his mission has failed.
Donly and the other free-born Ameri-
can citizens of the best Republic the
sun ever shone upon declare that so
long as the American eagle circles
about their heads they will continue to
be free, full-grown men-not squaws.
The impression is created that there
is in Donly's bill irony or satire OF
even a profounder meaning. The
daisy has long been regarded as sug-
gestive of all that is fresh and inno-
cent. 1t is suspected that Donly
wants to uproot the ox-eye daisy,
which has become so plentiful in Penn
sylvania politics within the last month;
that his bill is satire aimed at the
fresh politicians, and the attention OF
the literary critics of the day is called
to the skill with which the author has
concealed what he is really driving at,
thus proving himself to be possessed OF
genuine genius.
Now the first thing in the above that
strikes the country editor is the mar
velous failure of the city editor to dis
tinguish between the modest and
favorite little daisy, our garden flower,
and the great, big field ox-eye daisy.
There is about the same difference be-
tween them that there is between an
OK and calf And we cannot account
for this woeful want of knowledge on
the part Of city editors, except on the
ground that they have never been in
the country, or been away from home.
They doubtless have daisies in Phila-
delphia, but they have no fields there
for the ox-eye ones to grow and Hour
ish in. If they had they would have
more botanical knowledge on the sub
ject The idea of CHASING the daisy OF
the poet Burns with the great pest OF
the farmer shows woeful want OF
weed and flower knowledge. Phila-
dclphia may boast of its acute lawyers,
its refinement, and its learning in gen.
eral, but in The matter of the different
varieties of the daisy, the Press and
her people seem to be lacking in infor,
nation.
Then again, the absurdity of asso-
ciating the bill of Mr.. Donly with
the name of Oscar Wilde, in any way,
is ridiculous. This is a further mixing
up. as it confounds the ox-eve daisy