The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1883-07-26
The Garden.

From the beginning of the history OF
the earth there has Been the history OF
q garden with it, and the love Of gardetry
seems to be . part of The affections Of
most OF us. like the love of all other
lovely things. Whenever the prophets.
for example, wanted figures to illustrate
the uttermost of love and beauty, they
where wont to use the garden for their
SMILES. t'And their soul" said Jere-
miah, ''shall be as O watered garden. /
and they shall not sorrow any MORE"
while Isaiah makes the promise, "And
thou shalt be like q watered garden, and
like spring of water, whose waters fail
not, " as if promise could no further go.
Nor did the poets of old times forget
them. And was not half the beauty of
Babylon and the forgotten cities made
by the architects who hung their very
roofs with gardens? {
How much they thought of gardens in
those old times when the Song of Songs
was sung! "Thy plants are an orchard
of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits
campfire, with spikenard and saffron;
calamus and cinnamon. with all trees of
frankincenSe; myrrh and aioes. with all
tho chief spices; e fountain of gardens.
we'll of living waters, and streams
from Lebanon. Awake, o north wind,
and come thou south; blow upon my
garden" sang the Oriental lover. Il
am come into my garden, my sister, my
spouse, / have eaten my honeyeomh
with my honey" And the spouse sings. !
"My beloved is gone down into his,
garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in
the gardens, and to gather lilies.'' And
the lover returns, II went down into
the garden of nuts to see whetheri
theivine fourished. and the pomegranates
budded." In fact, the Song of Songs
would be as badly Off without garden
as paradise Lost" itself would be, ort
as paradise Regained, indeed.
But precious as gardens were in those
long-gone days, in those hot countries
with their bare hill-tops and arid plains,
they are no less pleasant, but perhaps
equally as expensive, to-day and in our
own temperature regions. There is no
body who owns house but longs for
bit of land that shall be attached to it,
and few there are, even among the
crowded denizens of cities, who do not-
make the most of the little strip of
clothes yard. be they SO fortunate as to
have the little strip, with peach trea
in its corner, grape vines on its walls
and roses everywhere, while the man in
the country, where all things are posi-
BILE, who does not care for o garden, is
something to be looked at and looked
over that one may see what is the mat
ter with him, for something is. All the
women In the country, at any rate want
garden, whether the men of the fami-
ly do or not, and it is pathetic to see
their little efforts to inclose one, or else
the tender consideration shown for them
by the stronger arm which has already
inclosed one without the feminine as
sistance, where the pitiful little mari
Colds and cinnamOn-roses may flower,
and where these women get some sort
ct roses in their cheeks by leaving the
indoor delving and pottering in the
kindly earth an hour or SO now and then,
with broken and rusty old case-knife- :
1t is enough to break these determined
gardeners hearts, had they nothing else
to break them, to read of hedges of fox
glove, of every color under heaven, as
high as your head, in sunny California
gardens; fuchsias growing to the tops
of the houses, and clusters of roses the
double handful to the stem, and then to-
see the white fly devour their single rose
tended with such care, and know that if
there were no white fly the plant would
be only feeding ground for the rose
bugs which shall be the ruin of success
sive broods of young turkeys by eating
their way out of the tender little crops
that cannot destroy the hard shells. In
spite of all these drawbacks these gar
|-den-loving women never give up their
gardens, and year after year the lark
spur spindles there, the bluebell and the
columbine grow more pale, and the lit
tie deep blue star-of- Bethlehem opens
as if it were the cachet with which every
garden should be signed, and sealed in
memory of that spot of the East where
not only the first gardens grew, but the
gardens most sacred of all.
Gardens have always played greas
part in all our dreams and romances:
In Romeo and Juliet you see the
heavy-headed flowers hanging in the
moonlight much ef-the action 0
Twelfth Night" goes on in Olivia's
garden; of "Mueh Ado About Nothing"
in Leonato's garden; and we have .
Venetian garden in the Merchant q
Venice" and lessons in Sicilian garden
ing in the "Winter's Tale" What one
poet "a all the others did. and the
novel of modern days would be missing
its opportunity to make much of the
luxury of life that did not give us a
garden scene. For q garden is the out
door home, where nature makes roofs
and walls, hangings and pictures, where
sunshine and birds and flowers are nor
guests, but members of the family, and
health is wooed to come, and being
there, to stay Wherever there is 8
~ T., "a Id ~
lovers, by pleasant gray-haired people
sitting In the sun, by happy laughing
| children with their pets and plays.
Those of US who have garden count
| the days before we can stay there hours
together, book in hand, without injury
| those of us who have none long for tho
| time to come when we can walk in ouI
own paths, pluck the grapes of our own
vines, and the roses OF our own treesI
we are only too sure that there are few
things better in life than the possession
and cultivation of a garden; and we all
remember reading the old prophets
words when the Lord promises to turn
| the wilderness into a garden with pools
and streams and trees for the suffering
as if it were the last, best, greatest
blessing that could be given: when
the poor and needy seek water, and
there is none, and their tongue failett
for thirst, the Lord will hear therA 1
the God of Israel will not forsake them.
l will open rivers in high places, and
fountains in the midst Of the valleys: ]
will make the wilderness pool OF
water, and the dry land springs of water.
will plant in the wilderness the cedar,
the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the
| oil tree; will set in the desert the fiE
tree, and the pine, and the box tree to,
gether. From, Rarper's Baz0r.