The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1885-02-20
THE ORANGE
The Literature Of the Delicious Fruits Of the
Tropics-What Bards Have Sung and
Essayists Indicted in Its Praise.

l
d distinction. King Cotton has been dis
II crowned; his dignity and riches re
:. main, and family Of princeling crop
e has sprung up to share his estate il
s the south. They are republican anc
e democratic princes. and so now is his
3 cotton majesty. We respect them al
for his contributions to the national
wealth, for they are kings of imagin-
alton or fancy only, and their royalty
: is like that of Old King Cole or the
King of Clubs. Our American Prince
: of Oranges has his chief domains in
California and Florida. We of the east
are nearest to Florida, and it brings
real comfort to the heart and water to
the mouth to learn that the orange
crop of Florida this season is a mag
nificent one. A source more real and
better worth loving than the fountain
of eternal youth which Senior Ponce de
Leon, nearly 400 years ago, vainly
sought for in that southern peninsula,
has been opened Florida, the fiowery
land, is especially the orange-fowery
land, since the red men have been de-
ported, the black men liberated, and
the white men invited. . The first
fruits of this years crop that have
come hither are supremacy good, and
it is comfort to many to know that
the crop is the largest ever known.
Having attained to such q dignity in
the United States, there ought to be
some historical or scientific intastiga-
ton concerning the orange. There is
learned suspicion that the fruit of
which Eve ate in Eden was no. an
apple, but an orange. The scriptures
do not name the orange. but they as
sociate the palm with the apple, and !
our apple is rot tropical, like the
palm and the orange. So Ewes apple
was an orange, and, unfortunately,
not bitter one, or she would not
have been tempted herself and then
temptress to her foolish husband.
Solomon, speaking of''apples of gold"
did not, of course, mean Baldwins, or
Spitzbergens, or pippins; but the fruit
with the golden rind that we call or
anges. Botanically and pomologically
the orange is traced to the citron, or
lemon, the citrus linionuS of the Ro-
mans. 1t came from Asia, and the
citron was the Median apple of anti
guilty. In its westward progress, I'M
der the treatment of gardeners and
the transformations of the Greek gods,
or the wood-nymphs, it became sweet ,
fruit. Grated and transplanted in
Helicon and watered by Hippocrene,
into which the honeydews of Hymet-
tus were condensed, the once bitter ;
fruit became the perfect orange, and,
under the name of apple, was selected 2
by Paris as a becoming prize to Venus
N the famous prize-match for beauty '
IN Mount Ina.
mantle history of the orange closes
lere, and it comes down through the ii
Medieval times somewhat vulgarized.
It became an article of traffic in Eu- 81
'ope, and the famous Mistress Nell
iwynne was a vender of oranges in N
)rury Lane theater when she began b
Ter career of conquests in which n
aintly Stuart king fell an easy victim. e,
1t an earlier date the orange was used b
n the plague times as disinfectant. or
preventive or protective from disease b,
;avendisil describes Cardinal Wolsey "
ntering a chamber crowded with
lace-hunters, ''holding in his hand n,
cry fair orange, whereof the meat or Fl,
INSTANCE within was taken out, and
lied up again with part of sponge, 70
therein was vinegar and other confec- M
ons against the pestilential airs, the
Inch he most commonly smelt unto, TO
asslng among the press, or else he so
as pestered with many suitors."
ERE is suggestion for Gov. Cleve- eli
lnd's friends. Why do not some of cd
lem, now that the crop is so large,
he fruit so fine, and the civil-service be
stem so endangered, send him box nj
: barrel of stuffed oranges to guard
IN from the presidential airs'' that he ia
exposed to when "pressed with many an
Iitors?" But the orange has not vet
ltered into American politics. If it w
'uld vote, the Florida crop this wear an
ould overwhelm the rest of the yot
g population. ON
In modern European literature the co
ange has its fair share of space. Mil
n placed it in Paradise, though, in in,
me confusion or doubt, he makes it nil
ow on the tree of life,
High eminent blooming ambrosial fruit ,ro
)f vegetable gold. No
He speaks also of groves of trees. y,
Whose fruit, burnisned with golden rind. I'm,
lung amiable Hesperian fables true, ,u'
Il true here only, and of delicious taste no
Many later bards have sung of the
ange, but none more lovingly than col
iney Lanier, in his Tampa Robins" dil
lere the northern bird carols of ;.
unllght song, and the orange ne
e:" me
Burn, golden globes in leafy sky on
My orange planets crimson l !
VIII shine and shoot among the spheres vol
tBllthe meteor. that no mortal fears) nef
And thrld the heavenly orange tree r.
With orbits bright of minstrelsy LOU
Prose and traffic, however, are the i
Items in which the golden globes sur
this age move, somewhat eccentric OF
at times, for the crops are varia- ane
and puff from "a northern NAV SOL
the growth of whole southern L
son. But the fruit is ever in de- log
nd, and there are fashions in eating tho
10 describe which might REQUIRE mes
piers or volumes. The commonest or
thod is that of suction. as perform L
by the street arabs, who then pro- pail
d maliciously to place the rind OF are
pavement and watch for a down. by |