The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-10-13
WITH BOB BURDETTE.
he EulOgizes the Plantain as the
National Flower.
EVEN THE WORLD GOES ROUND.
Satisfaction Guaranteed-Life Under Water
Sebastian Norey's 0ration-Waiting for
the Syndicate-A Great Poet.

am going TO record my vote for the
national flower, and l am not going to
pay Messrs. Whang & Co. % cents foI
the privilege either Talk about corrup-
i ton in our national elections There has
been more money spent in this flower
campaign, right at the pools, and openly.
too, than would elect a councilman.
i Fellow citizens, Indians not taxed, Chi
namen and women, give my hand and
my vote to the humble and unobtrusive
plantain. She needs no encomium from
me. There she stands, or, rather, squats.
Where? Right there-right where you
are looking at this minute if there is a
spot of ground six inches square within
half mile of you. In the velvet lawn
that cost you "a a square foot; in the
pansy bed; in the tub wherein grows the
accused oleander, breaker of human
backs; in the garden Of roses; in the
toothsome bed where the south wind loi-
ters amid the loud breathed onion,
stealing and giving odor; wherever
you have planted anything; wher-
ever you haven't; ON the hillsides
of New England, on the bleak and rocky
coast of Maine, in the orange groves of
Florida, on the great alkai deserts of the
wild and woolly west, where Shasta's
hoary head lifts itself to the clouds,
crowned with eternal grandeur, and
where the gibbering tourist cackles and
ohatters through the glories of Mount
Washington; wherever the foot of man
has trod. and everywhere that it hasn't,
there springs this radiant weed of hope,
eternal on the mundane breast; there
strikes its ell long root this herb Of truth,
though ofttimes crushed to earth, rising
again stronger than ever, and spreading
itself over the adjacent grass, like a true
born American hoggiug four seats in a
railway car. Oh, citizens, do bespeak
your most sweet voices" for the plan
north, no west; it has no sectional pref
udices, no local pride or limitation; just
wherever the soil is fertile or barren it
lays hold on life; it comes to stay; it gets
there, Eli Where nothing else will
grow it fiourishes like the grasshopper;
where smartweed perishes because it
has no root, the plantain makes crop.
\ few short weeks in slushy spring
the MayflOwer hides its pretty bloom in
mountain slopes and eastern hills,
transient guest of local fame and briefest
life. When autumn filings her gorget us
banners 10 the skies, the goldenrod for
few passing weeks makes radiant the
meadow. glen and hill, and then departs
to hide away the year; but thou, oh
plantain of the sandy craw. thou hast
the grip; thou art a slayer, thou; thou
art a laster from Wayback; thou art the
first to come, the last to go, Thee, the
all beholding sun upon his annual fare
well tour, sees all the time, making glad
the dooryard Of the poor and playing
merry Cain upon the rich mans lawn.
Thou thrivest upon persecution; thou
turnest not back from them for the grass
hook and sayest among the lawn mower
ha, hal
The rains nourish thee; the sun burned
drought maketh thee strong; black
frost tingeth thy leaves with lustier life
and six foot freeze that kills the cast
iron hitching posts is pie for the plant
ain. 1t is American clear through, this
fresh and cheeky weed. 1t has an i'm
ported name - plantaginacee, and is
proud of it, as any AmericaR when she
has invented coat of arms and married
an ancestor. That is its family name;
the plantain which claims the honor of
being the national flower, has name as
purely American as the continent itself
APlantago major. Long live the ma
iorl Forever float that standard weed,
where-Eh? What's that2 at isn't an
American plant at all; it is found all
over the inhabited and uninhabited
world?'' Well, licenses River! Isn't
that American? Rise up, major, you are
elected. Robert ]. Burdette in Brook
Ign Eagle.