The Springdale news., 1889-11-15
THE NATIONAL FLOWER.
Bob Burdettc Casts His Soto In Favor c
 the Humble Plantain.

the Humble Plantain.
 am going to record my vote for the National flower, and l am not go- ing to pay Messrs. Whang X Go. twen- ty-five cents for the privilege either Talk about corruption in our National elections there has been more money spent in this flower campaign, right at the polls, and openly, too, than would elect a councilman. Fellow citizens, Indians not taxed, Cinnamon and ; women, 1 give my hand and my vote to the humble and obtru- sive plantain. She needs no en- comium 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 a mile of you. In tho velvet lawn that cost you four dollars a square foot; in the
 pansy bed, in the tub wherein grows the accursed oleander. breaker of hu- man backs; in the garden of roses; in the toothsome bed where the south
 wind loiters amid the loud breathed onion, stealing and giving odor; wherever you have planted any thing; wherever you haven't; on the hill- sides of New England, on the bleak and rocky coast of Maine, in the orange groves of Florida, !. on the great alkali 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 charters through the glories Of Mount Wash ington; wheEever the foot of man has urod, 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 hogging four seats in a railway car. Oh, citizens, l do bespeak your most sweet voices for the plantain. It knows no East. no South, no North, no West; 1t has no sectional prejudices. no local pride or limitation; just wher- ever 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 flourishes like the grass hopper; where smartweed perisbes because it has no root the plantain makes crop. A few short weeks in slu-hy spring the Mayhower hides it's pretty bloom in mountain slopes and eastern hills, transient guest of local fame and briefest life. When autumn filings her gorgeous ban ners to the skies, the golden rod. for few passing weeks, makes radiant the meadow. glen and bill, and then departs to hide away the year; but thou, oh plantain of the sandy craw, thou hast the grip; thou art a stayer. thou; thou art a laster from Waybacl1; thou art the first to come. the last to go. Thee, the all beholding sun upon his annual farewell tour sees all the time, mak- ing glad the door yard of the poor, and playing merry Cain upon the rich mans lawn. Thou thrivest upon per- seeution; thou turnest not back from them for tho grasshook, and sayest among the lawn mover, ha, hal The rains nourish thee; the sum- burned drought rnaketh thee strong; black frost tingeth thy leaves with luster life and six foot freeze that kills the 'cast-iron hitching posts is pie for the plantain. It is American clean through. this fresh and cheeky weed. It has aA imported name-plantag- inace9, and is proud of it, as any American when she has invented coat of arms and married an anees- tor. That is its family name; the plantain which claims tho honor of being the national flower has name sas purely American as the continent itself-Piantago major Long live the major! Forever float that stand ,ard weed, where-Eh? Whats that? 1t isn't an American plant at all; il is found all over the inhabited and 'uninhabited worldp" We'll, licenses River! Isn't that American? Rise up, maJor, you are elected. .- Robert .J. Burdette, in Brooklyn Eagle.