Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1889-06-27
A Mishap TO Cupid Once Caused 1t to
Be Endowed with ThOrns.

bbhih was Aulufh lhHNhl=lA lhlO a uth Vi
roses, "wbereon the child sweetly slum-
befed."
The Greeks give the rose a lover in the
person of Zephyr, the son of the dawn,
who discovered the rose in bud an cares
sed it when it Enclosed TO his wooing. The
Persians make lovemates of the nightiu-
gale and rose-the bulbul and the gul,
Originally the rose was white, but ac-
oording 10 the Persian poet Jami, the
nightiug ale in the ardor of his love "press-
ed his breast against the encircling thorns
and covered her delicate perals with his
flowing blood" Another account is
hat Venus, fearing for herl over A5onis
the vengeance of Msrs hid him ia thick
ct of roses.
While the enamored queen of 10y
Flies to protect her lovely boy,
On whom the jealous war god PUSHES,
She treads upon thOrned rose,
Aud while the wound with crimson flows,
The snowy fowret feels her blood with
is Moore's translation of a Latin epigram
embodying the fable Bon, in his ia
nous idyi on the death of Adouis, says of
Venus weeping over her wounded and
dying lover:
Both tears and drops of blood were turned to
flowers,
From these in crimson beauty sprang the rose,
Cerulean bright anenous from those,
Thorns are accounted for in an equally
fanciful way. Cupid, stopping to kiss a
new blown, dewy rose, was stung by a bee
asleep in its heart To please the
petulent BOY, Venus strung his bow with
captive bees aud planted along the stem
of the rose the stipgs torn from the
bees.
Htppoorates, the god Of silence, carries
as his symbol "a rose given TO him ky
CUPID. From the idea of secrecy or re-
serve that associates itself with roses
came TO the Old custom recorded by the
Greeks. Wheh the people of the North,
they say, wished to preserve the most
profuud secrecy in regard TO what was
said between themselves at their feasts, a
freshly gathered rose was hung from the
ceiling above the upper end of the table.
1t was considered not only dishonotablt,
but crime, to reveal that which had been
said Sub rosa"
Roses were dedicated to Venus as the
symbol of beauty, TO Cupid as the symbol
of love, to Aurora, the rosy fingered, 70
signify her office of opening the portal
OF the day, TO youth and springtime In
lnG tAuBtIdhGt VI lItlE lbNt anu 10y al
she meant TO the Greeks all thing bright
and fresh and fragrant
Vast rose gardens were planted on the
hills near Athens, which supplied flower
markets OF the day. And in Gi@oo Roman
colonies of Paestum and Sybaris the oul
tore must have been carried 10 a very
high degree of perfection. Ovid tells us
hat they were to bloom twice year by
means of hot water, which-from tccti
mony gathered from the literature of the
day-must have been carried in pipes,
much as il done in our hot houses today,
Pliny writes, about the date of ths
Christian era; ut is a flower known TO
all nations equally With wine, myrtle and
oil"
When the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra
went TO Cilicia TO meet Marc Antony she
celebrated their meeting by daily feasts.
During the first three days the richest
tapestry and haugings, vessels of gold
aud silver, adornments of precious stones,
all that the wealth and luxury and refine
ment of the world could supply were
lavished upon the entertainments. On
the fourth day as the crown and culmina-
ton of il all, she gave TO him a feast of
roses. TIE floors of the rooms and halls
we're covered to the depth of eighteen
inches with freshly blown roses, held in
place by strong but delicate not
stretched above them. Nero, not many
years later, gave a feast where 100000
was spent IN roses alone.
The Romans obtaiued their roses at
first from Egypt. They we're scattered
through their temples and on their floors
and coaches, and the petals hoated upon
the Falernian, which they drank. On the
occasion of certain water parties given al
Baln, the whole lake of Lucina was cover
ed with roaes, which parted before the
moving boatb and closed after them a.
they passed.
Lucids Yerus reached a luxury in the
use OF The rose never surpassed before OF
after his time. He slept upon couch
covered with cushions made OF fine, thin
net, and filled with freshly gathered rose
leaves The extreme fastidiOusness OF
the young Smindyrides, the Sybarite
whose sleep was disturbed by a ctumpled
rose leaf has passed into familiar pro
verb.
In the third century, when Heliog-
balus the beautiful, long haired priest OF
the sun, was cLlled, from serving the al
tars of Bail in Phpn;c, TO the wearing Of
the imperial purple, his extravagsnce'
left behind those of his predecessors ahc
drained the resources OF the EN- rire. HIS
gorgeous dresses, golden ornaments and
preciocs wearing. His floors we're scat
tered with gold dust ana covered with
roses. His porticoes and couches anc
beds we're strewn with them. Ihrougt
the four years Of his mad career the patti
way that lead 10 his violent death was lit
! orally strewn with roses.
The oldest rose bush IN the world il a
Hildersheim. II Vas planted more thar
1000 years ago b. Cherlemagne in som
memoration OF visit made him by the
I ambassador Of the Caliph Harom al Ras
child Of Arabian Nights fame. 8
The rose plant Wa, when described
few years ago, still living aud blooming
profusely and vas 26 feet high, coyerins
80 feet Of wall, though the stem was onll
( tYo inches in diameter.
In the German Book Of Heroes" Their
/ il a story of a rose garden az Worms sur