The evening world., 1891-04-30
Nell Nelson Tells Of Disappointed Chill
dren at the Flower Market.
They Come to Buy and Find the
Dealers Gone.
Embryo Botanists Bafiied in Their
Pursuit OF knowledge.


fany's clock, the New York Flower Market
closes. The dealers board avenue, Broad
way and cross-town cars, laden with ham
pers Of sweet-smelling, bright-hued flowers.
and the growers climb up on their wagons,
pick up the rcins and drive off, some OF
them gay, and others disconsolate because
of their tnsold wares. :..-
Every sweet odor goes dancing off with q
flying zephyr, every stray leaf and petal Is
brushed away by the gardeners assistants,
and ten minutes later Union Square is
again the undisputed paradise of saucy
sparrows and gentlemen OF leisure.
Notwithstanding this is the programme
rigidly adhered to, there are many people
daily disappointed at the Flower Market.
Thousands OF men, women and children
have learned to their discomfort that they
have come too late.
Saturday morning there must have been
GOO little boys and girls In Union Square
few minutespast the hour, "hunting for the
flower wagon" They were school children
with marble bags, cigar boxes and baking
powder boxes filed with coppers and
nickels. They represented botany classes
in public ard parochial schools, and they
had commissions that tested their pride as
well as their judgment and taste.
They came In groups OF two, three and
five, the boys to take good care Of the
girls, to show them the way and carry the
flowers without squeezing them," and the
grave, sweet little women came to select
the blossoms and make good bargains.
Many OF them carried slips of paper with
long Latin names written very plainly in
violet ink, that the gardeners and nursery
men might be able to read what the bright
little scholars could not attempt to pro-
nounce.
They wanted male and female flowers !;
flowers of one, three and five petals; flowers
with either or both calyx and corolla, and
flowers that creep, climb and hang.
One pretty girl in red and white plaid
cotton dress, and a red and white striped
cotton apron, with checks and lips redder
than either, wanted hundred-leaf rose.
The girl with her, 1.-the little creature who
had orders to buy clusters, could only think
Of hydrangeas, and they were far beyond
the limits of her purse.
Most Of these children had come to the
square without any breakfast, and nearly
all had walked from their homes. Barely a
dozen were In time to SEQ the market, and
their disappointment was indeed great.
Childlke, they did their thinking out loud.
They thought 1t "roal mean" and "too
bad, when they had gotten up so early.
They wondered what teacher would say,'
and what the class would think.
Some of the boys proposed that they buy
in the shops on the way homo, but the girls
would not hear of 1t. 1t wouldn't be
right" they thought "to use tho school
money that way, because they are SO dear. {"
The workmen about the square had no
comfort to offer. They KNEW that the
flower men came to town as early as Q A. NJ.
and that they had to scamper at sharp"
They invited the detected little botanists to
take look at the pink and white
hyacinths round the fountains, and peep al
tho tulips and daisies across the turf"
This poppy-show OF color was not the
delight to them that 1t would have been
under other circumstances. They had beer
sent to market for the express purpose Of
getting material for recitation, and
through no fault OF their own had missed
the opportunity.
"Teacher would be displeased, the schol
ars would make ugly suggestions about
sleepy heads, and their own brothers and
sisters would say they had stopped on the
way to look in shop windows"
!, Poor children!
They had gone to bed with their innocent
little heads full of pollen, pistillatos, co
rollas and mental sketches of the monopet
alous alternates, roots and bulbs they hat
dreamed of flowers, dancing; OF the mis-
chieyous tendril that grew about the ley o.
nightingale and imprisoned him while h,
slept; of the silvery daisy with COLDER
heart and sweet, warm lips that mad,
love to the captive lark; of the regal tigel
lily, the naughty black-eyed Susans of tn,
pert yellow tops and puffed-up, vainglori
GUS peoples and their combined attacks OF
) Queen Rose; they had rolled up the window
curtain with their own hands the night be
fore, that the April sui might shine in upor
them and throw sunbeams under their eye
. lids and burn their cheeks until they wer,
wide awake.
And then to walk all that distance onl,
TO find the market closed, the flowers gon,
and not thing in the square but drows,
= tramps and chattering swallows and tom
tits, Truly, 1t was too bad
These little people do not want the costly
hybrids they have no desire to interfer,
b. with the interests OF the local florists VIII,
g deal In magma chartas, orchids, Beauties
gardenias double tulips and Parma violets
They have not been educated up to an ap
. probation of these stately blossoms that =
y. with purple and fine linen, sterling plate
o French china and Russian crystal. The
want field flowers, grasses, may-apples
=, harebells, buttercups, cowslips, rose an
;. scarlet geranium, fever-fews, daffodils an
e daisies, arbutus, jasmine, mignonette, mar
'' gold, sweet pea, and some Of the other dear
;" sweet, old-fashion flowers that they hav
heard mamma and grandmamma tai
/. about.
d Flowers are the children OF the earth, an
n children are the flowers of humanity. an