The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-01-17
WHAT FLOWERS DO FOR FOLK.

Observations on How They Affect a Mans
Character and Appearance.
The talk about the overwork and under
pay of many sorts Of laborers tempts a
thoughtful person to take a rather critical
attitude with regard to his luxuries. An
enjoyment is easily spoiled by the twinge
of reminding conscience, which insists
that the pleasure has been secured through
the unduly painful toll of another.
But at least one delightful extravaganza
is entirely free from this faint of the
primal curse. Flowers have no clinging
associations of unhappy workers in squalid
surroundings, but call instead TO the minds
of those who know them the most con.
tented class of manual laborers to be found
in the world. Among good many florists
and gardeners whom l have known l can
not remember a single dissatisfied or pessi-
mistic one. They are always a little pa
thetic to look at, because constant STOPPING
makes round shoulders one of the marks
of the trade, and their general effect of I'M
prosperousness is heightened by their pre-
vailing Indifference to personal neatness.
Indeed, their fondness for the soil is al
most always so great that they are not at
all troubled when an astonishing amount
of it adheres to them, and merely to say
that gardener is better fellow than be
looks expresses very feebly the virtues of
the calling.
And the interest these men show in their
work. My gardeners have an almost ma
ternal fondness for their plants. Would
you like to see my houseful of sick roses|
one asked me once.
'Of course should" replied, expect
ing to see some depressing spectacle of
languishing vegetation. Instead. | was
shown roomful of sturdy bushes Of all
ages, but alike in the lustiness of their
growth
"You see, in every lot which comes from
the nursery there are some which haven't
stood the journey, and which would never
do to sell" said my florist friend. ''Their
value is not much, but l canDct bear TO
throw them away, and little extra care
makes them what you see here"
isn't the time worth more than the
young plaDts'"
"Of course is. But 1 enjoy giving the
weak ones bit of petting."
have often noticed that generosity is al
most trade characteristic of florists. 1t does
not take the form of making their wares
unnaturally cheap, but they are more will
ing than other merchants to give little
more than they have to. With most of the
craft a dozen means fifteen, and | have
rarely found one who would not ask a Gus
toner to take an extra rose for bouton-
Mere. They seem to feel that flowers were
created to be given and not sold, and offer
this little implied apology for the sordid
necessity which makes them barter their
lovely merchandise.
Nothing pleases them better than a Gus
toner who is himself an enthusiast, and il
would be hard TO convince them of the
baseness of a real flower lover / went
once to the florist who had lately stocked
my little garden with complaint that the
plants had all been stolen.
''StOle your plants, did they'" repeated
he, with a quaint Scotch accent. Then,
thinking that the catastrophe appealed TO
me in a moral rather than a commercial
light: But they Gamma ha' been vera bad
il they liked flo'ers well emo 70 steal EN-"
Cor. Kate Fields Washington.