Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-06-25
Written for The Evcnins ST..
LEGENDS OF TINE RosE.
Tales Of the Flower That Crowns the MestA
Of June.


Tales Of the Flower That Crowns the Nesth
OF June.
MYTHS or THE AScIESrs CONCERNING THIS
QUEEN OF FLowERs--RenANrIc TALES or THE
MIDDLE AGEs-rHE ROSE WHICH wAsHrSeroS
PRoDucKD-wHES ROSES WERE OUT OF FASHION.
THERE ARE SOME VERY FAIR AND
u distinguished prescnees with us Just now,
whose brief stay Is already drawing to its close,
and who before they go deserve a respectful
and SpPreciatiye mention They are the roses.
Besides. strawberries and roses, What other
month than June can offer so detachable trim
ity? And trinity they surely form. a. much
as do the shamrocks' leaves radiatiny from one
stem, for are not Strawberries and roses found
growing within the arctic circle? and is not the
feminine Icelanisr. as well as her southern
sister, given in marriage? And DO not brides,
strawberries aud roses all blush beneath the
equatorial sun.
Compliments are they too. since what we'd
ding banquet would be complete il II were not
red with the berries and fragrant with the roses
Brides, strawberries and roses. but the great
est OF these-but perhaps il wouldn't be loyal
to finish the sentence. Nor could one upon re-
a.
rable, as Nishnu himself, lord OF the world aud
god of life. 1t viii be remembered. found his
bride, Pagoda Siri. in the heart Of a rose.
OF ANCIENT LINEAGE
That the rose is an old, old resident of the
world is evident from the fact that it's name can
be traced through the English, past the Greek,
back TO the Arabic; but just how the queen OF
flowers originated Is notso clear. and that i:
mad birth among the gods and goddesses Of
olympus is highly probable from the variety Of
myths that cluster about it, but il is to be feared
mat the Oiymplan newsgatherers must have
coloreo the real facts Of the case with their own
personal views. since no two accounts seem TO
agree.
The point upon which there seems 10 be a
more general concurrence is that the first rose
was white and sprang from the blood of Adonis.
the comeiy lover OF Venus, but a. TO the red
rose there Is vastly divided opinion some
saying that 1t was produced one day when Venus
trod upon white rose and its thorns piercing
her nesh her celestial blood thereupon tinged
the snowy flower with red and gave il thence
forth and forever more its color and perfume,
while another quite as authentic account AYERS
that the first red Roses were made one time when
Cupid enthusiastically treading an Olympian
measure The was a dancer, il seems like the
modern Lotharios), accidentally overturned a
vase OF nectar and this ruby beverage of the
gods thus set free fell TO the earth upon
This same Sir Cupid, like all CAV Young
notables, has all sorts of conflicting gossip re-
tailed about him. for there is still another tale
which says that all roses were white till the
enamoured Cupid once upon time playfully
held white rose next his sweetheart Psyche 5
cheek, thereupon changing the tint of all sue
ceeding generations of this flower
Though Cupid is still with us aad is the one be-
ing who could set these nooted matters straight.
he does not seem inclined TO do So We can
hardly blame him, though. for being reticent
concerning his old love affairs. for we are all
that way too.
After one has reviewed the situation and
about decided to pin his faith to one of these
accounts IT is little perplexing to come across
an old legend which says there were no roses
whatever till beautiful Jewess, brought to the
stake through the ISLANDERS Of a rejected suitor.
lifted her dark eyes TO heaven and implored that
some proof Of her innocence be youchsafed,
whereupon the fagots about her became a bed
OF roses, those already burning the red and the
unkindled the white.
MATTER OF LOCAL PRIDE
But, be all this as it may. there is one thing
that Is certain and that Is that one of the pref
test Of all the roses, the American Beauty, had
Its origin right here in Washington, for ii
sprang up unlimited in Nr. Bancroft's rose gar
den out on Lafayette square. 1t is O credit to
Washington, toe, with its beautiful rosy red
petals, taper buds, long. stiff stems and shapely
thorns, and to American femininity for whom
it is named Didn't some one once write a
verse which ran:
"A rosebud set with little willful thorns
And sweet as English air could make her"
1t is easy enough to paraphrase that SO as to
read American ali" and then we have ON our
own soil the rose, the girl and the poem-three
synonyms identical in meaning
IL would not appear from examining an
American BtsalfE vi IFS vi
thorns that the millennium Immediately at
hand, for it il said that in the first paradisical
days following the creation. when there was
neither sin nor sorrow, the roses
were all thornless. This discovery is
something of rebuff, too, to ones
hopes, as many Of the new" roses which pre-
ceded the American Beauty were practically
thornless and to have ones optimistic visions
thus banished is discouraging in the extreme.
The homeopathic school of medicine has al
ways prided itself on the mildness and pleasant
ness OF its prescriptions, but how many knew
that the first homeopathic dose was a rose
draught-homeopathic because administered on
the principle of like cures like, to cure the in
digestion following on banquet wherein rose
leaf pudding was one of the items of the menu
II was last resort, too, for rose beverage,
supposed to be spur to digestion, went along
with the rose-leaf pudding but this failing the
rose draught was called into requisition.
The shade Of Hahnemann should look to its
laurels.
This was back in the DAYS Of that CAV and
sociable gentleman Nero, who, at least, had one
good point in his fondness for roses. this PEN
chant carrying him SO far on one occasion as to
run him in debt to his florist to the tune of
$50, 600, for roses gsrlanded the walls wreathed
the guests. filled the cushions whereon the COM
pany reposed as ii sampled the rose-leaf pud-
ding and foated in showers from the ceiling,
while the fountains flung up sprays of rose
water.
WHEN ROSES WERE OUT OF FASHION.
There was once a time, though. in the worlds
history when roses were out of fashion. Let
us reflect on it and be thankful that we did not
live then 1t was when Rome came into the
control of the early Christian fathers who were
SO bent on having a regime totally different
from that of the wasteful and riotous emperors
that they banished everything that remotely
limited Of them, even for a time the innocent
roses.
If those old Romans could 90 into such costa
cies over the roses Of that time what wouldn't
they say TO our Jacqueminots. Marechal Niels
and American Beauties, blossoms as far exceed
ing in color, fullness fragrance and outline
those that graced their festal occasions as the
nineteenth century exceeds their era and all of
which loneliness has come about since the six
teenth century, when an impetus was given to
Horticulture by the craze for tulip speculation,
xrhi saI =