The Hocking sentinel. [volume] (Logan, Ohio) 1871-1906, 1893-01-26
THE FATIGNA. FIG WER.
ETC.-AN OHIO PoETESS VOTES
E0R TILE PANSY

ETC.--AN OHIO PoETESS VOTES
FOR THE PANsY.
The question, NV hat shall be
our national fcwer," is not yet def
initely settle. Tens OF thousands
have pronounced in favor of the
trailing arbutus, hundreds of thous-
ands for the stately golden rod,
lille the sunfiower, the dandelion
and vaIous others, each have their
votaries.
Quite recently, speaking compar-
atively, the pansy his risen in prom
inence as a candidate for the high
honor of becoming the national
emblem, and we believe a resolu-
ton has been introduced into con-
gress recognizing it as such. The
Pansy. as every body knows, Is not,
like the golden rod and arbutus, a
native product of our woods OF
field. 1t has been developed by
culture from the modest little VIC
let or ''johnny-iump-up," which in
its native condition has been the
delight of all American children,
from the sturdy little Puritan that
came over in the Mayhower, down
to the armies that throng the pub
lie schools today. 1t might be
argued that the pansy being thus "a
sort of artificial product ought not
to claim rank in ntestfornationai
honors with the royal golden rod, for
n tance, which witt oat any artificia
culture, despite of all human neg
lect and even IN opposition to un-
wise efforts for its destruction, still
fiaunts It's golden glorles by the
wayside, on the hill and over the
fields. As natural product of
American soil, springing joyously
from our richest acres and blooming
in richest beauty even upon the
poorest tracts, the golden rod en-
hodies many, very many, of the
cha .acteristlcs and qualities which
not only ourselves, but the world
has come to regard and designate
as American.
And yet it may be said for the
pansy that i'll its proud develope :
men; from the humble, but pretty,
violet it represents, as no other
flower could, the splendid growth
of America, from a handful of set
tiers in the wilderness, into a
mighty nation, rich, powerful, pros
porous in all its material things,
and richer still in it's virtue, en-
lightenment and freedom. This is
good argument for the pansy, but
whether it should outweigh the
many claims of the stately golden
rod is still a debateable question.
However this may be, the pansy
has just received one vote in its
favor of more than ordinary signi-
ficance, for it is vote backed up
with grace, beauty, genius and
poetry. Miss Helen F. Pursell, of
Logan, daughter of the widely
known editor of the Logan Repub-
lican Gazette, has written, for the
Hooking Sentinel, poem advocat-
ing the pansy as the national flower,
a poem which, from its first line to
the last, is full of the grace, fresh
ness and originality of its author.
AS the Sentinel is rock ribbed
Democratic newspaper with an edi-
tor of the ''way back variety, and
Miss Helen herself and all her
family are Republicans from birth,
choice, patriotic impulse and intel
lectual conviction, this pretty poem
as well as the pretty pansy Itself,
may hence forth be regarded as ver-
liable ''fowers growing over the
garden wall of politics."
Miss Helen is known as a more
than ordinarily accomplished writer
among all her acquaintance, but
we believe this to be her first for
NAL appearance in print. The cen
tral idea of the poem, which makes
the pansy, by means of a romantic
story. emblematic of the renewed
and lasting union between the South
and North, is a happy and beautiful
conception. bat is not so clearly
worked out i'll the expression as il
exists in the authors own vivid
fancy. The reader has to think
and study a little before he can
grasp the full force and beauty of
what was in the authors mind.
Miss Pursell's handsome poem
concludes with these lines:
The violet wild to fostered pans, changed
" ifh shades no artists SIKH has e'er urrdng-
ed.
Wen bind 18th love on fair Coiumbias
breast,
ur iinliuh s emblem. there 10 ever rest