Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-05-17
VAN DIAL S AT WOR K
Flower Gardens Being Wrecked System
atically by Despoilers.
The Police to BE Asked for Protec-
ers-COmplaints Pouring in.

Every year about this time complaints
begin to roll in to the police authorities and
the newspaper offices from persons whose
love of the aesthetic leads them to the culti-
walton of flowers. and who find that the re-
suits of their care and thought and affec-
ton and labor are despoiled by vandals as
soon as they approach fruition. The sys-
TEN of parking wisely adopted by the city
fathers of Washington many years ago has
given a possible flower garden to almost
every person who lives in the residence por-
ton of the city, and In numberless instances
the opportunity thus afforded has been
eagerly embraced. The majority OF the
amateurs who begin to raise flowers in their
front yard however. find one season enough.
under the idea, probably, that sufficient for
ten seasons is the evil of one. With tender
solicitude and affectionate care the begin
ner sets out his plants In accordance with
the rules of the latest book on horticulture,
and then, when gentle springtime comes,
watches with expectant pride the tiny buds
beginning to form, and gloats over the glori-
Gus promise for brilliant future that Is
concealed within them. The day of bloom
Is nearly at hand: the gardener and his sis
ter and his cousins and his aunts are on the
qui vive over the approaching event, when
the front yard will bloom with beauty and
become fragrant with perfume. when a
lovely morning breaks and shows them a
mass of broken stems and ruined plants.
which some heartless scouhdrel has left as
q memento of nocturnal visit of destruc-
ton and greed This picture may seem a
little overdrawn, but IL has been the ex-
perience of hundreds of people in the city
of Washington in the past, and from the
complaints already received by The Even
ing Star 1t is being entirely too numer-
ously reproduced at present. While there
does not seem to be any organized plan OF
robbing flower gadens, still there Is little
doubt that some persons pursue the bastard
ly vocation systematically. In the north
west section there have recently been sew
eral visits of depredators to newly laid out
gradens, in which the plants have not only
been broken off and robbed of their blooms.
but a large number of the rarer varieties
removed from the ground altogether.
The majority of the despoilers who make
such havoc among the flower beds of the
citizens to which access is not impeded by
any other barrier than the mere park rail-
ing or wicket fence are not thieves for reve-
nue., but are misguided individuals who do
not recognize as they should the laws OF
meum and teum when ii comes to flowers.
They are attracted by the beauty of the
plant; they desire to possess the blooms.
and the result Is an irate amateur gardener.
who swears he will never raise another
flower as long as he lives; pretty garde
ruined. and another THIEF added to the al
ready long category of the recording angel.
1t is understood that number of gentle
men who still love Towering plants suffi-
GENTLY well to run the risk of having their
gardens looted in the night viii call on Maj.
Moore and request him to instruct his offi-
GERS to keep a sharp lookout on all premises
" here flowers are grown, and to arrest all
persons who may be found on the street
late at night or very early in the morning
with flowers in their possession, and make
such parties give a good account of them
selves, or be taken to the Police Court for
trial. There is no doubt. say these gentle
men, that ninety out of every hundred of
the little park places in front of The resi-
dences in Washington would be made YER
liable flower gardens with each recurring
season by their possessors If there was any
guarantee that they would be protected
from the inroads of passing vandals of eth
er the vicious or the thoughtless variety.