The morning times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1897, 1896-08-23
FLOWERS FOR THE SICK
Charitable Illustrations From
Uncle Sans Gardens.
FURNISHING THE HOSPITALS
Some Things About the Sentimental
Observance of an Unwritten Law
beauties In Wards of Suffering.
How the Custom Originated.

In the daily contact with stern reckon
| ing and untempcred Justice 1t is pleasant
and refreshing to encounter an oasis of un-
hired sympathy. even IL 1t transcend the
| Commonplace and reveal itself in senti-
mcnt- Pacing the streets OF Washington,
threading its parks and winding its circles.
| all OF them garden spots full Of the life and
beauty OF nature, while fresh, happy faces
are encountered on all sides, even to the
| little ones laughing up from among the
| flowers. little thought comes of the weary
| and wan. the sick and the distressed. led
| ded under charity's roof, prisoners to a
couch. in the suspense OF long suffering or
| in the agony OF life and death.
Where is the relation Between the flow
ers in the parks and the patients In the hos
| pitals? sympathy has solved 1t and. al
though the public service Is looked upon as
| stern sphinx. bound in the interminabie
rneshes of red tape. q kindly temperament
has iegisiated an uDwritten law, which
has never been questioned. Though 1t is
written In no statute hooks and Is OF no
other record than tndelible tradition. the
obligation is faithfully and gently fulfilled
to much good.
Down south OF the monument are the
crystal sheds OF the prODagatinS gardens.
which n public service are attached TO the
office Of the chief of public buildings and
grounds. The head of the department is
Col John N. Wilson. Z. s. A. The presiding
genius OF the crystal flower palace.is Mr..
George H. Brown, officially known as pub
lie gardener. Both men are of tie exact
Kind temperament which would coin
eide with the practice of their charitable
work.
The propagating gardens are really the
noriture entofthegovernnent The
nursery OF buds and the Kindergarten of
young plants. These hothouses and gardens
produce untold excess OF buds, which must
droop and die and waste their sweet
ness on the desert air." unless-and happily
the possibilities OF the alternative have been
appreciated-they are cuiled and ser where
their fragrance ma refresh the air and their
matches color may gladden. tired eyes
Over 4O0, 900 plants are annually propa-
gated at the gardens every year. There are
many iegaiized and designed uses for this
wealth OF flowers. The parks. circles, tri-
angles and small public squares about the
made elaborate from MT. Bro WINS gardens.
the Members and Senators and high pubic
officials are, upon request, furnished from
the public garden with decorations for the
entertainments which from their high posi-
tionfn state society demands OF then. All
these extensive drains require many now
ers. but there are always more. -Four hun
dred thousand pi ants are great many.
FLOWERS FOR HOSPITALS.
So every week in summer Ahen there is
less demand from the officials. and SO often
as possible in winter time, Col. Wilson
orders the gardeners to prune off the sur
plus buds and the wagon is packedciOse with
its fragrant and beautiful burden nd they
are taken to the hospitals.
How much good they do, how much plea
sure the exquisite offering brings is meal
cuiable AMI uDappreciable. except TO the
foi:Irn sufferers who lie patiently III their
narrow cots. looking no farther than the
horizon OF The bleak, white walls and Cell
ing. and breathing no more fragrant air
than is famed to them across Il spread of
city bousetops, impure with smoke and urb-
an fouluess. When the nurses come to thar
bedside with the jar of biCsiiing carEations,a
triumph OF the assistance which man and
his science lend nature in achieving her lest,
or bury their wan. fevcr-pinched faces in
a mass OF roses, it is like souvenir from
fairylaDd. substantiated dream of fields
and air which has passed out OF their hope.
They are placed where the tired eyes
may look upon them and weak fingers may
touch them and test their reality. The
are blessed company 10 the sick. When tbey
fade it Is q personal grief. Every petal
is endeared TO the sufferers and when in
the silent hours with the miraculous Sc
luence of a higher power the buds break
and flush and stand forth in gorgeous ripe
ness 1t is sweet to sit and watch. But W hen
the same influence in other silences sewers
the magic clasp and the soft leaves
iloa, away andlay whitening the trembling |
hands reach out and gather them in and |
crush them in an embrace of love. There is |
no medicine 70 the sick like flowers. |
They are tonic and compa rionship.
GOALS TO NEWCASTLE.
Flowers are not alone grateful to women !
and children. A nurse in one OF the hos |
pit ais related TO the writer how not many |
weeks ago a man of strong physique and
excessively rugged uiasculiDity was brought |
nto her ward a victim of bicycle COL
ision. His side was badly bruised and
his hip affected in a peculiarly dangerous |
manner. He was Obliged to keep his bed
for fortnight. He could not read. his |
was averse TO it. He seldom
lad visitors and only talked business TO
hose who came. His confinement was not
of any cheer TO himself or those
about him. One morning box of flowers /
,ame. Every one who saw them thought
Z such pity they should have been sent
% him. To their amazenient he was de-
lighted. He at once took a personal in
crest in every bud. He watched them by
he hour. picked off The dying leaves. each
morning he sorted out the dropping buds
md timed the refreshing with water with
.xac:itude They softeBed his nature and
made him a happy and cheerful patient.
Indeed. the nr.se thinks they helped to |
lis recovery.
To send flowers TO Public Gardener Brown
would be variation OF the old adage.
Bringing Goals TO Newcastle Yet that is
,xacuy what happened during u sickness
rot long ago. This man, who rears and has
Il his disposal the finest greenhouses in
he country, was sent basket OF flo wers.
hey were not expensive flowers and there
we're not many, but he says they were rnorc
Welcome than anything else that could have
,een brought him. He is enthusiastic OF the
ieasure they gave him, and is more than
yer confirmed in his belief that the more
lowers that go out of his gardens to the
cdsides of the sick the more really grow
OF their providential purpose.