The Dalles times-mountaineer. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1882-1904, 1898-05-17


tenth, eighteen hundred and ninety
eight, amid the floral offerings brought
from our homes and gardens, to deck
the affairs, in honor of risen Savior
flowers seemed fitting symbol of the
glorious resurrection.
'Emblems of our own great resurrec-
ton,
''Emblems of the bright and better
land"
But my thoughts wandered from the
scene before, and went back in memory
some thirty odd years ago, to The Dalles
of that time as / found it. Coming up
me box of rose cuttings to plant in the
new home, but my box of cuttings at
tracted the attention only of ridicule,
that l should hope any of them to grow
amid such uncongenial surroundings as
Dalles door yard might offer. With
but two exceptions, Judge Laughlin's
and Lawrence Goes homes, no attempt
at flower growing had been made.
1 scarcely think any of my cuttings
are the ancestors of our beautiful rose
bushes of today, but any attempts to
beautify and make better life's sur
roundings are never lost, and today we
rejoice in our green lawns strewn with
flowers, speaking of homes of refinement
and culture. When we speak of homes,
we do not mean merely the house we
dwell in, but its surroundings also exert
their influence. Victor Hugo says in
Les Miserables '.The beautiful is as use
full as the useful, perhaps more so,' and
this is the plea 1 would make for all
homes to be flower decked, especially
for those in the country. Strange as it
may seem, our cities and villages adorn
their door yards. the little space of
ground necessary for the spot of beauty
on which the eye may rest, after being
wearied with the tolls of the day. No
wonder the younger generation of this
coast has no love for the farm where
there are no loving remembrances of
mothers old fashioned flower garden as
associated with many New England
homes, though there the soil may have
been sterile, and life one round of toll,
yet memory clings to those homes in a
way which it never does to the wide
spreading wheat fields and more fertile
soil of our glorious west. Because we
have forgotten one element of mans
nature, imam shall not live by bread
alone" was spoken by the Great Creator
who had planted within every soul a
love of the beautiful. The issue is made
that farmers wife has so much to do
she cannot spare time for flowers. In
behalf of my sex l will say, give her the
opportunity by fencing off a small space
with some wire webbing that will be
chicken proof, then digging the ground
once for her, will trust that in ninety
nine cases out of hundred that spot
will become thing of beauty on which
the tired eye may rest, and giving the
true touch of home to the humblest cot
tage. The expense will be mere trifle
in comparison with the result.
Going back to the Easter decorations,
which seem to form kind of text for
this article, must speak of the beauty
of the Oregon grape, ESQ called). 1t
seems to me that is our state flower, by
sole right should say state plant, as
its leaves are even more beautiful than
the flower, though the last has rich
beauty all its own, as its golden punches
nestle amid the leaves. We hear in
song and story of the festoons of English
holly, but our own Oregon grape, with
its shade of brilliant green to deepest
crimson, can fully equal and ! am safe
to say surpass the world famed holly in
decorative effect. Its name, too, Though
q misnomer, botanically, as it is not
grape, but belongs to the barberries)
was given, when Oregon's domain ex-
tended from the Pacific Ocean to the
Rocky Mountains, SO that justly, Oregon
may, without rival, claim its name sake
for its very own. All hail to it as fit
of our beautiful state,
evergreen, yet glowing with color both
crimson and gold.