New-York tribune., 1901-09-24
Great efforts from great motives is the best
definition of happy life-(Channing
"EVERTBODYS CHEAP ORCHARD"

When the commencement Of September brings
days of doom to the partridges. the blackberry.
which has been alternately green and red justies
its name by covering the bushes down and com
mon and hedgerow with dark and glossy clusters"
says Sir Edwin Arnold in THE London Daily Tele
graph" 'It is the unsown harvest Of the boys
and girls. the unpaid for festival OF the small
birds, everybody's cheap orchard everybody's n
nual delight. for the proudest palate need not
scorn the flavor of a ripe blackberry, and he is
hardly Englishman who would pass by the first
maturing specimens and try them.
Sister to the raspberry and first cousin to the wild
rose, this plant of the children and the birds has
great relations, but no pedigree to boast of. No
body knows the country TO which the blackberry
belongs by native BIRTH but somehow other 1t
has become a denizen of almost all lands.
Il hardly remember a country where l have
travelled, except Japan, where the homey bush
was not to be found at some elevation another
have plucked blackberries the ancient battle
field of Paniput in India; the banks of the Jor-
dan, in Palestine; in crevces OF the Algerian hills
along the forest edges in Bulgaria, In glens OF
Alp and Apepnine, of Carpathian and Corsican
ranges; in Norway side by side with its wild
white sister, the molteberry. and all the
Canary Islands. under the shadow of palms and
dragon trees.
Its purpose in the universe has been fulfilled
when it spreads table of plenty every place for
Its especial clients the boys and girls OF all lands
and the small feathered creatures. Who esti-
mate what the blackberry does in any one year
toward the greatest good of the greatest num-
ber.' to say nothing of the safe and sheltered
inches which IT keeps for nests of the blackbird
and goldinch and the corners it's matted
roots provide for the hare and the rabbit when the
snow has fallen, and it is only tangle of
and thorns.
'The honest. healthy. generous old bush is
common and lonely TO have come in for any proper
share OF the praise bestowed by poets and botan-
lists on what called nober growths. 1t is such
hat hOv nCh love II
And so II has great place in the literature of
natural history. But feel sure that Shakespeare
thinking of the blackberry when he made Titania
SO pretty say TO her fairies when giving In charge
TO them good Master Bottom:
Be kind and courteous to this gentleman;
Hop in his walks and gambol In his eyes
Feed him with apricots and dewberries.'
The dewbsrry is only large variety of the black
appreciation by linking the luscious rural dainty
Bv the wav I have Seen them arowine r topetber
under the walls of Damascus, where they dry and
press their apricots into small, round pale discs.
and call them in the bazaar Kamar-ud-deen.
Moons of the Faith If liked to take the
and developing the blackberry, it has been proved
and delicious fruit, as big as mulberry and rich
and juicy as the wineberry and honeyberry. But
nal thing is lost; the nameIess grace of flavor
which the plant conceived for itself to suit the
taste of the birds and the country children has
better from the dogrose than Gioire de Dion or
Marechal Mel. And the dear old bush swiftly goes
back If it to that primitive type which the
hnches keenly relish, and for which the boys
and girls with their red lips and faces dyed black
Will adventure in spite of thorns. Moreover, the
for fora anybody Whether putting forth in spring its
bright sprays and pennons and pale rosettes
OF blossom beloved by the bees, or. the pres
ent season. a of dark green and red bronze
foliage. studded with black pearls the blackberry
is in its own way. handsome and even stately. 1t
is much slightly than the currant vine of
Greece or its prim and stiff relative, the rasp-
berry; those who admire and respect it for the
good it does and the pleasure it bestows almost
everywhere COnflne
miration to the boundless merits II displays with
sliced apples in pie