The age-herald., 1901-04-07

- HoUGH the Easter lily may N~ neither toll nor spin, it is cer-
 tain that toiling Is required to
 - produce it-and the toll of thou sands.
 The Easter lily formerly grew wild. so to speak, in the far South. A Western woman, an Ohio girl was the first one to think of bringing the lily North for com mercial purposes She was not a rich girl, and the thought of selling the lovely thing appealed to her. The first Easter lilies came from the Island of Bermuda, packed in wet moss and a wooden box. They were most carefully tended all the way up, but when they arrived here many of them were past saving. Still, the Ohio girl set them out and watched them, and, when the shoots came forth, she shouted with joy.
 That was the beginning of her indus try Today she is the owner of great lily farm, all under glass.
 Sara Madden, little New York girl, originated the scheme of charging 70 cents a flower As they stood in the market place, these white slaves nodding their heads at passers-by who stopped to in- quire the price, there was discordance. One plant with stalk taller than the oth- CTS would bring $2; another with shorter stalk was less. What the buyer wanted was blossoms, not stalks, and he said so.
 The Easter lily, unlike other flowers. does not progress. And why should 1t? It is so beautiful that to use vulgarisn, it doesn't have to. Compare It's progress with that of the chrysanthemum, which each year must grow larger and more curled compare 1t with the rose, which must grow deeper and rounder; compare 1t with even the timid violet, and note how despised is the violet of two years ago compared with the great double and triple one of today.
 But the lily remains the same. Each year the florist tries to make it a little larger, if he can, or at least 1t must sus- tain its revious reputation; and each year he brings forth more blossoms on each stalk, If possible, but that Is all. The re- mainder of his time is taken up with pre- serving the wonderful scent of the lily, the scent which the calm lily lacks and which the lily of the valley only feebly initiates, and to keeping the petals pure, clear white, curled and triumphantly beautiful.
 The Easter lily is the only flower of humble growth that goes into every home. An Easter lily is an Easter lily, no mat ter where you see it; and the millionaire passing home at night Is as apt to buy one lToHn a pdSSlIB street cdrt dS lie IS to order 1t from a high-priced florist. The florist doesn't care; his lilies will not go around; and, as for the man on the cart, 1t is only his expected Easter luck; he knew his lilies would sell.
 They say that the lilies came from Ber- muda, where the onions grow, and at home they are near neighbors. And that is why, in the month before Easter you will see old ladies go to the pot of lilies and there place little onion near the root. The onion is peeled and carefully deposited, far beneath the surface of the ground, there to help the lily in its growth.
 Those who have no hot-beds and no forcing-rooms are content to let the lily take its time, and actually they have 1t growing in September. A fire in the sit- ting room stove warns the conservatory, which is, perhaps, only a lean-to. and the lilies huddle together and grow slow ly. They sell, just the same. and many little family fortune is annually made by the Irresistible lily.
 The hard part of the florists career comes when he must pick off or thin out his buds. His strong young lily plant, rising above the earth and hurrying up-