The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-09-21

Facts which Tend to Make the Flower
Girls of london Cynfcs.
London Telegraph.

London Telegraph.
There are many cynics loose in London:
The cabby and the bus driver have lost
their belief in the wisdom of man over
the everlasting eruptions OF the strand:
The gentlemen who sell extra spesnuls
by shouting news which the extra specials
do not contain never had any,. The lions IN
Trafalgar square, monuments OF departed
greatness, look wearily and cynically upon
the present littleness that h~arangues them
on a Sunday afternoon. There are churcn
wardens who have found a bad franc IN the
plate, and a thousand others who dlVlCe
mankind into knaves and fools. But the
cynicism OF all these is thrown into the
shade by the monumental cynicism or the
flower girl.
Flower girls, of course, are not monu-
mental except by contiguity. They haunt
statues-the commanding Sir Robert Peel.
who presides over Cheapside, or the dirty
Mercury, who brings from Olympus to the
less heavenly regions of Piccadilly. In the
DRY the flower girl is highly poetical. In
practice. she is cynical I'm excelsis. IT is
partly the fault of the climate. "Carna-
ton, lily, lily. rose" is all very we'll in a
them in a twentieth century May you do
NJ. look pictorial, and. your language is
rather expressive than poetical. IL is hard
TO be sentimental with a blue nose. There
are degrees In the trade. The "buttonholes"
that cover some square foot belong 10 a
different caste of vender and a different
caste Of wearer from the eminently respect
able carnations and rosebuds of Piccadilly.
But the young ladies who manufacture for
the jewellers in outer darkness tungles OF
maidenhair and narcissus are not a whit
less cynical than the artists among flower
girls who dwell in the shadow of Mercury.
They see the vanity Of the lordly sex as
under a Searchlight. And the lordly sex
Is vain, whether the hat II wears with its
frock coat is of silk or straw. The silk
hat ponders deeply over the shade of its
rose; the straw hat grasps greedily at an
other inch of green background. 1t is
the same principle, and the same cynicism
says when it has gone, "Lor, Polly, there's
our gates, strangers with clean-shaven
faces and a nasal drawl. strangers also
with foppy ties and terribly neat mus
taches. Two strangers come to the flower
girl and she takes them in. 1t is all one
to her. The American is brisk and brusque,
but he pays all the more. The Frenchman
Is profusely polite. but he pays none the
less. They are both mere foolish men to
the cynical flower girl. Her chief joy-if
she has a joys the youth who desires to
be made splendid without counting the
cost. He Is not only profitable, but anus
ing. Her chief sorrow, no doubt. is her
own sex, who have a mean and unscrupu-
lous desire to pay just prices. Her own
sex, unlike the mere man, generally buy in
bulk, for the decoration of their homes,
not themselves. This is n disheartening
practice, which confirms the cynicism of
the flower girl. a few inches of wire will
not suffice to make a bunch of flowers, and
the exacting female pays just about as
much for a dozen good blooms as man
does for one decrepit specimen with a
wire leg. Consequently, the flower girl be-
heart of woman, and sits in the lee of stat
ues, cynical and blue. Ii was a lawyer
who said that only fools went TO law. The
flower girl knows who buys lowers.