Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-06-14
BLOOMS AND FOOLS.
Facts Which Make Flower Girls of
London Cynics.

NSA hANo.
From the 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-speshuls" by
shouting news which the extra specials do
not contain never had any. The lions in
Trafalgar Square, monuments Of departed
greatness, look YEARLY and cynlcally upon
the present litleness that harangues them
on Sunday afternoon. There are church
wardens who have found a bad franc in the
plate, and a thousand others who divide
mankind into knaves and fools But the
cynicism Of all these is thrown into the
shade by the monumental Cynicism OF 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 in excelsis 1t is
partly the fault of the climate. "Carna-
ton, lily, lily, rose is all very well In a
picture or a poem. When you have to sell
! them in a twentieth century May you DO
not 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 button
to a different caste of vender and a differ
ent caste of wearer from the cmnently re-
spectacle carnations and rosebuds OF Pic
casilly. But the young ladies who manu-
facture for the jewellers in outer darkness
jurgles 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 searchl;ght And the lordly sex
is vain, whether the hat IL wears with it's
fl ock coat is of silk or straw. The silk
hat ponders deeply over Inc shade Of it's
rose; the straw hat grasps greediy at an
other inch Of green background. 1t is the
same principle and the same cynicism
says when 1t has gone, ''Lor, Polly. there's
a fool.' There are many strangers with
ir our gates, strangers with clean-shaven
faces and nasal drawl, strangers-aiso with
fioppy ties and terribly neat mustaches The
strangers come to the flower girl and she
takes them in. Ii 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. Ihey are
both mere foolish man to the cynical flow
er 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 amusing. Her chief sorrow
no doubt, Is her own sex. who have a mean
and INSCRIPTIONS desire to pay just prices
Her own sex. unlike the mere man. general
ly buy in bulk. for the decoration of their
homes. not themselves. This is a disheart-
ening 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 wire leg.
Consequently, the flower girl believes
neither the brain of man nor the heart
of woman, and sits in the lee Of statues.
cynical and blue Ii was a lawyer who
said that only fools went to law. The
flower girl knows who buys flowers.