The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1902-04-24
Advent Of Spring Spurs William
to Thoughts of the Beautiful,
TALKS POETRY, WOMEN AND FLOWERS
To Mythology We are Indebted for
Names of Our Most Beautiful
Flowers-The Goodness
of Providence

spring poetry. l tried 1t some years
ago and strained my mind and shall
not try it again. One poem is enough
to make a man famous, and | have
never seen mine improved upon:
"The bull frog bellers In the bitches,
He's shuftied of his winter brltches
The hawk for infant chickens watch
eth,
And fore you know it one he cotcheth.
The lizard is summing himself on
rail,
The lamb is shaking his new born tail,
King cotton has unfurled his banner
And scents the air with sweet guanner.
The darkey is blowing his stubborn
mule,
And jerks the line with Gee, you
fool"
Adown the creek and round the ponds
Are gentlemen and vagabonds
And all our little di4ty sinners
Are digging bait and catching min
ners."
That is classic and expressive. 1t
rhymes well and measures well and is
considered the champion spring poem.
But l will venture to make few re-
marks about flowers. for as Solomon
saith, "The winter is past; the rain
Is over and gone. The flowers appear
on the earth, the time for the singing
of birds is come, and the voice of the
turtle dove is heard in the land" 1t
Is an old story that when God made
man and gave him hearing and seeing
and taste and smelling He created
birds to sing for him and please his
ears, and grass to grow and herbs and
trees to bear him fruit, but Adam
wasn't very happy and said these
are all very good, but they cannot love
me nor talk to me nor comfort me
when | am sicl, and sad | am here
alone and not even your angels visit
rce. And so God took pity on him
and created woman and then he was
happy. But woman didn't care to be
hoeing and planting and looking after
the sheep and the cows and so the
Lord created flowers especially for her
enjoyment. He also taught her to sing
and make music on the harp and hence
came the old tradition that woman and
music and flowers were Gods best
gifts to man. You see that neither
flowers nor music Is mentioned in the
Mosaic account of the creation and
tradition says that they were not
made until woman was. 1t is singular
that in some of the ancient languages
the same word that means woman
means flowers too. Among the ancient
Greeks Romans, Persians and Egyp-
tians there was great reverence for
and even idolatry Of flowers. The To-
tus or sacred lilly was worshipped
as god in Egypt. In Japan the chrys-
anthemum is equally sacred and near
iy all their female children are named
for some flower. In all countries every
temple service, every birth or mar
riage or death or funeral ceremony
calls for profusion of flowers. When
soldiers went out to fight and when
they returned they were crowned with
wreaths and garlands; strangers were
given flowers when they came in to
see you. Every flower had Its mean
ing and its sentiment, as for instance,
q red rose meant, + love you;" white
rose, 81 will marry you" The Chinese
make the most lavish use of flowers
the Trinity and how there were three
persons in one God, and the people
laughed at him and said it was i'm
possible and they didn't believe it.
So the saint picked up a shamrock
stem with its three leaves growing
out of il and exclaimed: why not?
Why not? II this little plant can make
three from one, why can't God do it?
So he convinced and converted all
that people. and they took the clover
or shamrock plant for the national
flower
In the sixth century the Normans
and have Chinese alphabet of flow.
ers. No modern nation has such love
and taste for them nor such beautiful
gardens, and Japan comes next China
is called the Flowery Kingdom.
Almost all of the civilized nations
have a national flower Egypt, Tur-
key and India have the lotus. Japan
the pomegranate, France the iris or
deur de lis of Louis VII. Napoleon
tried to abolish it and put the honey
bee instead. but the people rebelled
and it is still the iris. Scotland has
the thistle, Ireland the shamrock,
Wales the leek, Mexico the cactus,
Germany the corn flower England the
rose, and the United States none at
all. In 1889 We tried to make it the
golden rod, but failed. The north
voted for the trailing arbutus and the
rose and some green house flowers,
and there was no flower elected. That