The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1902-04-23

got out quickly and the Scotch took
them unawares and killed nearly all of
them before they could put on their
shoes and breeches. The thistle saved
Scotland, and 80 they took it for their
national flower.
Away back in the centuries, when
good st. Patrick went to Ireland as q
missionary, he preached to them about
the Trinity and how there were three
persons is one God, and the people
laughed at him and said it. was impos-
sible aud they didn't believe it. So
the saint picked up a shamrock stem
with its three leaves growing out of 1T
and exclaimed: Why not? Why
not? If this little plant can make
three from one, why can't God do it2"
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
invaded Wales, and just before a great
battle one dark, cloudy evening the
Welsh went through a field where the
leeks or wild onions were in bloom,
and every man plucked one and stuck
1t in his hat so as to distinguish their
soldiers from the enemy, and by this
means they whipped the fight and
saved their country. After that they
took the leek for their national flower.
When Napoleon Bonaparte overran
Germany and the emperor and his
family had to fly from Berlin and con
ceal themselves, he was awfully dis
tressed and they liked to have persisted.
But his old mother made garlands' of a
little wild flower, known as tie corr
tlower or kaiserblume, and put them
on him and cheered him up, and when
B%onaparte was v%anquished The en-
peror adopted that little wild flower as
the national emblem.
When Louis VII started out on the
Crusades he chose the iris rs his badge.
and when he returned with his army
it was adopted as the nations flower.
This is enough of national flowers. |
wish we had n for our nation, and
we will have one when this Federation
OF Women's Clubs takes hold of the
matter, and hope it will be the golden
rod. 1t grows from Name to Mexico
and bends Its graceful head in field and
forest.
The reason L got to Illuminating
about flowers was because our good
ladies gave an entertainment the other
night which was quite original anu
peculiar. 1t was called the enchanted
garden. There were twelve pretty
flowers painted on a long curtain and
n front OF hem was an old gardener
teaching a pretty little girl her first
lesson in flowers. He told her their
origin and how they got their names
and whenever lie mentioned one of the
flowers that was on the curtain and
pointed to it, that flower disappeared
as if by enchantmept and in its place
there appeared the face of a pretty girl
or woman, who sang a song that fitted
the hower-such songs as "Only a
Pansy Blcssom," "The Last Rose of
Summer" "Pond Lilies" GA Bunch
of Daises," etc. AT intervals between
the songs, the old gardener told his
pupil how Clyta fell in love with Apollo.
the god OF the sun, and she gazed upon
him 80 continually hat he got tired of
it and turned her INTO a hellotrope, for
this Greek word means turned bv the
sun. And how Apollo's cup. bearer
was a very handsome boy and Apollo
loved him SO much that another bow
killed him through envy and his dead
body was changed into a hyacinth.
The Greek spelling is Yacinthus and
Apollo stamped the Greek letter Y on
every petal, and it is there yet. And
how a very vain and handsome youth
spent all of his time looking at him
self in a fountain of clear water and
one day he fell in and was drowned
and Apollo changed his body into n
narclssus. And how the carnation
Was always a pink or flesh color for the
Greek word carnos mean flesh, but now
it is of all colors. And how dandelion
means a lions tooth from the shape of
its leaves, and the tulip means a turban
and the geranium meal q crane's bill
from the shape of It's seed pods. and
the nasturtium means a nose twister
for when you smell it or taste the seej
the pungent odor and taste make Won
up your face and curl up YOUR
nose. And the old man told about
many Others, and it seems that we NOT
only got the ame of the DAYS and the
months and the stars from ancient nv
thology, but we have even kept the
names of their flowers.
If flowers were as scarce as diamonds
and pearls they would bring a mucb
higher price, for they are really more
beautiful. A kind Providence made
the best and most beautiful things The
most abundant so that the poor might
them as well as the rich. IL d0es
not take money to buy sunshine nor
shower nor the green grass nor The
songs OF birds o the daisies and lilies
that adorn the fields and meadows.
The great poets books are full of
thoughts about flowers.
Sh~akespeare's lament over the death
Oh lmogen Is full of tears and flowers.
Smith in his ode to flowers
y Your voiceless lips, oh flowers I! are
living preachers,
Each cup a pulpit and each leaf a book
Mrs. Hemans says:
: brl 'g flowers, fresh flowers. for tho
bride to wear
They were born ~ blush in her sIi,,inu
hair"
And Wordsworth says: at is nv
attn n a every flower that blooms n
joys the air ii breathes and is conscious
'f its W beauty"
1t was a tradition amofg the early
that when Mary, the mother
'f Jesus, fled with her child In TO Egypt
beautiful roses and lilies sprane up
IND doomed along her pathway az eba