The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1902-03-09

My lady sits in the theater box, ablaZe
with diamonds, a simmer OF silk. Close
to her fair white skin nestles Il frail pink
fower-"Queen of the Cattleya.' most
beautiful of orchids. My lady weeps at the
mimic woes of those on the stage before
her. Tinsel and buckram. their troubles are
think would my lady do If the frail pink
flower could tell her that every one of its
trembling leaves was bought at the price
of a human life?
To those who know, at the sight of the
costly blossom. the lights. the music, the
tawdry stage give place. instead. to a vi
sion of black. damp forests. 50 dense that
the huge smooth trunks reach a hundred
feet for sunshine. From their spreading
tops lianas drop like slim, gray notified
serpents. Real ~seIpents. deadly beyond be-
lief. Turk in giant fern clumps- through
the dense white morning fever mists five
wrecks of men are struggling. the CLINT Of
fever in their eyes. Their cheeks show SLOW
starvation. From a battered boat. in q
muddy stream. nine other men sit watching
them slowly cutting their tedious way
Soon they fade in the forest shadow. Some
where, to-day. in those cruel woods their
~clean-picked bones are lying.
The battered boat moves slowly on, ana
there In its stern is nodding a pale pink
flower from the selfsame root as the one
my lady is wearing
Hunting the Orchid.
The family of orchidae. with their strange
mode of fertilization. made famous forever
by Darwin. is a large one, and there are
many members dwelling in our own North
ern fields and woods, but the weird flowers
that look like beautiful butterflies or
strange. brilliant-hued insects are natives OF
the tropical woods and jungles- The large
dealers In these flowers have maps of the
world with the localities where the different
varieties are found marked upon them
Do you wish some rare specimens not in
stock the map will be brought out, a brief
cablegram sent. and soon a little body OF
men. taking their lives in their hands. Will
plunge into the unknown forest. to emerge
months later. less in number, most likely.
bearing the precious plants.
Just now the beautiful ''Cattleya." that
grow in the high lands along the boundary
line of Venezuela and Brazil, are most in de-
mand. So. Mr.. Eugene Andre of Trinidad.
with thirteen men, started up the unex-
pIored Caura River after them, TO return
broken in health. with five men missing. a
year later.
No arctic expedition ever passed through
half the perilS of this party, that started
without flourish of trumpets, to face death
in a hundred different forms, all Tor the
sake Of a slender flower that bloomed. fair
ana beautiful, SOnneW NtIe III iHUse luyStefi-
Gus forests. guarded by deadly serpents.
more deadly fever and. most feared of all.
grim starvation. like the enchanted princess
In the fairy tale.
Land Of Fairy Tales.
1t was. indeed. the land of fairy tales. par
excellence TO which they jourIeyeC-fairy
tales that had cost many a bold conqufsta-
dor his life: that lost Sir Walter Raleigh
that scheming head of his eventually: for
1t was the country marked on the famous
Lima map as the site of the city of Manoa,
with its hills of gold ard silver and salt
the country named lei Dorado" the gilded
che. after its king. who each DAY clad him
self in gold dust. fixed by priceless gums 10
his dusky skin.
The bold copquistadores. the schem:nG
Raleigh. had either persisted miserably or
turned back on the borderland. frightened
BY perils which even the glamour of that
golden hill could not tighten. Before this
little band had returned they were to find