The Washington herald., 1907-03-06

/ The Kansas City Journal pays beautiful
and touching tribute TO the budding
/ springtime In an editorial classic and
chaste it runs the gamut Of happy human
| emotions. and in liIting lay il sings q
sweet and joyous song. To seek 10 inn
prove its general tone would be fruitless:
lit would be as seeking to add perfume
/ unto violets, But that it should dismiss
the humble sassafras, that sure harbinger
/ of spTing-fTOm pOetical standpoint.
isassafras may be a harbinger-with
merely a figurative wave of the hand, we
do protest,
/ Though relegated to the rear and
/ laughed to scorn by modern physicians.
/ the meek and lowly sassafras has played
| a noble part in this country's history. The
/ pharmaceutical icOnocIast cannot Wither
/ its fame. nor the mysteries Of materia
mediea stale its infinite variety, To the
gIories Of the sassafras have poets sung.
and to its victories long lines of grandmas
Of the good old kind lend abundant and
convincing testimony In passing. the
Journal calls attention TO a beautiful
poem aneut the sassafras, wherein a bard
sublime doth say:
I'm the spring q the year when tine blood is thick
There is nothing SO rare as sassatras stick.
II cleans up the liver and regulates the heart
And % the whole system new life doth imuart.
Sassafrss. Oh, sssssfIas
Thou art the stun for me.
And in the spring. / love TO sius,
Sweet sassairas. ~ thee
Only a true poet. enc who had reveled
IN the land where the sassafras reigns.
could pen so sweet a sentiment No
geisha girl of the Plum Blossom land Ger
brewed a drink so seductive, and withal
so healthy and so cheering. as sassafras
tea. only those who gluttonously imbibe
this rare and heaIthful beverage know
the real joys of springtime and the de-
lights Of early June days. TO the man
soaked and saccharated with sassafras
tea. all things seem beautiful I'm spring
Even the twitter of the birds takes on an
added melody, and the grass and bursting
buds fairly dazzle with their lustrous
green At least. il used to be so: although.
alas, the sassafras has fallen now upon
evil and unappreciative days.
Says the poet:
oh sassafras. sweet sassafras I love to sing Of
thee;
For in the DAYS. now past and gone, oh. you we're
good 20 me-
never had an ache or pain. that Chou couldst not
dispel;
Oh, sassafras dear sassafras, you toIled the mi
cr0hos knelL"
Let not the modest and Unassuming but
now vanished virtues of sassafras be lost
TO fame and song and story. A relic of
the good old days it may be. but its his
tory is eloquent with noble deeds and
Respondent with the luster of a great
renown. It filled a useful place before
the days of appendicitis and other fash
ionable disorders. II is not indicated i'm
troubles with Latin names. It's plebeian
nature units it quite for battling with the
modern germ. 1t may have sounded. as
the poet so sweetly sings. the microbes
kner" II so. it didn't know it. Good old
sassafras tea wot not of bacteria and
bacilH.
Rest on in peace, oh, sweet AID fond
illusion of youthful days, Companion of
old time sulphur and molasses, we wreathe
your memory in rhetorical garlands and
pass on to modern mistakes. and to the
more solemn contemplation Of sad. degen-
crate days.