The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-05-19
FpOM OTHER PENS
FLOWERS.

fla w lIfSso-
Shakespeare has pointed out that
the man who'c does not care
for music is not man to be
loved and trusted unreservedly;
and it might sbe said that
the man who cares nothing for flow
ers-to whom, a rose5by the name OF
cabbage would smell as sweets
handicapped by very serious de-
ficiency. Wordsworth has vented his
Indignation at such a temperament
in the lines R e7
IA primrose by the rivers brinn
A yellow primrose was to him,
And it was nothing more"
What a deal of sentiment there is
sometimes in single flower. In the
play 1.-The Witchfng Hour" effective
use is made of Bret Harte's poem
about the spray of mignonette re-
calling the passion for one who was
loved long since and lost while;
and even so a flower, pressed in a
book, frail and faded though 1t may
be, has power sometimes to summon
visions of the past as scarcely any
thing else can do. Flowers are the
recognized and accredited messen-
gers of love-a single flower often
being more eloquent in this connection
that an entire garland or bouquet.
Many true romance" has had Its
inception at the instant when the
white fingers of a girl affixed a flow
err to the coat of her Prince Charm
ing. %
AS the learned Bacon pointed out
in one of his essays, the world was
begun in a garden.-Philadelphi Led
ger.
THE SURVIVAL OF SENTIMENT.
AS people we Americans have come
to affect lofty disdain for sentiment
in the ordinary affairs of life and its
open expression by men is regarded
with especial favor. The tendencies of
our modern life have contributed TO
this condition. One is the Grass ma
teriaIism of all our motives and in
spirations All of the finer things of
life, the things that are not converti-
BILE into dollars and cents, nave lost
their place in the mind and purpose
of many people. The prime object OF
ciaI basis and the tension of effort
is concentrated within the realm of
ACQUISITION The result Is either a
cowardly suppression of the senti-
ment that once like flowers adorned
and perfumed human existence, or
else an open and coarse contempt for
the expression of that sentiment on
the part of men. Another cause for
this condition is the robust character
Of many of our popular Ideals A
great leader of the people with a
wholly different thought in mind put
the brand of contempt upon what he
called a ''rnollycoddle"; whereupon.
with our readiness to erect STANDARDS
of thought and practice in conformity
with the gross materialism or the age,
we Immediately broadened the appli-
cation so as to destroy still further the
cultivation of the finer feelings of
sentiment and their use in the various
relations of life.-Pittsburg Gazette
Times.
PEACE, BUT NOT SATISFACTION.
The United Mine Workers and the
coal operators have reached an agree
nnent that insures peace in the an
thracite coal fields for three years
more. but the agitation that preceded
the settlement promises to prove
boomerang for the miners. The fear
of a strike, inspired in the minds OF
the operators by the approach of the
time when the old, agreement termfn-
ated, caused them to prepare for such
an emergency, ami 1t is now announc-
ed in dispatches from the coal fields
that. owing to the overproduction OF
the last few months, there is a grave
likelihood of many of the mines shut
ting down entirely, or at least work
ing very short shifts for some weeks
to come. IT Is said there is coal
enough already mined to supply the
wants Of the entire country for sew
eral weeks, even though a complete
suspension of mining should be or
dered BinghamtoTl Press.