Cut Bank pioneer press. [volume] (Cut Bank, Mont.) 1909-current, 1913-03-21

England a new festival called Primrose Day.
Mythology as we'll as history claims the hum
BILE little flower, and tells a tale of it's origin. The
story is that a beautiful youth manner Paralisos
died of grief over the loss of his love, and was
metamorphosed into the primrose, which in it's
early days bore his name.
The fair spring blossoms which Mother Earth
sent forth to herald the coming of Easter have
been gossiping about each other. The tales they
tell about the tulip, that bright favorite of Orien-
tai lands, besides being highly romantic, verge
on the sensational. It's notorious career has been
freely discussed among the less brilliant flowers,
some of which, in spite of their sweet, gentle
dispositions, resent the tulips regal bearing and
courtly airs. Few people have, ever heard the
stories they tell. In this busy, hustling age only
poets and occasionally other impractical folk find
time to trace the family trees and history of
flowers.
But the tulip, as we'll as the other blossoms
that are talked about, will probably be welcomed
even more cordially than of old into the churches
and the homes of the best families after it's
strange and wonderful past becomes known. The
gay-petaled blossom gets it's name from a SINH
larity to the Turkish headdress, and one of the
chief national festivals in the Sultan's land is
known as the feast of tulips. But the proud flow
er has done something more than please the
Turks with it's beauty.
Once upon a time it held just as great an in
tiuence over the financial affairs of some families
as Wall street has had over those of others. This
all happened something over 800 years ago, when
the tulip was first taken to western Europe.
1t was Immediately enthroned as car in the
floral kingdom, and so great was the rage for it
in Holland and France that many families famed
for wealth were bankrupted by it. The new
comer's beauty made even the wise, staid Dutch
florists mad, and speculation in costly bulbs be-
came a terrible gambling mania among them. A
rare specimen often won a prize as high as that
paid for a housekeeping race horse or a fine
diamond. Fortunes changed hands daily in bets
over the final outcome of almost priceless seed
ling bulbs. The gambling reached such a height
that the government finally had to issue a proc
lamation to suppress it. During; three years
tulips yielded to the city of HARLEM the snug
little sum of $780, 900, 900. The finest bulbs are
still brought from that Holland town. and are
descendants of those famous, tulips. .
While this financial career of the tulip is most
interesting in specializing circles. the poets love
best the tale that tells how the young PERSIAN
always makes it the emblem of his declaration of
love. The turbaned swain sends to the lady of
his dreams the most brilliant tulip he can find.
The message it bears is that like the flower his
countenance is all on fire and his heart has been
reduced to a coal by the intense warmth of his
love.
The we'll beloved violet is another gentle little
flower that has been a prominent figure in his
tory. When the first Napoleon was in exile it
was adopted as his emblem by his followers. A