The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1916-06-23
|oUT OF THE DESP|SED OFTEN DEVELOPS
49, 49, +++ 49, 49, *++
IBY EVOLUTION The MOST BEAUTIFUL THING
|EDGAR Tiff SEES THIS TRUTH IN FLOWERS
Ely EDGAR ILIFF.

Ey EDGAR ILlFF.
l notice In my garden that the most
useless things are the hardest to get
rid OF and the beautiful the easiest
to lose.
The dandelion spreads like a green
bay tree and plunges its roots like
driven we'll toward the center of this
planet ! dug up one this morning.
Its one root. shaped like carrot, was
two feet long
You have to fight burdock, wild par
ships and dandelions continually.
Eternal vigilance is the price of
clean garden When you think your
lawn is at least cleared of weeds, up
they come in one night. the golden
dandelion spreading carpet over the
place and the flowers fairly laughing
at you and nodding to one another in
merriment
Beautiful Things Die.
And while noxious and useless
| weeds defy you, the most beautiful
flowers of your garden sicken and die
from unaccountable causes. A little
drop in the temperature a little too
much sun or little too much shade
or few pestiferous bugs, and all your
favorites perish. And as you sadly
view the ruin you think of Moore's
words:
Il never loved a tree or flower
But twas the first to fade away"
Or you think:
And the heart that is soonest
awake to the flowers
Is always the first to be touched
by the thorns'
But hail, billiards., simccns and ty-
phoons, clay soil and granite rocks
cannot prevail against the unneces-
sary and ugly in plant life.
See, How the Onion Grows.
Talk about immortality! The onion
Is the proper emblem of immortality
There is no death for the onion: what
seems SO is but transition. | saw
| onions growing all last winter in the
open frozen garden and | found one
Tlourishing on our pantry shelf with
out a speck of soil Did you ever
hear anybody croak about the onion,
the burdock, the rhubarb or the dan
delion crop being winter killed? Bees
freeze out but flies never
Is it not so with the species called
human nature?" How many CEN
turtles have struggled to rid this world
Of evil! Religions, educations, gov
ernments, armies, police, violence,
wars, prosecutions, jails, gibbets,
thrones, pulpits, thumbscrews, tor
lures, chains dungeons, have all
striven in vain. Evil still stalks
about; it thrives in any soil; grows
in sunlight or in shadow; in howell or
palace: on desert sands or among
the richest flowers; amid ignorance or
| knowledge; under slavery or liberty
There is no environment that can
destroy it. 1t leaps the bounds of
every barrier erected by man. 1t baf-
| files every effort of human hope or
human ingenuity. Thus government
! itself is necessary evil.
Why Does Evil Prevail?
Marcus Aurelius, the best and
| wisest Of ancient rulers, had a son
who was disgustingly vile and degen-
crate
Can it be true that the worst things
in life take the deepest root, and the
best and noblest are ephemeral? Do
the virtues of good men and women
| die with them? Was Shakespeare
right when he made Marc Antony
say. 1.-The evil that men do lives after
them; the good is often inferred with
their bones?"
1t does seem that the good that
| men do takes scant root like the cac-
| tus plants on the dry plains. 1t seems
| that way; yet all good influences are
silent and unseen, like underground
| rivers, and men do not bring to the
/ world what memories of good mothers
have sustained them in affliction or
strengthened them in dire tempta
tons.
Defends Poor DandeIion.
But am inclined to defend the poor
hunted dandelion. 1t has spread an
unusually brilliant yellow carpet over
our lawns and fields this spring. The
flowers were smiling on the bleak and
raw days of April. 1t makes good
green's to eat when the stomach is
satiated with winters heavy foods.
1t has rare medicinal qualities. 1t can
be made into wine that rivals the
Rhine wines and can scarcely be dis
tinguished from the genuine
The word dandelion means lions
TOOTH" because the leaves are jagged
like the beasts fangs. 1t is susceptible
to culture, and perhaps if as much
attention was given it as has been be-
slowed upon the chrysanthenum a
beautiful flower might be produced.
See what has been done for the poor
old despised Jimson. The deep
throated, pure white cultivated flow
ers and luscious fruits came from