Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-09-27

Are Discussed
By Mrs. Wilson Woodrow

brief trip to a city farther south
than New York.
Having a rev hours on my hands,
/ took occasion to look up some
old friends whom I had not seen
for years. But their home, with
it's wide grounds about it. which
had formerly been on the edge of
town, now stood in q closely built
up section - a mere oasis in Su-
burgia.
For blocks I had passed by prim
lawns set with tubs of hydrangeas
and beds of scarlet salvias and can
mas Then l came to the old-fash-
ioned brick dwelling with its white,
colonial pillars. and / stopped short.
with a little gasp of surprise, for the
house seemed to rise from a sea of
kaleidoscope bloom. There was Il
watt of mingled odors, enchantingly
sweet.
Here were the actual flowers, any
quantity of them, not merely dec
orative plants. They flowed all
over the front lawns and billowed
into space behind the house, which
I remembered as the ordinary
country town backyard, a more or
less scrubby fruit trees and used
principally as a place to dry the
family wash. Certainly it had
DoaSteu no Sucn SlsHI as now sldu-
dened my eyes, wearied by the
eternal hydrangeas and scarlet
salvias.
The eldest daughter of the house.
a widow who had come back to the
sheltering roof tree to live upon
her modest competence, laid aside her
knitting and rose to greet me as I
came up the steps to the porch. Poor
thing, life had left her but few i'll
.NsNNs l.
the big CANDLES of existence were
over. All that stretched ahead of
her was n career of washbowl laun-
dering. darned stockings and half
mourning respectability.
Some women can go through sor-
row, loss and suffering, and at old
age still preserve their enthusiasms.
their belief in the future, their un-
Shakable conviction that life is good
and life is gay" But Eldest Daugh--
ter was not one of those darlings of
the gods.
There is no such conservative in
the world as the woman who has
Just enough to live on and keep
up appearances. She shudders at
every breath of change, lest it may
presage n diminution of her income,
for with that gone to her all IS
gone. Forever guarding that fragile
bulwark, she grows hard, over
cautious. suspicious, cynical.
/ noted as l spoke to her the look
of strained anxiety in here eyes, the
lines about her set, repressed mouth,
the acid tang which had crept into
her speech. They said she had been
a beauty in her girlhood; it was hard
to realize now that any radiance had
ever surrounded her. She was so
pinched, contracted, So withdrawn
from life.
For the moment, though, my
mind was less full of her than of
the discovery I had made as II
came upon the place.
What n wonderful garden Won
have here!" I cried. excitedly. Think
of having the Elvsian fields crowd
ing up to ones doorsteps."
"Oh. that is Ada's" she gave a
deprecatory gesture. 'She started
in q small way a few years ago
and has enlarged and added to it
until now it fills up the entire
place and keeps her working like
night. She has some sort of n wild
dream that it can be made to sup
port her.
"You see." she went on, more
interestedly as she resumed her
needles, ada is a problem to us.
In the nature of things mother can
not live many years longer. and
when she dies her annuity, which is
all that keeps the place going.
will cease. The house Is heavily
mortgaged and will have to GO
Then what is to become of Ada
I have only enough to keep myself,
even with the most scrupulous
economy"
Then WHY isn't this garden the
answer" I questioned. Ada evil
IDENTIFY has a genius for horticul-
ture."
"Oh my dear" she shrugged her
shoulders, 'it's a preposterous idea.
Ada NAV have a Gift for growing
things, but it's different when you
come to selling them. She knows
nothing of that end of it. She has
no business experience whatever.
She'd be cheated right and left"
Then why not go into partner
ship with some one who does know
ed. COR engage a sales manager?"
But again she shook her head.
How would we be able to keep any
check on a partner or sales mana
ger?" she demanded "As soon as
he realized our ignorance he, too.
would probably begin to rob us. And
then to go into 1t on a profitable
scale she'd require more land, ad-
ditional labor. forcing houses, green
houses, fertilizer in quantitv-or.
quite a plant, in fact. And that
means capital. Where is it to be
got?"
"Il tell you," I said impulsively,