The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1923-05-03
STEALING FLOWERS

GENERAL times since the spring
~ blossoms have lifted up their
smiling heads and made things look
little more bright, cheerful and
pleasant around Kennewick homes,
they have been raided by ruthless
hands and carried away by these 20
whom they did not belong.
In this respect Kennewick is not
alone in its troubles. The flower
thieves are perennial and thrive ev.
erywhere. Over in Walla Walla they
have become so active that the city
has offered reward for Their capture.
The Walla Walla Union has this to
say about it:
Low-Down Thievery
Flower thieves are almost as
despicable as dog prisoners. No
mercy should be shown them and
the city has taken proper action in
offering a reward for information
that will assist in the capture of the
thieves. Flower beds, the pride Of
owners, and the result of hours of
labor, are despoiled to crafty the
within of people too lazy to raise
their own flowers. 1t is not those
who lack means who steal these
flowers but thoughtless, lawless in
dividuals. Not only do they steal
the blooms, but them trample the
flower beds and destroy far more
than they take. 1t is an annual
problem here and it is to be hoped
that the reward offered will result
in curbing this low down practice.
1--WE want q city beautiful but
we cannot have it if hoodlums are
allowed to satisfy their own mis-
guided desires at the expense of
Others"
Twice recently the editor has had
his flower beds raided and yet he
wishes to be more charitable than the
editor of the Walla Walla Union. He
has no desire to see the raiders hailed
into court and made to feel the pen
atty of the law without mercy. He
would much prefer to sit down and
talk things over with them, for he is
certain his flowers were taken neither
by criminal or an enemy. The real
criminal steals for profit, not fun, and
an enemy would have burned the ed
itor's house or put dynamite in his
smoking tobacco.
No. the editor is certain his flow
srs fell prey to the recklessness of
youth-that recklessness which at
times almost passeth all understand
ing-and there was a time when he
was both youthful and reckless. For
that reason he is neither resentful nor
revengful. He's simply sorry, not for
himself, nor the flowers, but for the
Riddles who were going to put the
blossoms into their Easter and May
baskets, and sorry most of all for the
young Lochinvar who boldly slew the
audacious bulbs and carried their
heads back to his lady fair who per-
haps lurked in the shadows across the
street or waited breathlessly in the
Ford down the block.
: Some day, when their lives have
matured and their loves ripened these
young things will realize that stealing
the editors flowers wasn't a playful
prank but a dull and senseless thing.
She will think the less of him for hav-
ing done it, an dhe will think the less
Of her for having permitted him to.
Round these blossoms there will be
no lingering fragrance, only bitter
memories.
The editor has no desire to make
the flower thieves suffer, but he would
like to make them think-think what
a drear, drab world this would be were
there nobody in it to grow flowers
then even thievery would lose its play
fulness. When you steal flowers you
fitch from the richest and dearest
sentiments of human kind. Would
you halt happy childhood and empty
its basket at playful Maytime; would
you pluck from buttonhole Mothers
bloom or the CHEEKY blossom worn
for dear old Dad; would you sneak
into a sick room and pilfer the color
and fragrance from the bedside of
suffering fellow being; would you
strike empty the hand that one month