Evening star., 1924-06-29

honeySuckle and poison Ivy.
0 This green patch is on the
north side Of the road where 25th
street joins. A plot of land Is thick
grown with the poison shrubs and
around each of them vine OF honey
suchle twines, and, climbing higher
than it's toxic mate, waves Its cream
to-yellow flowers in the air. The
sinuous honeysuckle winds among
the upright plants and together they
make a knee-deep tangle. Several
yards from the road and as, a back
ground to the green patch are locust
trees. Poison ivy and honeysuckle
have climbed them, covering trunks
and parts of branches. Behind the
locust trees is wood with a ravine.
and in that wood honeysuckle and
poison ivy in embrace are growing,
but there the vine with cream-to-yel-
low flowers is dominant and the evil
dence is that the poison ivy is being
overborne.
When you come upon this wild
green patch you think it strang that two
such plants should live together. One
is gathered for its beauty and the
fragrance of it's flowers, the other is
Stunned because of the evil it does.
One has inspired songs of poets and
the other has caused such pain that
most men think of it with dread. You
may wonder whether these plants are
living in amity or hate. The Rambler
believes that a battle goes on there
and that millions of plants are fight
ing for the ground. The struggle
has been on for years and will be
waged until the last spray Of honey
Buckle or the last spring Of poison ivy
is overwhelmed. "Extirpated" would
be a good word.
THIS contest, meaning life or death
to millions of combatants. goes
unheeded by most Of us. There is no
sound that man can hear. and OF
spectacle, other than a green maze.
there is none. Men pass the patch
and barely note it. Yet perhaps from
honeysuckle headquarters in this
wood messages go to ali honeysuckles
and their allies in the world that I'VE
are rolling the enemy back and our
advance has reached Naylor road"
Perhaps to all the poison ivy plants
and their confederates, the poison oak
and sumac, go such messages as this:
Good Hope Woods: Our troops are
holding, though the enemy attacks
in force on our whole front" Per-
haps a thousand million plants are
listening to reports of this battle,
which we pass idly by.
On high land beyond the wood a
honeysuckle vine grew in garden
1t climbed a fence and escaped. 1t
wanted freedom and adventure. Its
offspring grew in the wood. Poison
ivy held bit of land the honeysuckle
wanted and the vine grapplel with the
nearest poison plant. The poison ivy
mustered thousands for the fight and
the honeysuckle called other thou
sands to its flag. Each spring legions
of recruits sprang from the ground.
The honeysuckle. patient, strong and
supple, pressed on. slowly clearing
the field of its enemy as 1t went. The
honeysuckle has reached Naylor road.
but for two hundred yards behind that
line the enemies are interlocked. To
a man it seems great confusion, but
it is plain that the honeysuckle is
bearing down the poison ivy.
The Rambler has not met a man
who can translate the speech of
plants. In the skies of Greece was a
man named Mopsus, who sailed to
Colchis in the Argo and was a prophet
not without honor in his own country.
He could read the speech of birds.
Aesop and John Lafontaine had a
good ear for the speech of beasts and
birds, but the speech of plants Is
battling, and so far as l know neither
poison ivy nor honeysuckle has been
quoted / sat in the patch beside a
poison shrub which the woodbine
twined, and made these notes:
The poison ivy: "Strangler! Why
don't you stand up and fight like a
man? Why do you twist your arms
around my neck? Choke me to death.
will you? I'll squirt you with an
other charge of blistering venom
toxicodendrolic acid"
The honeysuckle: Each of US fights
in his own way, villain! Roughneck
of the weeds. thou hast inflamed the
skin of women and children and art
so loathsome that only a few hunger
struck birds will eat thy berries.
" neH we gre" III our yOu
Knocked US as garden pets and ladies'
fondlings. Twas said a honeysuckle
would not fight, but we are here, my
monster! Mess a steam shovel come
to build row of houses or a street
we'll hold this field till not soldier
of the poison ivy tribe shall live"
The poison ivy: Big words, them,
my dainty bravo! But we who never
truckled to a woman by handing her
sweet odors w1l fight till every
stealthy, creeping thing that wears
the honeysuckle crest lies dead"
X y
THE moinutes pass-it is habit
= they have-and long stretch of
road lies beyond the Rambler. All
complaint of a cold, wet spring has
passed. Automobiles roar by. They
pass, too. When machines were not
so many it was easy to get a lift. The
man who had a car would often act
as patron to the man who walked He