Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-05-11

TULIPS have done particularly well.
This Is q great satisfaction to every
flower loving person. Few flowers Ill Q
more distinct or appealing role than
these superb DutchmeD.
Other Spring towering bulbs are
fine, but the tulip, in its various forms
is head and shoulders above them ell.
Not only has it q richer history In
fact and legend but it's clear colorS ere
unrivaled in fioweroom.
1t possesses, above everything else. an
intangible quality which endears 1t to
all those who like at once the appro-
pirate and the beautiful.
Surely there are qualities, both In
flowers and human beings, in dogs and
books, in music and landscapes, which
elude exact definition.
One may speak Of the Strong. deli
cate fragrance of the lilac" sn Illogical
statement. indeed, but favored with
dishonesty only to the one who does not
recognize the value of attempting that
which cannot be achieved.
The matter f-fect mind will ever
shrink from the ineXactit,Ide of the
striving, illogical. but honest mind
which does not mind the suspicion 1t
creates, but goes right ahead attempt
ing to put into words those things
which no man has yet succeeded in
putting into WOrQ values.
The attempt, not the success or fall
ure thereof, is what counts, and the
man who knows this is like the right
eous msn OF the proverb, who is las
bold IS an lion"
Tulips do. then. possess glorious
something utterly beyond thought.
By taking thought We may do great
many strange things.
But the modern tendency has been
to exalt thought above emotions. when
ell the time the emotions of mankind
have remained fundamental, the stand
ard stuff Of existence.
What has happened to the emotions
during the past 5000 years or so, Is thai
they have been refined. not by processes
of thought. as the world so often likes
to think, but through the operation OF
RentleneSs and kindness and certain
other qualities Of heart, as We are re-
duced to expressing II.
We say reduced, but may 1t not be
that we are. indeed. exalted when we, as
an individual or race, are forced to use
inexactitude of expression, which there
by leaves every reader open to bring IN
as IL by magic whatever OF grace and
worth and knowledge he possesses?
i ~
expression as the all-in-all of writing
let him turn TO legal writs and docu-
ments, to indictments and the like
where the attempt at exact phrssing
and inclnSiVeness has been carried to
the point Of absurdity.
TODAY there is sfoot movement In
the legal profession itself to free the
courts of the 0utworn phraseology
which has made a laughing stock OF
legal documents in recent years. Only
the other day we read an indictment
which was thrown out In court as bad
which nevertheless seemed to the aver
age reader to contain almost every word
which could be lugged in relative to
the matter at issue.
The reader must not Of course, con-
fuse inexactitude Of expression with
faulty expression. any more than he
should get mixed in his own mind the
Darwin tulips with the so-cailed Cot
tage tulips. He will do both If he per-
mits q sudden resentment to take pos
session of him as he reads. There Is
one magazine published today. for in
stance which specializes in offending
it's readers! Those readers who insist
on becoming offended miss entirely the