Evening star., 1948-11-27
This and That
g., b. Charles Z. Trace1oeli
ARLINGTON, VA.

Dear Sir:
do write some more about the garden
flowers. 1t seems to me so much is said every
where and at all times about war. that it is
good to have some one somewhere writing
about flowers
when I was a girl in my mothers garden,
learned many helpful facts. and to have
them brought back to me now and then in
the homely ways of your daily writing helps
me put up with all the caterwauling about
war and peace.
Il do not understand in the least the modern
temper about war, internationalisnl, etc. 1t
seems to me that If men really wanted peace
they could get it-they get everything else
they want.
Il do understand about the flowers and
like to read about them for a change from
labor unrest, Palestine or whatever it is called
now, and so on, just listen to any radio news.
Hoping you write some more about the little
flowers in our yards, send my best wishes
to you. Respectfully, M. j. E."
This is a good time of the year to be
thinking about "the little garden flowers"
The flowers that bloom in the spring. ira Ia
bloom all the better for our thinking about
them in the fall.
Seed and garden catalogues, with their big
red tomatoes. need bit OF going over in
advance.
One of the best things we can do now is to
put in a quiet afternoon or evening, or several
of them, thinking about what TO plant next
spring, talking 1t all over with some one who
may help or, being more active, mercifully
do 1t all! There Is nothing more untrue than
that one cannot love the garden II he or she
does not work in it. Perhaps not as much
but that is fall that needs to be conceded to
the real dirt gardener whose knee bending and
repeated movements in the yard sometimes
become hard to bear from the sidelines Yes,
many persons have seen him, moving his arms
unity foI- III ~ @NyTN
down, up and down, real farmer in little,
not deSpising the motions OF the soil that
must be done by somebody. But the person
on the sidelines. who may love the results
Of gardening quite much as he, will be
repelled by that steady reproachful motion.
Il Is something Of the same thing to watch q
good painter at work. SLAP brush, slap, brush,
over and over and over again. Such work must
be done in the world, but not every one is
built to do 1t, and he who does it should ask
nothing more in this world except that his
efforts be admired and credited for the good
they do In the world.
The sideline gardener has right to his little
saw, too He may be as interested as the next
one Often 1t is solely due to him or her that
certain plants appear where they are To him
or her due praise in retrospect.
Flower gardening once was looked upon as
womans' stuff.
That day, happily, is over.
The vegetable garden has its place-right
alongside the flower garden.
It is no longer thought sissy" for herman
to work at raising flowers
Flowers have their place in a world such
as this. In fact, the worse the world of men
gets the more we need flowers.
Beauty is an offshoot of the atom Chance
plays such part inside the atom, but it has
done something amazing unlike chance, when
1t brings forth the beauty of the flowers.
Soft, dreamy petals Of pink, flowers of pale
blue mixed with Yellow white flowers making
all other flowers deeper and truer in tone
world at war; either cold war or hot, must
realize its dire need for more and better flowers,
for blooms to bring back the peace and content
of the gay Y0s, phrase once used in pleasant
contempt, but today more than ever term
of respect since we are better able to see
today, under the shadow of the bomb, that the
latter days of the 10th century were really
gay and happy in the best sense, when all
men had feeling of security and honor and
belief in the self no longer possessed by any
one. We have a long way to go to be as
happy as the people Of the gay '90s. We no
longer laugh at them If we are wise. We
envy them, and in our silent prayers hope
that we, too. some day, will arrive again at
the simple wisdom and honest endeavor which
made America great.