Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 143, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 June 1918 — ONE’S OWN PLEASURE FIRST [ARTICLE]

ONE’S OWN PLEASURE FIRST

Something for Man Who Is Going to Cultivate a Garden to Keep in His Memory. Do not seek to set the world on fire, the neighbors to talking, or the passersby to wondering. Garden for yourself alone, for we should garden for pleasure only and if we stray far from this fundamental it were better we should not garden at all. Do not desire too much, but build sijnply, yet have every desire carried out as far as you may, for the garden must be yours. If it is buiit to accord with another’s taste it were better to sell it to that other and build the next one for yourself. The home garden is for the affections and if it is well ordered it will satisfy and insofar as you are satisfied you have succeeded. If you have built according to another’s ideas the garden is not worth the while to you. Therefore w*e should garden for pleasure, for contentment •of mind, whether we grow cauliflowers or carnations. Grow the very best flowers you may, not necessarily the best kinds, but the best of their kind. Do not spend money for rare or costly material. It is far better to grow a splendid geranium than a sickly orchid. And look ever to quality rather than quantity. If your taste runs rather to fruits or vegetables, rather than to flowers, indulge it. You are to garden for yourself, not for the rest of us.