Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 December 1885 — The Violet. [ARTICLE]

The Violet.

The violet is one of the most beloved of flowers; its delicate scent greets us at a season of the year when other flowers have little or no perfume. We may perhaps suppose that it was Shakspeare’s favorite flower, for he often alludes to it. He says he knows a bank whereon The oxlip and the nodding violet grow. In another place he speaks of Violets dim, But sweeter than the lids of Juno’s eyes, Or Cytherea’s breath. Again, in “Twelfth Night:” That strain again I it had a dying fall. Oh, it came o’er my ear like the sweet gouth, That breaths upon a bank of violets, Stealing and giving odor; In the early part of the fourteenth century the “Jeux Floraux, or Academy de Jeux,” was founded at Toulouse. It was the very first literary institute, and in 1694 was raised by Louis XIV. to the rank of an academy, which it still holds. Each year a prize is awarded for a poem ; a golden violet, or other flower, is bestowed on the successful competitor on the third day of May at a public meeting. The “Violette Tircolore, or Pensee,” is what we may call the pansy or heartsease; it is a variety of the violet, of greater beauty, but with no perfume. Ophelia includes this flower in her nosegay, and says of it, “There are pansies; that’s for thoughts.”— The Quiver. The King of Denmark has a wart on his chin that he would give SIO,OOO to be rid of. Most any carpenter in these parts would gouge it out with a chisel for half the money. • * * * Young or middle-aged men suffering from nervous debility or other delicate diseases, however induced, speedily and permanently cured. Address,. World’s Dispensary Medical Association, Buffalo, N. Y. Paris generally leads in the fashions, but Niagara cannot be equaled for fall style.— Texas Siftings.