Flowers of the Sunny South

1895

"I left Chicago one bitter cold day," said a man, "and when I landed in New Orleans the next day it was bland summer weather, and the warm sunshine went clear into the bone. I started out for a walk and at the first corner came to a flower stand. I selected a small bunch of violets and asked the price.

"'Ten cents,' said the flower seller.

"I thought that was wonderfully cheap, but of course I expected to find many flowers in the south — in fact, I had seen roses in full bloom in many of the broad front yards. Then I said to myself, 'Why can't I send some of those home and give my friends some idea of the glorious midsummer down here?' I asked the flower seller if the flowers would 'keep' long enough to be shipped north. He said they would. I doubted it. But he reassured me when he said: 'Don't you see how nice and fresh these are? Well, they were shipped all the way from Philadelphia.' " — Chicago Record.