Show + + + c + i mup Cl I + + O + This Lenten month and the Easter festivities promise to elevate the tulip into as prominent a spring flower as November and Thanksgiving have distinguished dis-tinguished the chrysanthemum I may be all accounted for through the fact that to take an interest in tulips is one of the modish things to do and a lot of smart women have permitted their suddenly aroused enthusiasm over the Dutch flower to lead them into the establishment of a tulip club Indeed it has so far asserted its fashionable fash-ionable preeminence that roses are almost al-most going abegging and the florists are preparing just half the usual number num-ber of lily bulbs for Easter trade Instead tulip bulbs have risen tremendously tre-mendously in the floral market for every second woman is yearning over a pot or bed of them in her drawing room windows and they are almost the only blossoms she admits as table decorations The acme of smartness is reached by banishing from the center cen-ter of the cloth the longloved silver platter of ferns and substituting abed a-bed of gorgeous and costly King Will iam tulips double flowers with yellow petals handsomely blotched with scarlet scar-let These are not served up as cut flowers nor in a silver dish but must consist of blossoms bulbs and all potted pot-ted in a big quaint Dutch flower jar or growing in a square bed of earlh framed in delft tiles that are not necessarily nec-essarily blue Taking as a keynote the color of her tulips the hostess accordingly accord-ingly builds her dinner around them At every possible nook baskets tile squares and bowls of the same flowers appear and this is all in honor in New York especially of the predominating Dutch ancestry The fact is that every woman with a Van to her name believes she takes to tulip naturally puts her name down and her big initiation fee for admission admis-sion to the club and accordingly the florists are contented But if you belong be-long to the tulip club you very soon learn that the ethics of this flowers cultureand admiration do not permit its use for personal adornment that a cut tulip is a desecration and vandalism I vandal-ism in the sight of a club member and that the price of 100 for a single bulb is not to be considered an extravagance at all Besides these facts you must try to study the names and learn to identify specimens when you see them Only a few days ago an entire luncheon of 17 courses was given bY an infatuated tulip grower in honor of the blossoming of a Coal blaokr bloom I sat in the center cen-ter of a table J a blue Dutch Jar its cup Just open enough to show a golden center and after a little was tenderly removed for fear the odor of theviands would affect it Of course the owner of f this African of its race explained that she was a direct descendant from the house of Orange and this naturally I forgave her extravagance in the matter mat-ter of bulbs But women who are not of Dutch descent and perhaps never saw the shores of Holland have fallen willingly into the tulip craze They exchange ex-change bulbs at committee meetings and fairly embower their homes with inside tile window boxes tie pedestaled bowls and huge bow window beds of this most glorious spring flower At young girls luncheons they use blue jars of blossoming Queen Wilhel minas snowy white cups just touched with rose alongthe top edge of every petal in place of the most exquisite roses At the florists one can now like palms rent any amount of flat red earthenware pots of them for decorations decora-tions at musicals to bank against the stairway or cover the mantel shelves 14 the red pots being well swathed in petticoats pet-ticoats of crimped tissue paper For a moment just a moment though the tulip craze hung perilously in the balance bal-ance and the doubt was all due to a superstitious rumor from Paris where strange to relate this national flower of Holland is run after in the mnst rn n nn u amazing manner There a celebrated chiromancienne who reads your fate not only in your palms your chirography chiro-graphy and your features but by colors col-ors and flowers as well proclaimed the tulip unlucky This sent a shiver down every tulip loving feminine spine until a counter charm was given by the assurance that a bit of scarlet ribbon the color that P brings happiness would ward off the evil influence This accounts for the fact that every sensitive woman ties te just a bit of red ribbon round her tulip pots and in serene immunity from flower harm enjoys her latest and favorite MARY ELLEN DIX I |