Show THOUSAND something about the bulbs that sleep in park beds they will in splendid of color next spring holland and the tn alp craze of the seventeenth century fabulous prices for a single bulb nearly ninety thousand tulip bulbs slumber in the rich loam that constitutes the great flower beds dotting the paries and public squares of this city says the new york star they are safe enough from any frost that ever visits andl fiey are sure to peep above the ground with the earliest hint of spring and to flame into splendid color before the month of may last years designs will be repeated in this years tulip beds in the circular led at the corner of fifth avenue and fifty ninth street the tulips will blossom in eccentric circles each of a different color at the corner of eighth avenue and fifty ninth street will glow a great japanese bird kite resplendent with red white and yellow tulips there will be also splendid beds near the arsenal in central park in tompkins square near Claremont in the city hall park and at several other points it is peculiarly appropriate that the most magnificent show of tulips to be wen anywhere in america should be made in this city for the town was settled by dutchmen just at a time when holland was in the midst of the tulip craze holland has never entirely recovered from that craze and the finest tulips in the world are now raised in the andy soil behind the dutch dykes while new ark imports hec tulip buds from the her earliest ancestors but the in tulips among dutchmen is nothing to the rage that reached its widest efti emes in the ears between 1634 and 1637 the modern craze for orchids is mild in compari 1 son to this dutch tulip mania as it has been learnedly called the passion was confined to no one class of the community it spread through every rank f life poor mechanics raised in their dinv bardens marvelous blossoms while fir rica spent fortunes upon a few elbs for three years everybody talked tulips each spring found bounds eagerly watchful of the tulip ads hooks were written upon tulips ahr tidbits of the flower were deeply tu iland there were all sorts of dei ir alie blooming of the ant annl prolonging the life of the bloir oving friends presented to uric another tulipa na the most precious f rift acres upon acres of sandy w 1 ada ere resplendent with these n amous bubbles of blood of course the craze developed an ncr moneymaking money making spirit prices arc monstrous rou fabulous A single inc guht bub fetched florans florins flor ins or m n f and three of them us high as florans florins flor ins one bulb would abc 81 dozen persons then dealing in futures men r eted fux nishi at S time bulbs not yetia existence blany more bulbs were sold each year than were iver grown in any one season everybody bought tulips and many speculators got rich others however were ruined tulips were quoted as stocks and wheat arc quoted now new varieties were constantly announced men traveled many miles to look at a single blossom artists took up the matter ancito daylou may see scores of tulip pictures painted when the craze was at its height the tulip craze gradually spread all over europe though nowhere was it so severe as in holland it was specially marked in great britain there was puch religious persecution in europe the latter half of the seventeenth century and many refugees fled to liberal little holland they caught the tulip fever aid when some thousands of them went to england from holland they carried it even yet the finest british tulips are grown by mechanics the descendants of those refugees holland is long past her tulip craze but she remains the great flower grow ing country of europe even yet fine varieties of tulips are quoted in butch at from twenty five to one hundred and fifty florans florins flor ins hyacinths arc also grown to great perfection and sold at high prices the light sandy soil of holland is peculiarly well suited to the tulip the plant is probably of asiatic origin but it has been brought to its highest perfection in holland ind especially about haarlem the dutch tulip raisers protect their beds in spring with hoops and mats |