]V inter Mcctin<:. 159 



'^ 



Great was the merchant's distress of mind. The search was resumed 

 but again without success. At last some one thought of the sailor. 

 The unhappy merchant sprang into the street at the bare suggestion. 

 His alarmed household followed. The sailor, simple souh had not 

 thought of concealment. He was found quitely sitting on a coil of 

 ropes masticating the last morsel of "onion." 



Little did he dream that he had been eating a breakfast whose 

 cost might have regaled a whole ships crew for a twelve month. An- 

 thony caused pearls to be dissolved in wine to drink the health of 

 Cleopatra: Sir Richard Whittington was as foolishly magnificent in 

 an entertainment to King Henry Y ; Sir Thomas Gresham drank a dia- 

 mond dissolved in wine to the health of Queen Elizabeth when she 

 opened the Royal Exchange ; but the breakfast of the roguish Dutch- 

 man was as splendid as either. He had an advantage, too, over his 

 wasteful predecessors ; their gems did not improve the taste or the 

 Avholesomeness of their wine, while his tulip was cjuit delicious with 

 bis red herring. The most unfortunate part of his business for him 

 was that he remained in prison for some months, on a charge of 

 felon}', preferred against him b}- the merchant. 



Another story is told of an English traveller, which is scarcely 

 less ludicrous. This gentleman, an amateur botanist, happened to see 

 a tulip root lying in the conservatory of a wealthy Dutchman. Being 

 ignorant of its quality, he took out his pen knife, and peeled off its 

 coat, with the view of making experiments upon it.. \A'hen it was bv 

 this means reduced to half its original size, he cut it into two equal 

 sections, making all the time _ many learned reniarks on the singular 

 appearances of the unknown bulb. Suddenly the owner pounced upon 

 him, and with fury in his eyes, ^sked him if he knew what he had been 

 doing? Peeling a most extraordinary onion, replied the philosopher. 

 Its an Admiral van der Eyck, said the Dutchman. Thank vou, replied 

 the traveller, taking out his note book to make a memorandum of the 

 same. Are these admirals common in your country? Death and the 

 devil, said the Dutchman, seizing the astonished man of science by the 

 collar; come before the syndic, and you shall see. In spite of his 

 remonstrances, the traveller was led through the street, followed by a 

 mob. A\'hen brought into the presence of the magistrate, he learned, 

 to his consternation, that the root upon which he had been experi- 

 menting was worth 4,000 fiorins : and, notwithstanding all he could 

 urge in extenuation, he was lodged in prison until he found securities 

 for the payment of this sum. The demands for tulips of a rare species 

 Increases so much in the year 1636. that regular marts for their sale 

 were established on the stock exchange of the cities. Symptoms of 



