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HOME AND FLOWERS 



sainted as the Countess de la Marclie." 



At these words the face of Marie Avas 

 covered with rosy blushes, Avhile Count 

 Philibert started forward as if to take 

 her in his arms before all the world. 



^^Stay/' said the qneen. "To perpetu- 

 ate the remembrance of this day, and to 

 remind the young peers of France how 

 they, like the Count de la Marche, ought 

 tc turn the most tender feelings to the 

 advantage of justice, I' shall expect them 

 each year to give a tribute to my parlia- 

 ment/' 



"And what shall the tribute be ?" asked 

 the Count de Champagne. 



"A tribute of roses," replied the queen. 

 ^'Count de la Marche, you are the first 

 to offer it to the parliament." 



In a few minutes the garden was de- 

 spoiled of its choicest roses, which the 

 count presented in baskets to that august 

 body. 



The next day Count Philibert and 

 Marie were married with much ceremony 

 at the cathedral in Poitiers. And history 



says they lived happily ever afterwards. 



For more than three hundred years this 

 pretty custom survived. Eegularly, on 

 the first day of May, the youngest peer 

 failed not to pay this tribute of roses. 

 In 1541 this custom gave rise to a dispute 

 for precedence between the Duke of Bour- 

 bon-Montpensier and the Duke of ^^evers. 

 The kingdom of France was in a turmoil, 

 and the best legal talent was employed to 

 conduct each case. Parliament gave its 

 decree on June 14, 1541, "that, havirfg 

 regard to the rank of the prince of the 

 blood joined to his peerage, the court 

 orders that the Duke de Montpensier shall 

 offer the tribute of roses." In 1559 the 

 parliament no longer being considered a 

 court of peers, the Tribute of Eoses was 

 abolished. It was time. From the great 

 silver platters heaped with the choicest 

 roses carried by the young peer and offered 

 in person to the members of parliament, 

 it had become the custom — oh, the pity of 

 it ! — to lay a bunch of artificial roses on 

 each desk in the parliament chamber. 



Born, we are told, in a Persian garden, its beauty and fragrance sent the rose a welcome 

 guest into every nation under the sun. Poets sing its charms. There is no literature of any 

 land nor any age whatsoever in which praise of the rose may not be found. There is no 

 religion so old but the rose is woven into its symbolism. Eose leaves pressed into molds made 

 the very first rosaries used in the Christian church. It has not caused wars, but the white 

 rose and the red rose were emblems carried by the warring factions of York and Lancaster 

 in the famous Wars of the Eoses. The rose is the chosen emblem of a powerful nation, and none 

 but the highest born have dared use it as a device upon their shields. A Eoman emperor 

 sentenced a man to sixteen years of servitude for having worn a chaplet of roses at an 

 improper festival. Its fragrance is imprisoned and distilled into an attar that is the one 

 luxury our government admits from Turkey free of duty. It is the symbol of silence. It is 

 the one gift a man may offer a woman and be sure of its acceptance. The white rose is the 

 emblem of purity, the pink of innocence, and the red rose of passion. It adorns the feast of 

 kings, it is carried by the bride, it is laid in the hand of the dead babe. Crowned queen of 

 all the flowers, none dares or wishes to dispute the homage due its royal scepter. 



June is the month of roses, but in Southern France they blossom earlier than in our harsher 

 climate. Did they not, the preceding story would never have been written, for the events 

 here recorded occurred the first week in May. The ceremony known as the "Tribute of Eoses" 

 was "created by a woman for a woman; by a powerful and illustrious queen for the wise and 

 lovely daughter of the first president of the parliament of Paris, and possesses at the same 

 time the majesty of all that eomes from a thorn, and the grace of all that comes from a woman." 



