if the radicals should make the red poppy their symbol, would it in
turn be scorned by the lovers of the lily? If so, with the numerous
parties, new and old, in France, what flower could a Frenchman wear
or cultivate without danger of being mobbed by the partisans of some
other emblem in politics?

* * * * *

Thousands of people who have passed the summer in the country, and
have been accustomed to take long drives, will testify to noticing
one great lack on the highways of our country. This lack is that of
guide-posts. There is no more effectual way of giving a traveler a
vivid impression of the sparsity of settlement in a rural district
than to let him lose his way. Regions which he might otherwise have
fancied to be densely peopled will seem to him strangely depopulated.
In cities, where a hundred people can always be found between any
two streets to tell you your whereabouts, we yet scrupulously post up
signs at every corner; but in the country, where you may travel a mile
before meeting a man or a house, hardly one in five of the junctions
of thoroughfares are marked with guide-boards. This lack is perhaps
more serious in the suburbs of large cities than elsewhere, since in
thinly-settled districts the main road at least is generally easy to
keep. Occasionally the post is a mocker, its painted letters being
suffered to grow so dim with time as not to be decipherable; or
perhaps the board has been carried off by a gale, or else turned the
wrong way by some joker, who relies on the authorities to neglect
the mischief. It would save much time and temper for wayfarers were
guide-boards multiplied fourfold in all parts of the country.

* * * * *