Democratic Messenger

TULIP MADNESS.
The Craze That Raged In Holland In the Last Century.

During the tulip craze in Holland in the last century in one year the sales aggregated 10,000,000 florins. Holland went tulip mad. The bulbs were quoted on the Stock Exchange. Ownership in them was divided into shares. Speculators sold them short. At one time more tulips were sold than existed. At Lille a brewer sold his trade and good will in exchange for a bulb, which was thereafter known as the Brewery tulip. In Amsterdam a father gave one by way of dower with his child. Thereafter the variety was known as the Marriage of My Daughter. At Rotterdam a hungry sailor, happening on a few, mistook them for onions and ate them. The repast became as famous as Cleopatra's pearls and probably exceeded it in cost. At The Hague a poor fellow managed to raise a black tulip. The rumor of that vegetable marvel spread. Presently he was visited by a deputation from a syndicate. For that ewe lamb of his the deputation offered 1,000 florins, which he refused. He was offered 10,000 florins. Still he refused. Cascades of gold were poured before his resisting eyes. Finally, tormented and tempted, he succumbed. There and then the deputation trampled that tulip under their feet. Afterward it appeared that the syndicate had already grown a gem precisely similar and, unable to bear the idea that a rival existed, had authorized the deputation if needful to offer ten times the amount which it paid.