Other Things Being Equal

Notes

NOTES 88. heliotrope Wolf's use of flowers throughout the novel reflects the popular associations reflected by "the language of flowers/' Heliotrope was commonly associated with "faithfulness" and "devotion" as noted in Nugent Robinson 's Collier's Cyclopedia of Commercial and Social Information and Treasury of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge (1882). 102. Marechal Niel A rose meaning "yours, heart and soul," as noted in Collier's Cyclopedia. Also, refers to an alternative title to Childe Hassam's 1893 painting, "The Sonata ." The on-line site, "The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Collections—American Art before 1945" at , suggests that the meaning of the painting depends on the relationship between the woman, her music and the rose in a bowl on the piano. The figure of a woman in white was often used by 19th-century painters to symbolize such qualities as innocence, purity, and the nobility of art. One of Hassam's alternate titles ... [is] 'The Marechal Niel Rose," [which] identifies the specific flower that is portrayed—a kind of climbing rose with a stem too weak to support its large bloom. 103. Fruit and Flower Mission The on-line site, "Museum of the City of San Francisco" at , re-presents an 1891 essay, "Snap Shots/' from the San Francisco News Letter and California Advertiser (31 October 1891) by Di Vernon who was "a member of a social organization called the 'Flower Mission / with a goal to uplift the spirits of San Francisco working women/' Vernon's description of the activities of the "Fruit and Flower Mission" suggests that the efforts of women of leisure to beautify the workplace and lift the spirits of the factory women by bringing bouquets of flowers and baskets of fruit to the factories was viewed with skepticism by the workers, i n . Baldwin Theater The Baldwin Theater, designed by J. A. Remer, was part of the magnificent Baldwin's Hotel and Theatre at Market and Powell Streets, owned by "Lucky" Baldwin, "who had won his name on the race-track. With a certain 1880 elegance of crimson plush and gilded trimmings , the Baldwin had an attractive, intimate warmth. The dress circle was raised about the orchestra circle, and in its long first row people 'dressed' as they did in the boxes, which gave brightness to the house" (Amelia Fansome Neville, The Fantastic City. Cambridge: 1932), online at "San Francisco History" . i n . Booth Refers to Edwin Booth. Amelia Fansome Neville explains that "Edwin Booth played his last San Francisco engagement at the Baldwin, and I found his Hamlet as thrilling as in younger years. The poetry of his acting has a deathless quality. By that time San Francisco recalled that the great actor had once lived in a cottage out on the Mission Dolores Road, back in the eighteen-fifties when he came as a boy to California with his father; and he was welcomed with proprietary affection" (Amelia Fansome Neville, The Fantastic City. Cambridge: 1932 on-line at "San Francisco History" . 125. cabbage-rose Meaning "ambassador of love" in Collier's Cyclopedia. NOTES 271 143. Santa Filomena Reference most likely from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 1857 poem of that name: Whene'er a noble deed is wrought, Whene'er is spoken a noble thought, Our hearts, in glad surprise, To higher levels rise. The tidal wave of deeper souls Into our inmost being rolls, And lifts us unawares Out of all meaner cares. Honor to those whose deeds Thus help us in our daily needs, And by their overflow Raise us from what is low! A lady with a lamp shall stand In the great history of the land, A noble type of good, Heroic womanhoodNor even shall be wanting here The palm, the lily, and the spear, The symbols that of yore Santa Filomena bore. The poem was published in The Atlantic Monthly I, 1 (November 1857): 22-23; a n on-line version can be found at . 148. The Bugle Refers to a section of Tennyson's poem, "The Princess," known as "The Bugle Song": The splendor falls on castle walls And snowy summits old in story; 272 NOTES The long light shakes across the lakes, And the wild cataract leaps in gloryBlow , bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying, Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying. O, hark, O, hear! how thin and clear, And thinner, clearer, farther going! O, sweet and far from cliff and scar The...