SOME GARDEN VICES 
But not only the garden is delivered over to a multi¬ 
tude of sins. The gardener is by no means exempt. 
There are gardeners that are among the most trying 
specimens of humanity, crammed with cantankerous 
ways and a heavy cross to those with whom they come 
into constant contact. The grumpy and short-tempered 
gardener is one of the fixed characters of fiction, the 
gnarled old man, despotic within his hedges, treating the 
most legitimate intruder into his domain like a thief or 
a murderer, and regarding the wishes or the commands 
of his employer as beneath contempt. 
But beside this complete specimen of garden de¬ 
pravity, there are acquired vices that seize upon the 
most amiable, undermining and wrecking the noblest. 
Chief among these is the garden annual, or nursery and 
seed-catalogue habit. Persons have been known to 
develop this pernicious vice to such an extent that no 
other literature is allowed in their house, and the dis¬ 
cussion of any other subject tabooed. The arrival of a 
new bunch of these highly colored and disingenuous 
publications is feverishly awaited, and, once in hand, a 
slave to this habit cannot be lured away from their 
perusal. Business, domestic ties, and the sweet uses 
of society, all fall before the tyrant. Hour after hour 
the victim is to be seen bent over the pages, marking 
them up with occult signs, turning down corners, cutting 
out segments, and writing dozens upon dozens of letters 
concerning the items thus distinguished. 
I 53 
