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EDITOR’S CHAT WITH HIS READERS. 
After a long summer’s trip in California, Colorado, and 
among the wonders of the Rocky Mountains, the editor 
returns to the comforts of the pleasant office of the Floral 
Cabinet, to meet with many enthusiastic and cheerful 
letters from our readers. Bright, wi'.ty, amusing, sensible, 
and useful, how truly delightful is the treat to read them 
over and respond, as far as we can, to their requests. 
Few readers know how immense our army of friends and 
correspondents is. "Within a year the Cabinet has re¬ 
ceived over 50,000 letters from its admirers, and we hope 
neither their number or their precious encouraging con¬ 
tents will ever be less. The coming months we shall do 
more richly for our readers than ever before, and make 
“ each particular face shine with thrills of delight.” 
In our rambles in California we saw many wonders of 
floral abundance. In a little garden at Los Angeles, we 
saw, clambering up the pillar of a cottage porch, a Fuchsia 
vine, only six months old, over six feet high, with three 
thousand blossoms upon it. In another garden was a 
Geranium bush; once it was but a little slip, planted last 
spring; now it had grown so fast that it had one hundred 
and fifty branches and over one thousand scarlet flowers. 
In a little garden in San Francisco I saw a large fence, 
fifteen feet high and sixty feet long, all covered with 
Geraniums (which grow there as fast as vines), and all in 
bloom. Think of one thousand square feet of red Gera¬ 
nium blossoms. What a glory! At a little cottage garden 
in Santa Cruz, we saw a Fuchsia so large as to be a tree 
eight feet high, with trunk nearly two inches in diameter." 
But we will tell more of the pleasures of our journey 
another month, aud now ask only a hearty greeting to the 
little notes our friends send us from so many portions of 
the country. 
A Little Girl’s Tub. —A little Texan girl has made 
up her mind to write us, and says: “My dear Floral 
Cabinet— I am only a little girl, but I love flowers very 
much. I want to tell you about my tub. Early in the 
spring I took a half of a molasses barrel, and set it on the 
northeast side of the house; I put about six inches of loam 
in the bottom of it; in that I planted a Calla Lily and three 
large roots of white Water Lilies (Nymphia Odorata); then 
I filled the tub with clear fresh water. It evaporates a 
great deal during the summer, and you will have to keep it 
filled. I have six little Minnows in my tub, and they play 
so nicely. The Water Lilies bloomed in June; I think I 
never saw anything prettier in my life. Do not let the 
water freeze more than one inch deep. 
I have got a pitcher I want to tell you about. The bottom 
was broken out, and I was going to throw it away, when a 
happy idea struck me to plant it; so I put a lot of pebbles, 
etc., in it, and then filled it with sandy loam ; in that I 
planted a Calla, some Ferns, Lycopodiums, Moneywort, 
and Kenilworth Ivy ; all of these like plenty of shade and 
water, which I give them. The vines have nearly covered 
the pitcher, and it is beautiful. 
How Flowers made a Happy Home. —An un¬ 
known correspondent writes us a pretty story of how much 
good a few flowers did in saving one family and making a 
happy home. How great the good done. Our correspon¬ 
dent has been richly repaid. 
There once lived a family in the old town of G-- 
who never knew what happiness was. When the hus¬ 
band came home there was nothing to denote a cheerful 
greeting; the young wife’s face presented one mass of 
frowns, caused by discontent. This family was small, con¬ 
sisting of man and wife only; no little bright-faced prat¬ 
tlers came to bless this unhappy couple; there was noth¬ 
ing to dispel the wife’s gloomy monotony; therefore, we 
call this fireside the doleful wreck of what a home 
should be. 
Indeed, this household could not stand; there must come 
some change, it was too preceptible; they both knew and 
felt that things could not take this drift always; there 
were but few cheerful, loving words between this man aud 
wife. “ The rumblings of the volcano are still audible, and 
the smoke of the crater continually ascending, mingling 
not unfrequently with those flames and masses of ignited 
matter which announce a new and more terrible explosion;” 
in fact, gossipers said there would be a separation finally; 
some went so far as to say a divorce suit would ensue; 
others said, they each married for money and were both 
disappointed. “ Oh, thou friend of ill omen, thou shalt 
live but to see the falsehood of thy prediction,” but alas 
for human nature (or their tongues). 
I am a great flower lover; I lived in this same town, took 
many flower books, papers, etc., cultivated flowers on a 
large scale, and had them in great perfection; in fact, by 
some I was called the flower leader in town. I chanced 
to visit a sick friend one day, and took with me some of 
my prettiest flowers; while there I met with this Mrs. 
-, was much attracted by her face and the interest 
she seemed to take in the flowers, their culture, etc. I 
afterwards heard the rumor about her unhappy home. I 
resolved to visit her, did so, she returned my visit, during 
which time I took her to see my flowers (which are now 
snugly fixed in their winter quarters); her extravagant 
admiration pleased me much; when she left, I gave her a 
few papers and books to occupy some otherwise idle 
moment. A short while afterwards she called to return 
the books, which she said she had enjoyed much'; and I, 
too, thought she looked brighter than before. When 
spring came, I gave her slips or cuttings of my flowers; 
her husband prepared soil and boxes, and that summer she 
could cope with most of the flower raisers in town. Her 
writing talent was tested, her pieces found great favor, so 
by this means she was well supplied with papers and 
flower books of her own. 
Mrs.-has now a beautiful greenhouse, her hus¬ 
band has contracted the flower disease, spends much time 
with his wife in her flower work, in fact, they are as happy 
as any couple I know; but few can equal them in this 
point. The gossipers pass them and hang their heads with 
confusion and shame. Husband and wife are absorbed in 
their flower beds of bright Lilies and Roses. 
Removing tlie Glove. —Not long since this was re¬ 
ferred to in the Cabinet, and now Willful Wayward writes 
us as follows: While enjoying your very interesting pages, 
I noticed an article from the pen of a lady. She writes of 
the ridiculous custom of persons begging an apology for 
not removing the glove before offering the hand. I do not 
know that I understand, but every one has a right to their 
own opinion, and I have, I believe, oue idea about the 
glove question. Every lady must know it is a rule in 
society, or etiquette, for a gentleman to remove the glove 
before offering the hand to a lady, and if the gentleman 
should fail to do so, I think it would sound very nice for 
him to beg an apology. All such etiquette may be called 
ridiculous, or any other term the lady wishes to give it, 
but as for me I like such ridiculous etiquette. It is a 
modest gallantry gentlemen may show to ladies in a quiet 
way, for which a true lady will notice-and feel grateful. 
How to make Mignonette bloom _“ Artist Lake” 
tells “ Cousin Cornelia ” how she can make Mignonette 
bloom during winter. If before frost, she puts some cut¬ 
tings (that have not bloomed) in clean wet sand until they 
have become rooted, which will take about three weeks, 
then pots them singly in two-inch pots, and last, but not 
least, gives them a little weak ammonia water once a week 
after they begin to grow. 
Mrs. A. R. R., too, favors us with a little bit of her 
experience: A lady asks for information in regard to rais¬ 
ing this sweet little flower, and having it bloom. As my 
experience has been just the reverse of hers, having had 
constant bloom with very little trouble, I will here tell all 
about it. Last fall I had several young plants, raised from 
seed in common ground, which commenced blooming in 
October, and filled the room with its delicious perfume all 
winter; some seed was left to ripen, on a spray or two, 
and the rest was frequently taken for my friends or for 
myself. 1 think it blooms all the belter when the sprays 
are often picked off. I planted the seeds again, toward 
spring, and had young plants to set out among the earliest; 
also sowed more seed in the bed out-doors, so that I have 
had a profusion as well as a constant- succession of Migno¬ 
nette for bouquets, with Roses, Geraniums, Verbenas. Pan¬ 
sies, Petunias, and Heliotrope. Flowers possessing fra¬ 
grance, as well as beauty, are doubly precious favorites 
with me, and liaviug fragrance without much beauty, is 
far preferable to beauty alone. My plants ure in an east¬ 
ern exposure during the winter, having the morning sun, 
and the room is warmed by steam radiators, which I think 
js preferable to coal or wood fire. All my plants were 
healthy and bloomed freely; or, I should say, are , for they 
were never more so than now. 
How to make a Wash-Stand. —Mrs. Irene wishes 
to tell Mollie how to make a wash-stand: Take an old 
office stool, cut the legs off until it is the desired height, 
nail a shelf on the lower rounds, for the pitcher, aud 
another on the highest ones, to hold a saucer for soap, 
then stain the shelves the color of the stool, and the wash- 
stand is finished. Holes can be cut in the lower shelf and 
the top, in which to place the pitcher and bowl, to keep 
them in place, and a curtain, made of muslin over paper 
cambric, can be fastened to the edge of the top all around. 
A very pretty table is made by taking two pieces of board, 
cut round, or any shape desired, and fastened together by 
an inch and a half pole, or stick, cutting it as long as yon 
wish the table high; bore a hole in the middle of each 
board, smaller than the pole, shave the pole off until you 
can drive it into the hole, cut it off even with the top of 
the board, put the other board, in the same way, on the 
other end, and the table is ready to cover. Cover one 
board with paper cambric, cut a little larger than the top, 
and fasten the edges; take a piece of cambric that will go 
around the board smooth, tack it on, draw it down half 
way between the two boards and tie a string around it, 
then tack the loose edge to the other board. Now you 
have a cambric table shaped like an hour-glass, and this 
you can cover with muslin, by covering the top smooth, 
making half an inch ruffle to go around the top edge and 
tying it in the middle with ribbon to match the color of the 
cambric. Plain muslin curtains, hemmed at top and bot¬ 
tom, gathered so as leave a little ruffle at the top, and tied 
back with a little ribbon fastened to a tack, improve the 
appearance of a room very much. And I should think no 
reader of the Cabinet need have hare walis if the 3 ' are 
only whitewashed. A pretty bureau might be made of a 
dry goods box. set on end, with shelves nailed across the 
inside, the top and sides covered with cambric and muslin, 
and a curtain of the same in front. 
"Will some one tell me how to treat Zepheranthus and 
Ixia bulbs, Passion Flower vine, Plumbago, and Ivy 
Geranium? 
A Pretty Ornament.— S. A. B. writes how to con¬ 
struct a pretty ornament, as follows, of a bowl of a goblet 
with the stem broke off: Wash it and wipe dry, then cover 
it as smoothly as you can with red -flannel, leaving the top 
open, but the edges covered; then, after it is covered, wet 
the flannel so it will be pretty damp, have ready some flax 
seed, spread on a platter or plate, then roll the prepared 
part until it is covered with the seed, thickly, and what 
will not roll on place on with the fingers, being careful not 
to remove the others; place in a saucer with the open part 
downward, and fill the saucer with water, and as often as 
it dries up; in a few days the seed will begin to swell, and, 
finally, shoot forth littie green sprays, which look very 
pretty on red ground; it has fine blue flowers, which are 
very pretty. The seed can be purchased at the druggist’s, 
and five cents’ worth is sufficient. 
Autumn Leaves Exchanged. —Any of the subscri¬ 
bers of the Cabinet wishing pressed Ferns and Autumn 
leaves, either in exchange for plants or bulbs, can address 
me. Kanawha Yalley is famous for her autumnal tints and 
handsome ferns. Mrs. R. S. Truslow. 
Kanawha C. H., W. Ya. 
