THE LADIES' FLORAL CABINET. 
85 
They may be weak who on it look 
With holy inspiration; 
Who cannot read in holy book 
The world’s forlorn condition; 
And yet, in darkness and in gloom, 
To find beliof so kindly, 
To lead the thought beyond the tomb, 
Though it be done all blindly. 
In token that the soul within 
Its future fate must ponder, 
If happiness or pain shall win 
The battle—“ over yonder.” 
Oh, Flower of Love ! thy sermon preach 
In all thy saintly beauty ; 
And from the lesson that you teach, 
Lead us in paths of duty. 
Gwendoline. 
ROSE RECIPES. 
No flower lias to the same extent as the Rose furnished 
a suggestive theme for legendary lore. Many of these 
mythical tales are of great beauty, though all are not 
strictly confined to the ages of myth, nor are they ex¬ 
clusively confined to legendary climes ; for even in the 
glare of this matter-of-fact 10th Century, and in our 
own prosaic land, may be found a rose-tree to which a 
charming legend is attached. In the grounds at Mount 
Vernon is shown a rose-bush near which the lovely 
Nelly Custis, the grand neice of Lady Washington, is 
said to have received her first offer. Since that auspic¬ 
ious episode tradition asserts that every young lady 
who, with perfect faith in the mystic spell, walks 
around the Rose-bush six consecutive times, will infalli¬ 
bly receive an offer of marriage within the year. Every 
Summer brings many gentle pilgrims to this romantic 
shrine, who, with blushing trepidation, go through with 
the prescribed ceremonial (on the sly.) 
A trip to Mount Vernon might be crowned with 
greater success than one to Saratoga, Newport or Long 
Branch ; hence fair readers of the Cabinet who may 
desire to enter the blissful state of matrimony would do 
well to test the power and efficacy of the famous Nelly 
Custis Rose-bush. 
Just here it may be well to note that the writer may pos¬ 
hly be rash in applying the term “ blissful ” to the matri¬ 
monial state. Circumstances of an anomalous charac¬ 
ter militate against his competency to pronounce with 
any degree of certainty on so grave a question. He, 
therefore, in styling it a state of bliss, has simply per¬ 
mitted himself to fall in with the drift of current opin¬ 
ion. and has confidingly relied on the perhaps too partial 
testimony of the initiated. With this important reserve 
let us then wish God-speed to all fair maidens who, with 
a courage in keeping with their convictions, may ven¬ 
ture to make this portentious pilgrimage. May their 
fairest, fondest dreams be fully realized. May the offer 
be made and accepted. May lie be noble, handsome, 
and above all things, rich. May the grand climax end 
in misty bridal veil, orange flowers, and a shower of 
rice and slippers. But our good-will ends not here, 
for should tempestuous storms subsequently arise to 
mar the mirrored smoothness of the matrimonial sea, 
may they ever have at hand to still the troubled waters, 
that potent charm called 
DULCHAZ, 
which is an testhetic condiment so superlatively deli¬ 
cious that it merits the honor of a paragraph all to it¬ 
self. No prudent housewife should be without it, for 
when in the course of domestic events it becomes neces¬ 
sary to deploy all those artful tactics or beguiling arts 
contained in the feminine repertoire in order to obtain 
a sealskin cloak or a new drawing-room carpet, a dose 
of Dulchaz is confidently recommended as an admira¬ 
ble preliminary step. Husbands the most obdurate and 
unreasonable yield at once to its seductive charms. In 
fact, Dulchaz is a sort of terrestrial ambrosia; and if 
we are to credit Shiraz, a Persian poet, it did once upon 
a time actually replace the celestial staff of life to the 
complete satisfaction of the great Jupiter and all the 
lesser gods. 
To summarize the poet’s account of the episode, it 
will be sufficient to say that on a certain occasion Juno 
attended a kettledrum given by Venus to the feminine 
elite of the Olympian court. These celestial ladies, 
precisely like those of a lower sphere, gossipped about 
and abused the neighbors, discussed the fashions, 
though in justice to the fair hostess it must be said that 
for obvious reasons the question of dress possessed for 
her but a mediocre interest. As much cannot be said 
for her frivolous guests, who, with pitiless severity, criti¬ 
cised Medusa’s latest switch, or ridiculed Minerva’s 
“everlasting old bonnet.” To sum up, they had a 
“ splendid timewhen just at the height of the jollifi¬ 
cation Juno perceived, to her great dismay, that Jupi¬ 
ter’s supper-hour had all but arrived. This was a fact 
pregnant with the direst consequences should not the 
supper be forthcoming in shortest order. By a lucky 
chance Pegasus was quietly browzing near by (to be 
precise as well as veracious), he had broken into Venus’ 
cabbage garden, and was surreptitiously regaling him¬ 
self on her choicest early Savoys; consequently, being in 
the best of humor, good-naturedly whisked Juno home 
in a flash. Hastily dismounting, she flew to the larder 
at precisely at the same moment that a flock of arch 
little Cupids flew out of the window, licking their chub¬ 
by fingers. 
The connection between the condition of the 
arcler as revealed to Juno, and the compromising flight 
of the mischievous little godlings. was suggestive to a 
toohhi thf q’ T 1 m ° le el ° queut than w °rds. j uno 
a terrific row ” a . glance > and, acutely aware that 
Ere she she LdT ^ pre P ared *> ^int. 
fuffiSent sort M S6leCt f01 ' the purpose a cusl »™ 
under each arm plenty entered, bearing 
others strapped on his bSTaStaS f^m Ttt • ^ 
the royal pantry of^hepalacert ST ^ Came from 
the King 0 f Persia was afamou!^ e ^ eran - Aware that 
that she was saved ; aniT franticT with^o^at heMucky 
