Columbia Phoenix

A Beautiful Bouquet.—Columbia, before the fire, was emphatically the city of flowers. Her gardens gave to her streets the aspects of the orient. Her soil was especially adapted to their cultivation. And now, when, as if holding forth a promise from the ruins, encouraging to hope, every bush is crowded as with a glory: every stem as with a jewel, and with thousand varieties of gems shining through a glossy and velvety setting of green, one almost forgets that there is sorrow in the land. Thanks to the fair ladies who, in the beautiful bouquet sent us yesterday, carry us back to sweet memories of a home, very precious in its sweetness; and thus make us forgetful of all save that God sends us bloom and beauty through such hands and add largely to the blessing in the gift, and take from thought all the thorns of sorrow.