308 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



AUGUST 16, 1900 



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TROUBLES 



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Conducted by 



LEONARD 

 LAWTON 



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More About Credits. 

 B B writes: "Half of our business 

 is credit, the bullc of the orders com- 

 ing by telephone. It is in our opin- 

 ion foolish for any retail florist to at- 

 tempt to do an all cash business. If 

 he has any of the smart set as cus- 

 tomers it is practically impossible to 

 avoid giving credit. From people we 

 do not know we ask a deposit and 

 require the balance to be paid on de- 

 livery. We have a black list in our 

 ofnce, a ten-years' collection of names 

 of people who don't pay or are slow 

 pay, etc., and every clerk has this to 

 consult when a question of credit 

 arises. 



"In sending out C. O. D. orders we 

 instruct our drivers to tell the party 

 that if the amount is not paid to him 

 he will have to make it up to us out 

 of his own pocket and in nine out of 

 ten cases he gets the money. 



"On the first of every month we 

 send out most of our bills by mail 

 and the customers we have not heard 

 from by the 10th of the month are 

 visited bv our collector. His instruc- 

 tions are to let no bill become more 

 than two months old. Of course we 

 lose a few bills during the year, but 

 have had fewer losses during the last 

 three years, while following above 

 plan, than prior to that time. 



"If any flowers are ordered by a 

 society oV church we make it a point 

 to get the names and addresses of 

 each member of the committee if pos- 

 sible and surely that of one. This 

 precaution has saved us many dollars. 

 ■ Be careful who you sell to and don't 

 let your bills stand out long. The 

 older they get the harder they are to 

 collect." 



Plat.t Advertisers. 



"The statement of Clorus in the Re- 

 view of July 5," says W. S., "is quite 

 spicy and he is certainly very piam 

 spoken. Fortunately he mentions 

 names only where he has a good word 

 to say, and the 'lousy' people are 

 spared. 



-When Dickens wrote 'Nicholas 

 Nickleby' and did up 'Dothelioy Hall' 

 and 'Mr. Squeers' so finely he had a 

 lot of law suits on his hands. Many 

 of the guilty wretches thought it was 

 their establishment he was aiming at 

 and they were very unhappy, as all 

 deceivers should be, and this immortal 

 story actually 'busted' those dens of 

 iniquity known as the Yorkshire 

 schools. Let us fervently pray that 

 those criminals who send out micro- 

 scopic begonias, yellow attenuated 

 pelargoniums, scaly manettia, mealy 



bug fuchsias and other abominations, 

 are writhing in agony thinking that 

 the eyes of all honest florists are 

 pointing straight at them, and that 

 they have made up their minds to 

 reform or go out of business after 

 reading the remarks of Clorus. 



■■Thousands could tell just the same 

 story, and I am afraid will have an 

 excuse for doing so for years to come. 

 But we can all help to eradicate these 

 fakirs in the trade. They are worse than 

 the patent medicine men, because only 

 fools or dying men who grasp at 

 straws take any stock in the 'Greatest 

 Medical Discovery' or any similar 

 humbug. Their stuff is hydrant water 

 humbug and advertising and we all 

 know it. But the man who advertises 

 some plants of specific size and quality 

 deliberately deceives us. 



"Now, Mr. Editor, there is no de- 

 fined line between the honest and dis- 

 honest among men, or the sane and 

 the insane. There is a wide differ- 

 ence between the two extremes, but 

 in the middle it is often indistinguish- 

 able. ■Great wit to madness sure is 

 close allied, and but a thin partition 

 does the two divide.' So among ad- 

 vertisers: there is the honest man, 

 the 'honestish' and the dishonest. Dis- 

 honesty that the law doesn't touch is 

 simplv frowned upon, and in many 

 cases "not even that. If there is no 

 judge and jury or penitentiary at- 

 tachment you go sailing along in your 

 automobile or get elected to the state 

 legislature and he spoken of by the 

 servile organs of the party as 'A re- 

 fined and cultivated gentleman.' 



Among our plant advertisers there 

 are broadly two classes: The one who 

 first of all is proud to grow good 

 plants, proud of his reputation, and 

 who will not send out poor stock. 

 The other class includes those who 

 have gone into the business, not from 

 any liking for or perhaps knowledge 

 of it, but solely for the acquisition of 

 the dollar. That sort cares nothing 

 for vour upbraiding letter. In fact, 

 cares for nothing so long as he gets 

 your dollar and can assume the airs 

 of 'a refined and cultivated gentle- 

 man.' 



"The robber of old had lots of hair 

 on his face, blood in his eye and a 

 club in his hand. The robber of to- 

 day has suavity of manner, oiliness of 

 speech, a benevolent smile and a flow- 

 ing pen, and that he may be thought 

 well of by the old women of his local- 

 ity he is' generally the pillar of some 

 church, the denomination that has the 

 best 'society' being preferred. 

 ■■Not all these unscrupulous adver- 

 i Users mean to be dishonest, but their 



bacillus of rectitude weakens when 

 the strain comes and they yield to 

 the temptation on the principle of the 

 thrifty father who sent his son into 

 the world with the advice: 'Get 

 money, John: get it honestly if you 

 can. but get it." 



"I am a most confirmed optimist as 

 to the progress of the human race. 

 I believe that every generation is bet- 

 ter (even if only slightly better) than 

 its predecessor just as surely and 

 firmly as I believe that we have 

 emerged from the dark, barbarous 

 past, the countless ages that human 

 thought cannot fathom. There may 

 be retrogression here and there in in- 

 dividuals and nations, but that will 

 not stop the great army that is born 

 every day and that will make the 

 world a better place to live in. 



"Coming down to business, a florist 

 is unwise to buy of any house unless 

 he knows its reputation. I find that 

 some of the reputable drummers, of 

 which there are several, will give you 

 accurate information about most any 

 of the houses who advertise. The ama- 

 teur will always l)e the dupe of soine 

 knaves who advertise in the 'Ladies' 

 Banner of Hope' or 'Soap,' but the flor- 

 ist should find in his trade journals 

 a good article advertised by reputable 

 firms. 



"Now. Mr. Editor. I think it is ask- 

 ing a good deal to expect you to re- 

 fuse a good adv. because you know 

 that firm does not send out the article 

 as represented by the adv. You are 

 not indorsing them; you only sell 

 them space in which they make an 

 announcement to the public, and in 

 no way are you responsible. But in 

 conclusion I would say that if you can 

 afford to discard the business of firms 

 whom you know to be unreliable and 

 send oiit inferior goods, you will sure- 

 ly Ijuild up a most enviable reputation 

 lor vour journal, for prospective buy- 

 ers will readily see that by sticking 

 to your advertisers they will not be 

 disappointed. 



■■Although a reflection on my adopt- 

 ed country. I must be allowed to say 

 that in our trade as well as others 

 there is in advertising far more hum- 

 l)ug and misrepresentation here than 

 in Europe, or at least the British 

 Isles." 



Our views differ somewhat from 

 those of W. S. While of course 

 it is impossible for a publisher 

 to guarantee the stock of every 

 advertiser to be as represented, 

 it is surely criminal on his 

 part to admit advs. of those whom he 

 has any reason to believe are in any 

 degree unreliable or apt to send out 

 stock that is not as represented. Cer- 

 tainly such never have been and never 

 will be knowingly admitted to the col- 

 umns of The Review. 



\nd it should not be overlooked 

 that one order filled with unsatisfac- 

 torv stock will cause more noise than 

 a thousand filled to the satisfaction of 

 the buyer. The complaints received 

 represent an exceedingly small per- 

 centage of the business done. 



