74 



HORTICULTURE 



January 20, 1917 



CLEVELAND AS IT WAS. 



My attention has been called to an 

 article recently appearing in a New 

 York florists' publication entitled 

 "Tales of a Traveler," and the partic- 

 ular locality covered by the traveler 

 was noted as being "Around Cleve- 

 land," my native city and former 

 home. The tale of this "Traveler" was 

 not a little astounding. His declara- 

 tion that up to the time he landed from 

 "a rickety old tub of a lake boat," 

 Cleveland had "no claim of especial 

 recognition" was most emphatic- 

 ally a stunner. When I was born 

 Cleveland's population was 6,000, and 

 49 years after (the date our traveler 

 landed there) it was 260,000, "a mere 

 town" (?), and which ten years later 

 was the largest city in the great state 

 of Ohio. No sane person knowing 

 these facts would look upon the state- 

 ments made in the paper referred to as 

 other than an unwarrantable slander 

 upon noble men and women who de- 

 voted their energies to the upbuilding 

 of their homes and of their city, and 

 this slur upon their memories I cannot 

 allow to pass unnoticed. No one who 

 knows Cleveland and its history would 

 do otherwise than cast it aside as the 

 production of a malicious mind or 

 word of an ignorant one. 



At that time, I admit that lower 

 River street where the "rickety old 

 tubs" landed was not attractive. The 

 tremendous amount of team traffic pre- 

 cluded any other than firmest of pav- 

 ing, differing none from the water 

 front streets of our other large cities, 

 and the hotels in that neighborhood 

 were not of the highest class, but at 

 the same time, one, if observant, must 

 have seen evidences of a business ac- 

 tivity far and beyond "a spirit of let- 

 well-enough-alone." But passage on a 

 "rickety old tub" was not compulsory 

 on anybody, for there were palatial 

 steamers, the finest in the world, in 

 endless procession daily through Lakes 

 Erie, Huron and Superior. Had "Trav- 

 eler" gone up Superior street hill Into 

 that part of the city where its business 

 other than forwarding was transacted, 

 he could have found hotels such as the 

 Stillman, Fore.st City, Weddell, Ken- 

 nard, American and many others, the 

 equal in every respect, save possiblv 

 in size, of the Astor of New York, 

 Tremont of Boston or Girard of Phila- 

 delphia. That he did not chose to do 

 so can hardly be charged to Cleveland. 

 Those "unprogressive" pioneers of 

 Cleveland dug a waterway by which the 

 waters of the great lakes found their 

 way to the Gulf. A canal boat could 

 be loaded at Cleveland and its cargo 

 discharged on the New Orleans levee. 

 Was the construction of the Ohio canal 

 in 1S32, 309 miles long from Cleveland 

 to Portsmouth on the Ohio river, the 

 conception of a non-progressive type 

 of men? 



A few years before our traveler made 

 his landing I could have shown him 

 the remnants of the first railroad built 

 in northern Ohio. Primitive though it 

 was, as were most rai'ways in the 

 early days, yet it was the beginning of 

 what in connection with its maritime 

 and internal waterway developments 

 brought about in later years the won- 

 derful growth and development of the 

 city. Is it not foolish, therefore, to 

 declare that the men of those days did 

 not suspect that the city they were 



BURPEE'S ANNUAL 



We reviewed this publication briefly 

 last week. We might add that it in 

 creased in size 22 pages as compared 

 with last year's edition. The new 

 things listed make a tempting array 

 for the ambitious gardener. It is un- 



doubtedly one of the best catalogues 

 ever put out by the Burpee house. The 

 New York Sun of Sunday, Dec. 24 de- 

 voted a large space to a special Illus- 

 trated article relative to the novelties 

 listed therein. 



laboring for in these great Improve- 

 ments would grow in influence, popula- 

 tion and wealth? Note their far- 

 sighted policy when they struggled to 

 unite the immense iron deposits of the 

 Upper Lakes with the coal beds imme- 

 diately south of Cleveland, and 

 builded a city, of which it may be on- 

 ly necessary to quote a remark by 

 Andrew Carnegie, an authority our 

 traveler will not accuse of unprogres- 

 siveness or ultra conservativeness in 

 business matters, that for the result- 

 ant of this combination in manufac- 

 ture of "these products Cleveland is the 

 ideal city of the American continent." 

 What the fathers builded for their 

 posterity, however, was not alone con- 

 fined to accumulation of wealth. Had 

 our "Traveler" strolled up the hills 

 from the cobblestone paved River 

 street into the beautiful plateau up- 

 on which Cleveland is situated, he 

 would have soon discovered why it 

 has been recognized as the city of 

 beautiful homes where art and music, 

 science and literature have ever re- 

 ceived a warm welcome. Some 

 years ago another traveler, Bayard 

 Taylor, strolled up and passed the 

 houses of these men who are charged 

 with acting in the spirit of "let-well- 

 enough-alone." and he found what he 

 gave to the world in published writ- 

 ing as his estimate of one Cleveland 

 street, when he said "a view of Eu- 

 clid avenue was well worth a trip 

 across the Atlantic ocean." 



Of Cleveland as it is today and of 

 those loyal sons of the grand pioneers 

 who founded and built it I must not 

 speak, for it is impossible to cover 

 the ground within limited space, but 

 may be pardoned if a little time be 

 asked for in calling attention to what 

 the fathers, sons and grandsons have 

 and are doing in carrying out the 

 plans laid down in line of making a 

 city beautiful in horticulture and 

 floriculture. Even when our "Trav 



eler" was on the deck of the "rickety 

 old tub" he passed the lake front of 

 a park system which must be seen to 

 be appreciated, presented to this 

 "town" by J. H. Wade, an adjoining 

 one by W. J. Gordon and still another 

 by one peculiarly a type of Cleveland 

 unprogressiveness (?) John D. Rocke- 

 feller. I say a "type," though not by 

 any means the only one of his gen- 

 eration resident in Cleveland. I 

 single him — for the whole world 

 knows of him— as quite sufficient an 

 answer to any slur upon Cleveland 

 progressiveness. Though not bom in 

 Cleveland, he is a product of it. He 

 came out of its schools filled with the 

 energy, pluck and aggressiveness with 

 which the very air seemed filled, a 

 business stimulant. No one who knows 

 anything of the business spirit and 

 the cool, calm, forceful unwearying in- 

 dustry of those with whom as a young 

 man be advised would be surprised at 

 his success in life. Today, wherever 

 you see in the Forest City a magnifi- 

 cent home or fine estate, wherever it 

 may be. you find buildings covering 

 beautiful' paintings and statuary, de- 

 voted to education or literature, or 

 whenever you pass imposing struc- 

 tures and are told they are devoted to 

 the alleviation of human distresses or 

 sheltering orphaned children, you will 

 find that they were built and endowed 

 by those who had a thought of the fu- 

 ture city and were not content to "let 

 well enough alone." Their posterity, 

 now the bone, sinew and brain of 

 Cleveland, are carrying out to the 

 fullest extent the dream of their an- 

 cestors' lives, for which they lived and 

 struggled and following their admoni- 

 tions spare no effort to make Cleve- 

 land bigger, better, more beautiful. 

 How much these loyal sons are doing, 

 what they have already accomplished, 

 and what grand plans for the future 

 are being laid out, only those who 

 know them, who knew their parents 



