Dbcbmbbb 11, 1919. 



The Florists^ Review 



47 



OBITUARY 



Lyman H. Potter. 



Lyman H. Potter died suddenly at his 

 home in Waukegan, 111., Sunday after- 

 noon, November 30, at the age of QQ~ 

 years. Death followed a slight stroke of 

 paralysis, which came while he was wa- 

 tering plants in the greenhouse the pre- 

 vious Monday. He had seemed to re- 

 cover, but his heart was not equal to the 

 strain. 



Mr. Potter was born in New York 

 state, but lived a large part of his life 

 in Waukegan, where for the last twenty- 

 five years he had conducted a green- 

 house on the corner of Oakley avenue 

 and Center street. His son, Harold, has 

 been associated with him in the business 

 under the name of L. H. Potter & Son. 



He is survived by two sons and two 

 daughters: Harold; Claude, of Lacon, 

 111.; Mrs. Lena Potter, of Waukegan, 

 and Mrs. Amanda Thompson, of North 

 Chicago. The funeral took place Tues- 

 day, December 2, followed by interment 

 in Millburn cemetery. After the regu- 

 lar services, the Masons took charge, 

 since Mr. Potter had been a member of 

 that order for many years, belonging 

 to the Blue Lodge, Royal Arch and Com- 

 mandery. 



William F. Haima. 



William F. Hanna, for many years 

 in the trade in Cleveland, 0., succumbed 

 to cancer December 4. He had been ill 

 for the last six years and the last two 

 and a half years he had been at home 

 constantly. He leaves a wife and a 

 daughter. 



Mr. Hanna was born in Cleveland in 

 1861 and was one of Cleveland's oldest 

 florists. He received his schooling with 

 Harris Janes, at the Opera House block, 

 when 18 years of age and was in busi- 

 ness for himself for thirty-three years 

 at East Ninety-third and Union, where 

 he had greenhouses and a store. He was 

 well known among the Cleveland trade 

 and was liked by all who knew him 

 either in a business way or as a friend. 



The funeral was held from the home, 

 on Union avenue, Saturday afternoon, 

 December 6. W. F. B. 



John Beming. 



John Beming, father of Henry G. 

 Beming, the St. Louis wholesaler, died 

 November 30 at the age of 81 after a 

 lingering illness. Mr. Beming was 

 known to all in the trade in St. Louis 

 as Daddy Beming and all were his 

 friends. The funeral took place Decem- 

 ber 2 and was attended by many in the 

 trade; beautiful floral emblems filled the 

 room. Six employees of his son's whole- 

 sale establishment acted as pallbearers. 

 The remains were laid to rest in St. 

 Marcus cemetery. J. J. B. 



Sidney Beard. 



Sidney Beard, of Beard Bros., Detroit, 

 Mich., died at the Harper hospital, De- 

 troit, as the result of injuries to his back 

 and head sustained when the smokestack 

 of his range blew over, crashing through 

 the' roof of his home, during the severe 

 storm November 29. Mr. Beard's back 

 was broken by the falling stack. He 

 was taken to the hospital unconscious 

 and did not recover. 



OHICAOO. 



The Market. 



Anyone who is short of flowers can 

 get stock in the Chicago market; get 

 stock, that is, unless, perchance, he calls 

 for only the few scarce items. 



The week has been one of the most 

 remarkable in the history of the Chi- 

 cago market, comparable only to the 

 times of the heatless Mondays and the 

 days of the big snow blockade two years 

 ago. It has been a matter of much sur- 

 prise that, under all the circumstances, 

 business has been extremely heavy. The 

 demand has been principally from out 

 of town, most of the local retailers re- 

 porting a sharp reduction in their sales 

 as the result of the severe weather and 

 the subsequent orders to reduce light 

 and heat. It has been the shipping trade 

 which has saved the market. Time after 

 time it is demonstrated that the security 

 of the growers who send their stock 

 here rests on the wide distribution ob- 

 tained by the enterprising wholesalers. 



It was December 5 that the State Pub- 

 lic Utilities Commission, as a means of 

 meeting conditions growing out of the 

 coal strike, ordered the electric light 

 company to turn off the current of all 

 factories and stores which did not ob- 

 serve the reduced hours prescribed by 

 the commission. Several times since 

 then the orders have been changed in 

 the attempt to make the short hours 

 fit the convenience of the greatest num- 

 ber, but florists in general have main- 

 tained practically the customary hours. 

 The heatless Mondays taught the trade 

 how to carry on under such a handicap. 

 In many cases the 2-year-old equipment 

 was. brought out and in other cases new 

 means of partial illumination was 

 found. The wholesalers were able to 

 take care of all business that came their 

 way, even if some of it was done in a 

 half light, but the retailers have greatly 

 reduced their purchases and most of 

 them report their business seriously af- 

 fected, even though their stores are open 

 the usual number of hours. 



President George Asmus, Secretary 

 John G, Wittbold and J. L. Baske, rep- 

 resenting the Retail Florists' Associa- 

 tion, had an early conference with Sec- 

 retary Evans of the Public Utilities 

 Commission. They sought to ascertain 

 the exact status of flower stores under 

 the commission's short hour orders. It 

 was pointed out to them that the com- 

 mission had no power to prescribe the 

 hours of business in any such establish- 

 ment, but that it had authority to order 

 the public service companies to cut off 

 light during certain hours of the day. 

 The florists were told that they were 

 at liberty to keep their places open as 

 long as they pleased provided they did 

 not use gas or electric light outside the 

 limitations put on all business. They 

 were asked to reduce heating to the 

 minimum. The hours for the use of light 

 in retail stores in general were fixed at 

 from noon to 6 p. m. and practically all 

 the stores in the city made these their 

 business hours. The result has been 

 that flower stores did practically no 

 business, even if they were open with- 

 out lights in the forenoon, and business 

 practically ceased at dark. 



Under such conditions a big out-of- 

 town demand did not serve to clear the 

 market. There has been an abundance 

 of stock in nearly all lines. The heaviest 

 supply has been of long roses, because 

 nearly everyone wanted short. The re- 

 sult has been that short roses have 



brought relatively better prices than 

 medium stems and long roses relatively 

 lower prices than the medium grades. 

 Not within the memory of the oldest 

 inhabitant have chrysanthemums been 

 so abundant in the first decade of De- 

 cember. There has been a good demand 

 for fancy stock and first-class prices 

 have been readily obtained for fancy, 

 big blooms, because most of the supply 

 was of the ragged character which is 

 characteristic of the end of the season. 

 Pompons are slowly dwindling in supply, 

 but there are as yet more than the de- 

 mand will take at steady prices. 



There have not been too many of the 

 other items of seasonable stock, but 

 prices all along the line have been held 

 down by the abundance of roses and 

 mums. There are so few violets and 

 sweet peas that their prices would go 

 to the level reached some time ago by 

 valley, orchids and lilies if it were not 

 possible to buy long roses below their 

 real worth. Carnations are moving well, 

 but the price is held down by the same 

 influence. Paper Whites accumulate for 

 lack of demand, and there are too many 

 yellow narcissi. 



In general the quality of flowers is 

 excellent. One scarcely could ask for 

 finer roses. Most of the growers, heed- 

 ing the warnings given that coal will be 

 hard to get when present supplies are 

 exhausted, have been reducing their tem- 

 peratures, a process which seldom does 

 any harm to the quality, no matter what 

 it may do to the quantity produced. At 

 the time this issue of The Review goes 

 to press it looks as though the coal strike 

 is in a way of being settled, but that 

 the severe weather in November and 

 now again prevailing has caused such 

 great inroads on the reserve stock of 

 fuel that business hours will be limited 

 for some time to come. There is some 

 apprehension as to the result on the local 

 Christmas business. 



Club Meeting. 



It's always dry weather, now, when 

 good fellows get together and it has not 

 in the least increased the attendance 

 at the meetings of the Chicago Florists' 

 Club. Even for the annual election of 

 officers, December 4, at the Hotel Ran- 

 dolph, only twenty-five turned out. The 

 election proved a surprise. Both Paul 

 KlingSporn and Otto H. Amling de- 

 clined to stand for the presidency, leav- 

 ing the club without nominees. Reopen- 

 ing the matter resulted in naming and 

 electing the following slate: 



President— T. E. Waters. 



Vice-president — A. T. Pyfer. 



Treasurer — Paul Weiss. 



Secretary — Fred Lautenschlager. 



Trustee, for three years, to succeed 

 himself — W. J. Keimel. 



The principal discussion of the even- 

 ing, after the election had been dis- 

 posed of, concerned the coal strike and 

 the situation of the trade in view of the 

 restrictions on the use of fuel and light. 

 It appeared that no grower was known 

 to be perilously short of coal and that 

 the fuel administration will see that 

 anyone who is careful to conserve fuel 

 is kept from freezing out. As for 

 wholesalers and retailers, they were ad- 

 vised to comply literally with the short- 

 hour orders, on pain of having their 

 light shut off and receiving undesirable 

 publicity. C. L. Washburn is chairman 

 of the club's coal committee and all re- 

 quiring the club 's assistance were re- 

 ferred to him. 



(Continued on page <^.) 



