24 



The Florists^ Review 



SOVBMBBR 10, 1921 



MITTING IN JAIL. 



Held for Review Readers. 



In its campaign to prevent the de- 

 frauding of florists by petty swindlers, 

 The Review has put in jail one known to 

 members of the trade in several parts of 

 the country, E. De Boo Mitting or 

 Ernest Mitting. The sheriff at Fort 

 Morgan, Colo., is holding him in order 

 that those readers of The Review whom 

 Mr. Mitting has swindled may prose- 

 cute. Two telegrams in last week's is- 

 sue told the story briefly. How he was 

 arrested is told by L. J. Reid, proprietor 

 of the Morgan Floral Co., at Fort Mor- 

 gan, Colo., thus: 



"On the afternoon of October 31 a 

 young man walked into our office, which 

 is right in connection with the green- 

 house, and asked for the proprietor. He 

 was told that the proprietor was out on 

 business, but might be back at any time, 

 and that Mr. Wood, the greenhouse fore- 

 man, was in the houses. He had soon 

 made himself acquainted with all the 

 force. 



The Hard-Luck Tale. 



"About 5 p. m. I returned, and the 

 young man introduced himself as Mit- 

 ting the Nurseryman. He seemed quite 

 nervous and excited. With much talk 

 he tried to sell some berry plants, bulbs 

 and ornamental stock, putting up a 

 hard-luck storj' about having been held 

 up in Nebraska and losing his ticket to 

 California, his money and his suit case. 

 However, he did have a brief case under 

 his arm and in it papers showing him to 

 be Mitting. Among these papers were 

 letters addressed to E. D. Mitting, both 

 at Chicago and at 1431 Fifteenth ave- 

 nue, Sunset District, San Francisco, Cal. 

 One of these was on stationery of J. L. 

 Childs, Inc., Floral Park, N. Y. An- 

 other paper was a T'. S. Army discharge, 

 which appeared all right and showed liis 

 signature. Other papers showed trades, 

 orders, etc., with Nebraska and other 

 nurseries, among them one definitely 

 with a nursery at Kearney, Neb. 



"He wanted a check cashed so that 

 he could get to friends in Denver. When 

 he asked for only $5 on the Garfield 

 Park Bank of Chicago I promptly 

 cashed it. I also gave him a written 

 order for some Spira>a Vanhouttei, 

 which he represented that he had se- 

 cured by trade from a Nebraska nursery. 

 This was to be delivered in the spring, 

 -but I declined to pay anything down on 

 it as he requested, tolling him that I 

 preferred to cash his chock now and pay 

 for goods as dclivorod in the spring. 



"When Mr. Mitting left, the help 

 .iollied me about having been stung, but 

 I was inclined to be optimistic and ac- 

 cept the papers as showing him genuine. 



Review Reveals Swindler. 



"The next morning one of the men 

 brought to my attention the article in 

 The Review of October 27 entitled, 'Mr. 

 Mitting Again.' I promptly acknowl- 

 edged that the treats were on me. 



"A few hours later that morning Mit- 

 ting sent over for a paper which he had 

 carelessly left. The paper was turned 



over to the errand boy, and inquiry 

 brought out the information that Mit- 

 ting was then at the home of a nearby 

 nurseryman by the name of Cprry. Af- 

 ter the messenger left, the check men- 

 tioned above and the page from The 

 Review were turned over to the local 

 sheriff, who simply said, 'Well, let's go 

 get that bird. He is over beating Curry 

 right now.' 



"Mitting was taken into custody at 

 Mr. Curry's home just as he was trying 

 to get Curry to pay $50 down on an 

 order for next spring's delivery. Mit- 

 ting acknowledged that he was the man 

 mentioned in The Review, maintained 

 that he had reimbursed the Honolulu 

 man with a note instead of the goods, 

 admitted that the $5 check just given 

 to the Morgan Floral Co. was covered 

 by no funds in the Garfield Park Bank 

 of Chicago, but offered to make it good 

 by wiring relatives to cover it with a 

 deposit. 



"The sheriff wired The Review, as 

 noted in last week 's issue. On informa- 

 tion supplied, the sheriff wired the New 

 York firm defrauded of $25, which re- 



plied that it dia not care to shoulder the 

 expense necessary to take him there. 

 The sheriff telephoned the Denver of&ce 

 of the postal authorities, stating the 

 circumstances of the Honolulu case, and 

 they acknowledged that the government 

 should do something, but the Denver of- 

 fice seemed to imply that it had no juris- 

 diction, as it was the business of the 

 wostern office. The Denver office agreed 

 to communicate with the western office, 

 but sheriff has received no instructions. 



Action Needed from Victims. 



' ' The only thing really definitely 

 against Mitting here is securing $5 on a 

 check which he admits to be no good, 

 but apparently which he might make 

 good. It is apparent, however, the game 

 he has been playing. The county and 

 state here could scarcely prosecute on 

 what we have against him. 



"We believe in doing our part in 

 helping to protect the florists' trade, 

 and like the attitude The Review has 

 taken in tracing offenders. But this 

 man was simply held on the informa- 

 tion supplied by The Review and unless 

 some authority claims him soon he will 

 have his freedom." 



Pittsburgh, Pa. — A new florist's shop 

 was opened in the Heckler building, 

 Sheridan, Pa., by Towne & Miller on 

 Saturday, October 29. Each customer 

 attending received a flower. 



l "A^q»^ilt^'lt^«l4yj|tiJ|tAJ»ltyjLU ^ ^ 



HE'S HOME AGAIN 



PENNOCK'S HOME-COMING. 



Welcome in New York. 



A committee of friends of Samuel 

 Pennock, of Philadelphia, president- 

 elect of the S. A. P., who has been in 

 Germany for seven months as a repre- 

 sentative of the American Friends' 

 service committee, got in touch with 

 him by wireless two days after the 

 Orbita, on which ho was returning, left 

 Southampton, and tendered him a re- 

 ception and dinner, to take place on his 

 arrival in New York November 4. Mr. 

 Pennock wirelessed his acceptance, and 

 arrangements were forthwith made for 

 the dinner to be held at the Pennsyl- 

 vania hotel Friday evening, November 

 4. At the time appointed, 6:30 p. m., 

 the hosts, to the number of about fifty, 

 were present to greet the guest, and all 

 sat down to tables arranged in the form 

 of a hollow square. 



In the center of the square was a 

 group of tall vases of pompon chrysan- 

 themums, with the new variety, Now 

 York, forming the apex of the group. 

 Hosts and guests wore Cypripedium 

 insigne Sandorsp flowers as a houton- 

 niere, presented by ■To'soph A. Manda. 

 The chrysanthomums wore provided by 

 Wallace R. Piorson, who presided as 

 chairman and toastmastor. Among the 

 hosts were four past-presidents and the 

 present president of the S. A. F., three 

 of the society's directors and its secre- 

 tary, and the president and ton past- 

 presidents of the New York Florists'. 

 Club. 



Hosts of the Evening. 



The hosts were Wallace R. Pierson, 



John Young, Robert Simpson, G. E. M. 

 Stumpp, F. R. Pierson, Leonard Barron, 

 William H. Duckham, Frank H. Traend- 

 ly, A. M. Henshaw, A. T. Bunyard, 

 Benjamin Hammond, Fred L. Atkins, 

 John H. Pepper, Joseph A. Manda, 

 Roman J. Irwin, Thomas Roland, 

 Ch.arles Schenck, J. C. Vaughan, Charles 

 B. Weathered, E. J. Fancourt, David S. 

 Ward, Charles H. Totty, Isaac S. Hen- 

 drickson, William R. Cobb, W. A. 

 Manda, A. T. De La Mare, R. T. Brown, 

 A. L. Miller, W. H. Siebrecht, Sr., J. H. 

 Fiesser, James McHutchison, Percy B. 

 Rigby, John G. Esler, L. W. C. Tuthill, 

 Max Schling, J. Walter Beimels, A. M. 

 Schieder, Henry Rudolph, Peter Ger- 

 laird, Charles Schwake, Emil Sehloss, 

 Joseph E. Morichard, Jos. A. Millang, 

 and Denis Kenna. 



Mr. Pennock 's Remarks. 



After coffee and cigars had been 

 served, the guest of the evening, being 

 called upon by the toastmaster, made a 

 lengthy address, in the course of which 

 he described the work he had been en- 

 gaged in while in Germany, which was 

 the feeding of undernourished children 

 and mothers a supplementary meal each 

 day. In all the districts covered, the 

 meals served aggregated over 1,000,000 

 each d.iy. He was glad to be home 

 again, he said, and he most heartily ap- 

 preciated the welcome that evening ac- 

 corded to him by his friends in New 

 York. Other speakers were Wallace R. 

 Pierson, Leonard Barron, Benjamin 

 Hammond, Fred L. Atkins, Thomas 

 Roland, J. V. Vaughan, W. A. Manda 

 and John Young. 



