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AuouST 25, 1004. 



The Weekly Florists' Review 



651 



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CONVENTION IMPRESSIONS. 



The Review has already given so com- 

 plete an account of the St. Louis conven- 

 tion that little can be added. Yet a 

 few impressions, I trust, will not be un- 

 welcome. What little we have to say 

 about it will be guided by sincerity and 

 no bouquet throwing or "taflfy" will be 

 indulged in. Compliments and pleasant 

 words are easy to express, and a mutual 

 pleasure to all, but misleading to the ab- 

 sent ones. 



The hall where the ceremonies took 

 place was one of the best the society has 

 ever met in; a spacious stage, finely dec- 

 orated and a seating capacity for an 

 audience that would have held four 

 times the number of florists that entered 

 its doors. We did not admire that prim- 

 itive pulpit-like erection that allowed 

 only a view of President Breitmeyer's 

 head and neck and obscured his portly 

 figure. 



The short address of welcome from 

 Mr. Walbridge was eloquent. The fact 

 that Mr. Walbridge is president of the 

 Business Men's League of St. Louis, and 

 likely some day to be Missouri's gov- 

 ernor, has taught him the value of time 

 and that "Brevity is the soul of wit." 

 The reply by the society's orator, Rob- 

 ert Craig, was eloquent in voice, sentiment 

 and facts, and all honor to Robert for 

 coming out flatfooted in his regret that 

 ornamental horticulture was so meagerly 

 represented at the World's Fair. And 

 while on that subject, could not one mil- 

 lion of the money spent have been taken 

 from those stupendous buildings and de- 

 voted to trees and shrubs to relieve the 

 monotony of those many miles of plaster 

 walls? 



The president's address was, we think, 

 the most complete and practical of any 

 in the history of our society, and it is 

 evident that no president has ever taken 

 a greater interest or held a more earnest 

 desire to see the society advance in the 



right direction than Philip Breitmeyer. 

 Phil, who is not a noisy man, made a 

 strenuous effort to raise his voice so that 

 all could hear him, and succeeded, which 

 is more than can be said of several ex- 

 presidents. 



We think, on the whole, the essays, 

 discussions and debates on several ques- 

 tions were above the average of the past. 

 How difficult it is now to rake up a 

 subject that is strictly floriculture. When 

 the society was young, there was an 

 abundance of practical subjects which 

 we were all glad to hear discoursed upon. 

 They have been about all ventilated and 

 thrashed out, yet that paper by Mr. Peter- 

 son will be found most valuable and a 

 guide to many. 



Nothing was finer than Mr. Petti- 

 grew 's essay on the influence and ben- 

 efits of our public parks. The cheapest, 

 yet best and most glorious investment 

 for • a city of any size, is its public 

 parks. They have a greater influence 

 for good than a church of any denomi- 

 nation. Let us have more parks and we 

 shall need less police. 



E. G. Hill's paper on "An American 

 Type of Roses" was worthy of the 

 man, and that's saying enough. And 

 the questions fired at him showed an in- 

 terest in this great subject. Mr, Hill is 

 an explorer in American horticulture, an 

 American Vilmorin, and that grey head 

 of his does a lot of thinking. 



We greatly enjoyed Mr. Vaughan's 

 idea of the "Ideal Employe." It was 

 lively and most attractively delivered and 

 his version of an ideal employe is greatly 

 to be desired, for he certainly would be 

 ideal. Such an entertaining debate fol- 

 lowed that we refrained from raising 

 our weak voice. 



There id a large measure of truth in 

 the opinion of many that the conduct 

 of an employe is moulded somewhat by 

 the character and treatment of the em- 



ployer. But that only goes so far. If 

 all employ«s were turned out of one 

 mould lit would be easy to control, ele- 

 vate and bring them to the ideal, as you 

 can a steam pump or gas engine. How 

 different is the human animal! Char- 

 acters differ as widely as the poles. If 

 we were all saints what a humdrum world 

 this would be. If there was no room 

 on top for the bright, industrious man 

 of integrity, there would be no ambition. 

 We must have the sloven as well as the 

 worker, sin as well as virtue, sorrow as 

 well as joy, pain as well as pleasure, 

 and if we were all ideal, the world of 

 men and women would vanish. Next 

 year 's essay on ' * The Ideal Employer ' ' 

 will be worth a long journey to hear, 

 especially if assigned to the Reverend 

 Dr. Carmody. The employer is in a 

 higher position than the employe and 

 his responsibilities are far greater and 

 his influence toward a good understand- 

 ing between himself and employe rests 

 mostly on employer. 



That story of Mr. O'Mara's illustrat- 

 ing the speed of the Chicago business 

 man must be heard to be relished. "Go 

 slowly," said the slowly swinging pen- 

 dulum of the south. "Plenty of time," 

 spoke the shorter pendulum further 

 north, but the lively timepiece of Chi- 

 cago said, "Get there, get there, get 

 there, get there," at 300 beats to the 

 minute. 



Friday morning exercises were very 

 pleasant and the talks by so-called for- 

 eigners were highly interesting. Mr. 

 Brown, of London, over on the banks of 

 the Clyde, was inspiring and his style of 

 man is raising our profession to a higher 

 plane. The gentleman from Winnipeg 

 told us how in a few years a flat, tree- 

 less prairie with less than three feet ele- 

 vation in five miles has now picturesque 

 parks, shaded streets and all that makes 

 our older cities such pleasant places in 

 which to dwell. I don't like to hear men 

 who hold their knife and fork as we do, 

 and speak the same language, be called 

 foreigners. I would like to say, as did 

 the immortal Tom Paine, "The world is 

 my country and humanity my religion." 



Mr. Carmody presented the remem- 

 brance of the society to the president 

 in his matchless method. No one can 



The St Louis G>nvention in Session. 



