458 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



Svvx 20, 1906. 



STORIES I HAVE HEARD. 



I HBAKD a story once of a "florist" 

 who was ' ' the real thing ' ' and who could 

 count on the fingers of one hand the 

 other "real florists" in a certain large 

 city. "When this party was "under the 

 influence," which did not average more 

 than ten hours out of the twenty-four, he 

 would develop an overpowering indigna- 

 tion at the way "the profession" had 

 "gone to the dogs." "There's Smith," 

 he would bawl, "he's no florist, he's a 

 boiler-maker; there's Jones, he's noth- 

 ing but a carpenter; and Brown, the 

 president of your club, he's only a cow- 

 boy, ' ' etc., down through the list. I was 

 reminded of this story on reading some 

 excellent cultural teachings written by a 

 gentleman who was once cashier in a 

 hotel bar. The ranks of the trade have 

 certainly been recruited from every walk 

 in life. 



« » • 



I HEABD a story once of an "Ideal 

 Employer" whose tart response to the 

 excuses of the foreman for the error of 

 an employee who had been ill but kept 

 at work, was: "This place is no hospi- 

 tal!'* and when later the foreman pro- 

 tested against having given him as an 

 assistant a man who was a good grower 

 but notoriously unreliable, replied: 

 "Well, the man's got to live!" The 

 foreman pondered some time on this 

 "consistency" and later resigned. 

 • • • 



I HEARD a story once of a florist who 

 must have had some instruction from the 

 Priests of High Finance. He had an 

 establishment in a town located on a 

 body of water that divided two states. 

 His financiering had been so "high" 

 that finally a writ of execution was 

 issued late one day and the next morning 

 an officer started out to the place to 

 levy on the greenhouses and contents (the 



large standing shield of carnations and 

 roses with certain lettering on same. The 

 fruit dealer was an observing fellow and 

 had seen many designs put together dur- 

 ing the joint occupancy of the store. He 

 had a boy that knew how to stem carna- 

 tions. He laid the wire frame on the 

 counter, mossed "it and proceeded to busi- 

 ness. It was not bad for a first attempt, 

 so he shook hands with himself and told 

 the boy to stand it up so he could better 

 observe the effect. The boy did so, but 

 all the effect the fruit dealer got was a 

 wire frame to which clung shreds of tin 

 foil and moss. The flowers were on the 

 floor. He had neglected to tie in the 

 moss. 



• • * 



I HEABD a story once of a store florist 

 who was "very lucky" in "games of 

 skill. ' ' Poker was his best ' * holt. ' ' He 

 looked after the "little things" in his 

 business, and after paying his clerks he 

 would let them "sit in" to a "little 

 game" in the back room. As a result 

 the bulk of their wages would find its 

 way back into the tUl and they would 

 thus be kept from squandering their coin 

 in undesirable ways. But, alas, there 

 came a time when the game went against 

 the employer, whereat he arose in great 

 wrath, threw the cards and chips into the 

 stove and virtually vowed that there 

 would be no more gambling in his place. 



• • • 



I HEARD a story once of a man who 

 dealt in bulbs. A syndicate had been 

 formed to control the entire output of a 

 certain kind of bulb much used by flo- 

 rists. The syndicate contracted with all 

 the important growers and flxeu certain 

 selling prices to the trade. In the face 

 of these conditions the man mentioned 

 took orders for large quantities of these 

 bulbs at reductions from the syndicate's 

 rates. He evidently figured that if he 



■■^Hsr^ 





Establishment of Max Herzog, St. Louis, to be Demolished. 



land not being owned by the financier). 

 All the officer found to levy on was the 

 hole where the boilers had been. Every- 

 thing else had been loaded on to flat 

 boats during the night and removed to 



the adjoining state. 



* • • 



I HEABD a story once of two men, one 

 a florist and the other a fruit dealer. 

 They rented a store together, each taking 

 one side. They soon agreed to disagree 

 and as the fruit dealer succeeded in get- 

 ting a lease for the whole store from the 

 owner, the florist had to move. The 

 fruit dealer didn't need the additional 

 space in his business so he put in a stock 

 of cut flowers and retained the old ap- 

 pearance of the store as nearly as possi- 

 ble. The next day a customer ordered a 



had a goodly share of the orders the syn- 

 dicate would have to come to him and 

 accept his terms. The season for deliv- 

 ery arrived and grew stale while the syn- 

 dicate waited for the man to be good 

 and maintained its schedule. The man 

 continued to wait for the syndicate to 

 "bust." But it didn't. It finally 

 shipped all its surplus to other countries 

 and the hero of this tale was left to ex- 

 plain to his customers why he failed to 

 deliver the goods. Billt. 



THE HERZOG PLACE. 



The accompanying illustration ift 

 from a photograph of the Max Herzog 

 place, one of the best known establish- 

 ments in the vicinity of St. Louis. The 



real estate was recently sold to the 

 Frisco railroad and William Meyer, of 

 Kirkwood, has bought all that stands on 

 the land. He will tear down the house, 

 after removing the contents, and re-erect 

 them at his own place in Kirkwood. Mr. 

 Herzog will take a long vacation be- 

 fore deciding on his future, but will 

 keep an eye open for a good opportunity 

 to re-engage in the business. 



MODERATION DESIRABLE. 



In view of the proclivity of many cut 

 flower and plant shippers to file claims, 

 sometimes exorbitant, .against express 

 companies when responsiblity for loss 

 cannot be clearly shown, the suggestion 

 of E. Albertson, president of the Ameri- 

 can Association of Nurserymen and last 

 year chairman of its transportation com- 

 mittee, may be of interest. The nur- 

 serymen have been having their own 

 troubles because the railroads have been 

 changing the classification of nursery 

 stock in such a way as to effect an in- 

 crease in freights. Here is what Mr. 

 Albertson says: 



"We would" also advise that shippers 

 should be more conservative in filing 

 their claims against the railroads, filing 

 claims only where serious losses caused 

 by incompetency or grave neglect have 

 occurred, and then only for actual loss 

 at wholesale prices. The fact that so 

 many and exorbitant claims have been 

 and are being filed is largely the cause 

 for unfavorable changes in the classi- 

 fications, and is one of the hardest 

 points to overcome in trying to secure 

 concessions. 



"You know how it is when some cus- 

 tomer comes in with a big claim that 

 you know to be unreasonable, and you 

 feel that you are being held up. In 

 future dealings with such parties you 

 are not inclined to make many conces- 

 sions. 



"It is the same with the railroads; 

 the officials are working for the com- 

 panies employing them and are work- 

 ing for their interests. Yet as a class 

 there are no nicer men or more reason- 

 able than railroad officials. And when 

 shown that there are inequalities in 

 their classifications which are a burden, 

 curtailing business, and that what ship- 

 pers want is to harmonize these and 

 by certain changes increase their busi- 

 ness, working to the mutual advantage 

 of both, — we will have less trouble in 

 having our petitions favorably acted 

 upon. 



"A number of the largest eastern 

 shippers have stated to writer that all 

 of the claims they ever collected have 

 not amounted to ten per cent of addi- 

 tional freight they have had to pay 

 under the increase on boxes from third 

 to second class, and that to secure the 

 return to third class they would be 

 large gainers were they to waive all 

 claims. Yet there is little doubt that 

 the filing of so many claims was the 

 cause of the change." 



It will be remembered that when the 

 express companies increased the rate on 

 cut flowers, three years ago, it was re- 

 ported that one cause for the act was 

 the great number of claims filed against 

 them. During the time the increase was 

 in force it is quite probable that the 

 sum realized from it was more than the 

 cut flower shippers had ever collected for 

 losses. 



CtTLTtJKE of Grafted Roses sent on re- 

 ceipt of 25c. — Florists' Review. 



