The Weekly Florists' Review* 



AuauBT 26, 1909. 





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The Society of American Florists as Photographed at the Barbec 



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CONVENTION 



AFTERMATH 



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The Anniversary Session. 



The roll call of the past presidents 

 of the S. A. F. from the stage at the 

 Odeon in Cincinnati on the evening of 

 August 19 showed the following to be 

 present: E. G. Hill, William R. Smith, 

 Adam Graham, W. F. Gude, W. N. Rudd, 

 John Burton, Philip Breitmeyer, J. C. 

 Vaughan, William F. Kasting, W. J. 

 Stewart and F. H. Traendly. P. O 'Mara 

 had been compelled to return to New 

 York earlier in the day. 



For the deceased presidents some inti- 

 mate of former years was called on to 

 speak: E. G. Hill for John Thorpe, J. 



D. Carmody for J. M. Jordan, J. C. 

 Vaughan for J. T. Anthony, Prof. Cowell 

 for William Scott, W. J. Stewart for 



E. M. Wood. 



For the living but absent past presi- 

 dents, letters were read from Robert 

 Craig, M. H. Norton and James Dean. 

 E. G. Hill spoke of J. N, May, and 

 Joseph Heacock and others of Edwin 

 Lonsdale. 



A roll call of the members present at 

 the first session, twenty-five years before, 

 found hardly any of them in the hall; 

 only one, B. P. Critchell, had anything 

 to say. E. G. Hill read a paper, pub- 

 lished in the last issue of the Review, de- 

 scriptive of the first meeting, and J. C. 

 Vaughan read a paper entitled "What 

 the Society Has Accomplished in Twenty- 

 five Years." He and H. H. Ritter are 

 said to be the only members who have 

 attended all the conventions. He took the 

 broad ground that a large part of the 

 wonderful development of the trade in 

 the last quarter century has been due to 

 the influence of the S. A. F. He said he 

 would leave the audience to judge of 

 the society's accomplishments when he 

 had contrasted the conditions of twenty- 

 five years ago with those that obtain to- 

 day. He quoted William Nicholson at 



the time he visited this country, the 

 year of the St. Louis convention, and 

 spoke in appreciation of the cooperative 

 spirit manifested by those of the society 

 in their willingness to impart knowledge 

 to those engaged in the same line of 

 business. 



After a few words by William R. 

 Smith, the oldest past president, every- 

 body joined in singing "Auld Lang 

 Syne. ' ' 



At the opening of the session. Presi- 

 dent-elect Pierson and Secretary-elect 

 Dorner had been introduced and each said 

 a few words of appreciation, coupled 

 with pledges of loyalty and effort. 



The Barbecue. 



Friday, August 20, the Cincinnati Flo- 

 rists' Society took all those who had 

 remained of the visitors — and they num- 

 bered several hundreds — for a ride on a 

 big river steamer an hour and a half 

 up stream to a resort called Coney Island, 

 where a country fair was in progress. 

 While the florists had the freedom of the 

 fair, a portion of the grounds was set 

 apart for their private use, and here 

 a barbecue was held, with an ox and 

 sheep roasted over big fires in the open 

 air. The ladies were served at tables, 

 but the men crowded about the carvers 

 and helped themselves in real barbecue 

 style. There was an abundance of lem- 

 onade and other liquids, also plenty to 

 smoke. 



After the repast a group picture was 

 taken, though it contained only a com- 

 parative few of those who actually were 

 in attendance. Then came the ball game, 

 in which the visiting florists, led by 

 Pitcher Charles Graham, of Cleveland, 

 defeated nine Cincinnati florists, 13 to 4. 



In the evening the fireworks display 

 concluded with a splendid piece in honor 



of the florists — a portrait in pyrotechnics 

 inscribed "J. A. Valentine." 



The affair was under the immediate 

 charge of J. A. Peterson, chairman, and 

 Albert Sunderbruch, secretary, of the 

 general committee, but all the other 

 members of the executive committee were 

 indefatigable in their efforts to see that 

 everybody had a good time. The other 

 members of the committee were : Albert 

 McCullough, J. Charles McCuUough, P. 

 J. dinger, Richard Witterstaetter, Ben 

 George, E. G. Gillett, E. A. Forter, C. 

 E. Critchell, J. W. Rodgers, D. Rusconi, 

 William Murphy, Daniel Carmichael, 

 George Bartlett, William Gardner, August 

 Hoffmeister, Frank Dellar, Gus Adrian, 

 Max Rudolph, Henry Schwarz and L. 

 H. Kyrk. 



Presentations. 



During the outing at Coney Island, 

 August 20, the members of the S. A. F. 

 presented President and Mrs. Valentine 

 with a large chest of silver. In his speech 

 of acceptance Mr. Valentine stated that 

 the selection was a particularly happy 

 one, as they had recently celebrated their 

 silver wedding and this was the silver 

 jubilee of the society. 



The New York members think so high- 

 ly of Secretary Rudd that they could not 

 permit him to go unremembered, also the 

 secretary's old briar root has become so 

 strong as to be noticeable wherever good 

 fellows get together; So the New York- 

 ers presented Mr. Rudd with a case of 

 two new pipes, a briar for every day and 

 a meerschaum for Sunday, as J. H. Pep- 

 per explained in making the presenta- 

 tion. 



The ladies never are to be outdone by 

 the men. After having given their presi- 

 dent, Mrs. Vaughan, a cut glass berry 

 bowl Wednesday evening, at the outing, 

 August 20, they presented Mrs. Maynard, 

 the secretary, with a cut glass pitcher. 



Louis Bullock, of Elkhart, Ind., was 

 presented with a scarf pin by the Ladies' 

 S. A. F. for his efficient services on the 

 evening of the reception at the Sinton 

 Hotel. 



Convention Notes. 



Cincinnati made good in every respect. 

 Even the weather left nothing to be 

 desired. 



There was a large increase in S. A. F. 

 membership, but not in proportion to the 

 number of non-members attending. Here- 



