10 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



Febbuaby 3, 1910. 



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CONVENTION 



AFTERMATH 



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I 



THE PITTSBURG BANQUET. 



A Milestone in Trade Annalt. 



Pittsburg is a town where things never 

 are done by halves. It was only a few 

 days ago that the newspapers of the 

 country were full of the banquet of the 

 steel kings, that cost $100 a plate. Well, 

 it was the same room in which the steel 

 men dined that the Pittsburg Florists' 

 and Gardeners' Club selected for the 

 dinner to the members of the American 

 Carnation Society, January 28, marking 

 the close of the nineteenth annual con- 

 vention. The Carnation Society is accus- 

 tomed to being received with open-handed 

 hospitality, and the Pittsburgers were 

 anxious that their welcome should not 

 suffer by comparison with what other 

 cities have done, so they planned their 

 banquet on a scale that set a new mile- 

 stone in the annals of the society. The 

 flowers from the exhibition tables were 

 still in perfect condition, having kept in 

 a way that was the marvel of many, and 

 the Pittsburg retailers employed the 

 prize-winners in decorating the twenty- 

 five or thirty round dinner tables, each 

 seating ten. Of course each store did its 

 best, using one variety of carnation to a 

 table, with an abundance of stock for 

 use at the ends of the room, and the re- 

 sult was not only the most elaborate 

 decoration the carnation men ever had 

 seen, but probably the most elaborate 

 decoration ever put up in which only this 

 one flower was used. 



There was hardly a vacant seat in the 

 room, the local florists attending in num- 

 bers to welcome their guests, many being 

 accompanied by their wives and daugh- 

 ters. The presence of the ladies added 

 greatly to the brilliance of the scene and 

 the enjoyment of the occasion. 



Having provided so bright a setting, 

 an elaborate menu was served. The cop- 

 per-plate cards were examples of the best 

 in printers' art, and the courses as fol- 

 lows: 



MENU. 



Blue Points 



Celery Radishes Olives 



Cream of Chicken 



English Sole Tartare 



Sweetbread Patties French Peas 



Punch Benedictine 



Filet Mlgnon Bearnalse 



Roasted Potatoes French Mushrooms 



French String Beans 



Pittsburg Salad 



Biscuit Tortoni Fancy Calics 



Cheese and Toasted Crackers 



Coffee Cigars 



While the dinner was in progress the 

 Carnegie Tech Glee Club, a chorus of 

 some thirty-five voices, sang a long pro- 

 gram of college, drinking and popular 

 music. Interspersed among the three 

 minute talks which followed the cigars 

 were solos by Miss Eobineon and Mr. 

 Mason, the former especially having a 

 voice so pleasing that Toastmaster Wm. 

 Falconer was forced to forbid further 

 encores in the interest of adjournment 

 before breakfast. The musical program 

 merits closer attention than is possible 

 when "It's always fair weather when 

 good fellows get together. ' ' 



The Toasts. 



The program of talks was as follows: 



"Tho Carnation Society; what It is good for 

 and what it has done," by President Albert 

 M. rierr, Lancaster, Pa. 



"The S. A. F.; what It has done for us all," 

 by ex-President J. A. Valentine, Denver, Colo. 



"Our Boys; what are we going to do with 

 tlieui?" by P. S. Randolph, Pittsburg. 



"The Pittsburg Club; what it has done for 

 us." by E. C. Relneman, Pittsburg. 



"The National Flower Show; what it wlil 

 lie and what It will mean to the craft," by 

 F. U. Pleraon, Tarrytown, N. Y. 



"Carnations; an experience in politics," by 

 Will. F. Kastlng, Buffalo, N. Y. 



"The Trade Press; Its importance. Its alms 

 and its uses," by H. B. Howard, Chicago. 



"Our Ladies; whatever would we do without 

 them?" by W. J. Vesey, Fort Wayne, Ind. 



"Tlie Pittsburg Press; what it did for us and 

 what we should do for It," by Arthur G. Bur- 

 goyne. 



"Our Ambitions, or what are we aiming atV" 

 by Fred E. Dorner, Lafayette, Ind. 



"Canada; hands across the border," by J. A. 

 Brashear. 



"The Old Boys; what we owe to them," by 

 Robert Craig, Philadelphia. 



"The Advantage of Science Coupled with 

 Practice," by L. B. Judson, Ithaca, N. Y. 



"Our Visitors; we are loath to see them 

 go," by T. P. Langbans, Pittsburg. 



Report of the committee on final resolutions, 

 by Wm. P. Craig, Philadelphia. 



Presentation of Medals. 



Before the introduction of the toast- 

 master. President Herr presented the A. 

 C. S. medals to the winners; the gold 

 medal to F. Dorner & Sons Co., who had 

 won it on Hoosier Lad; the silver medal 

 to K. Witterstaetter, on President J. A. 

 Valentine, and the bronze medal to Dail- 

 ledouze Bros., on White House. Fred 

 Dorner said the pleasure of getting the 

 premier award at an A. C. S. show is 

 something you must experience, as it 

 cannot be described. Mr. Witterstaetter 

 said he really did not get the medal he 

 was after, and Eugene Dailledouze said 

 it was some consolation to know the 

 others had to go a bit to get their gold 

 and silver medals and that there were 

 some splendid entries that got no recog- 

 nition at all. 



A telegram was read, as follows: 



The Boston Florists' and Gardeners' Club, at 

 its annual dinner, congratulates the American 

 Carnation Society on its successful convention. 

 We have put the pork and beans to soak and 

 look forward to the meeting in 1011. 



The Three Minute Talks. 



The speakers were asked to talk no 

 more than two or three minutes, which 

 precluded any serious attempt at speech- 

 making. F. B. Pierson made some little 

 attempt to show the scope of the Second 

 National Flower Show, the success of 

 which he has so deeply at heart, and 

 said that he sees in the exhibition to be 

 held at Boston in March of next year an 

 opportunity to lift horticulture to a 

 higher plane than it heretofore has occu- 

 pied in the United States. He said the 

 committee is gaining the hearty coopera- 

 tion of all the horticultural interests and 

 has a guarantee fund of over $10,000, 

 but wants all the assistance it can get. 

 The Chicago show he characterized as 

 ably managed to make a profit in the 

 face of expenditures aggregating $25,- 

 000. He said the cost and work inci- 

 dental to a big show demand much united 



■ effort. At Boston, he said, we can gc 

 together a larger and more diversifiec^ 

 collection of plants than at any othe. 

 place in the United States, and give th( 

 public and the trade a higher apprecia 

 tion of the dignity of horticulture; deni 

 onstrate that it is a calling any man ma' 

 be proud to follow. 



President Herr said it was seventeeii 

 years since the Carnation Society first 

 met in Pittsburg, with a show about one 

 third as large; he hoped in another sev 

 enteen years his boy would be occupying 

 his shoes and able to report as much 

 progress. 



J. A. Valentine said it is impossible to 

 separate the work. of the S. A. F. and its 

 kindred societies, but that the greatest 

 good arising from them is the improve- 

 ment in the ethics of the trade; the bet- 

 ter we come to know one another tho 

 more we think of each other. 



In introducing A. G. Burgoyne, of the 

 Pittsburg Chronicle-Telegraph, Mr. Fal- 

 coner said the Pittsburg papers had been 

 kind to florists and things horticultural. 

 "Newspaper reporters write a lot of 

 nonsense about us," he continued, "but 

 it is our own fault; the newspaper prints 

 what the reporter is told ; fill him up with 

 nonsense and what he writes will be ridic- 

 ulous; tell him facts and what he prints 

 will be a credit to us." Mr. Burgoyne 

 said that in his mind music, poetry, 

 painting and flowers are inseparably asso- 

 ciated, but with one difference: Day by 

 day we see the public prints full of the 

 entanglements of this or that great mu- 

 sician, of the matrimonial infelicity of 

 some poet, or the scandalous conduct of 

 a well-known painter — but we never by 

 any chance read of the elopement of the 

 millionaire florist with the chorus girl. 

 This the speaker credited to the refining 

 influence of flowers. * ' The man in the 

 greenhouse seems to be safe," he said. 

 Mr. Burgoyne then read the poem he 

 had written for that day's paper, as 

 follows : 



Where the sign, "Fort Pitt," suspended 

 From a palace vast and splendid. 

 Offers standing invitation to the traveler to 

 step in. 

 If today you chance to enter. 

 Guided by some knowing Mentor, 

 You will find a bower of loveliness to Paradise 

 akin. 

 There In friendly contest meeting 

 And for honors high competing 

 Are the kings of horticulture, with ambitious 

 pride aglow. 

 Each his best endeavor making 

 To achieve a record-breaking 

 And astounding grade of merit at the Prlzi-' 

 Carnation Show. 



Oh, the gems that they're displaying. 

 By their wlzardy essaying 

 To excel the work of nature, as apparently thoy 

 do. 

 Since their art today discloses 

 Blooms as fine as Beauty roses 

 And with nuances of color which Dame Natui ■ 

 never knew. 

 There's the glorious Perfection, 

 With Its snowy-white complexion. 

 And the Mrs. Thomas Lawson, with its ros' 

 tint, and. oh. 

 There in all Its gay bravado 

 Is the golden El Dorado, 

 And the scarlet Craig illuminates the Prl-' 

 Carnation Show. 



There's the pink Enchantress beaming. 

 And the Dabeim darkly gleaming; 

 There's the Victory, the Manley and the dalnt 

 Queen Louise, 

 And a host of new ones render. 

 By their fringed and penciled splendor, 

 Joy unbounded to the connoisseur who ravr •- 

 o'er blooms like these. 

 And our town Is in the running: 

 Hands that never lose their cunning 

 Vindicate the fame of Pittsburg and let all ot: 

 neighbors know 

 That we're up in floral science. 

 Hence with Joyous self-reliance 

 We bid welcome to all comers at the Pr'^ 

 Carnation Show. 

 W^e must make carnation growers ot 

 our boys, said P. S. Randolph, for the 

 flower is perfect and all the youngC 



