AIGLST 2T, 1014. 



The Florists' Review 



THE CONVENTION AFTERMATH 



THE ENDING OF AN ENJOYABLE MEETING 



THE CONVENTION OUTING. 



Till' weather man is no friend of the 

 Boston florists. He did his worst to 

 gpoii the grand finale of the 1914 con- 

 vention. The day of the outing dawned 

 damp and showery. It was at first 

 fean'il that the excursion would have to 

 be called off, but as sailing time ap- 

 proached the clouds lifted and the boat 

 left rin hour after the advertised time 

 with 1,080 persons on board, according 

 to the purser's count of tickets. 



The Boston committee had planned, 

 with special consideration for the vis- 

 itors from the interior, to spend the 

 greater part of the day on the waters of 

 the harbor and only the inclemency of 

 the weather interfered with their ar- 

 rangements to make the outing historic 

 in the annals of the S. A. F. To do the 

 hospitalities the Boston florists, their 

 families and friends turned out in large 

 numl)ers. Considerably more than half 

 the people on the boat were local, pres- 

 ent to see that their guests spout an 

 enjoyable day. 



The steamer Mary Standish, with a 

 licensed capacity of 1,800, had been 

 chartered. The trip down the harbor, 

 always interesting to one not habitu- 

 ated, held additional novelty because of 

 the presence of many a war-bound boat 

 flying a European flag. 



The first stop was at old Fort War- 

 ren. This is an island, entirely covered 

 by fortifications, at which boats ordi- 

 narily are not permitted to land. The 

 soldiers have a fine diamond on the 

 parade ground inside the fort, the use 

 of which had been secured through the 

 issuance of a special permit by the Sec- 

 retary of War. It was the first time 

 most of the visitors ever had seen a 

 United States harbor defense fort, much 



less the inside of one, and an hour was 

 spent most enjoyably in parading the 

 parapet and inspecting the quarters of 

 the garrison and the big disappearing 

 guns that have the power to throw a 

 projectile twelve inches in diameter for 

 a distance of ten miles. 



The baseball game. All America 

 against the Convention City, was un- 

 usually well contested, Old Charlie Gra- 

 ham scoring another victory in the last 

 half of the fifth inning by a score of 

 12 to 11. The Clevelander has been 

 pitching the visitors to victory these 

 many years, but his arm is not so good 

 as it was in his younger days and suc- 

 cess is less certain. His team this year 

 was a veritable All American aggrega- 

 tion, his catcher being Beuerlein, of 

 Elmhurst, L. I., and his right fielder 

 Ferrari, of San Francisco. The Boston 

 battery was Marshall and Filson, both 

 good, but Marshall was driven from 

 the slab in the third inning and Celari, 

 a left hander, was called in from center 

 field to stem the tide. The grounds 

 were soaked, making every plsiy a 

 chance. 



After the liall game the races were 

 started, only to be interrupted by the 

 heaviest shower of the day and everj-- 

 one ran for the boat, where 3,000 sand- 

 wiches and quantities of coffee and gin- 

 ger ale were, made quickly to disappear. 

 The downpour held off just long enough 

 to enable C. E, Critchell, of Cincinnati, 

 to settle old scores with Robert Shoch, 

 of Philadelphia, by heating him in the 

 fat men's race. Last year at Minne- 

 apolis the honors were the other way 

 around. The prize this year was a ten- 

 dollar gold piece, which Mr. Critchell 

 promptly donated to the W. R. Smith 

 Memorial fund. The prizes this year 



were all of exceptional quality and 

 value and it is to be regretted that the 

 events could not have been run off in 

 such ideal surroundings under the cheer- 

 ing influence of pleasant skies. 



When the shower drove the crowd 

 to the boat an immediate start was 

 made for a sail down the bay as far 

 as Boston light. Then a course was 

 set for Nantucket, where a shore din- 

 ner was served at the new Rockland 

 House, the best hotel on the beach. A 

 shower that came up just as the boat 

 land.ed at Nantucket drove everyone in 

 haste to cover and settled down into a 

 steady rain that put an end to outdoor 

 amusements. At the dinner President 

 and Mrs. Wirth w^ere presented with the 

 chest of silver that annually falls to 

 the lot of the presiding officer and his 

 better half. 



The local chairman on entertainment 

 was E. Allan Peirce and the local chair- 

 man on sports was W. R. Nicholson. 

 Each had many willing assistants and 

 the affair certainly would have set a 

 new mark for convention entertain- 

 ments had it not been for the rain — 

 the first time it has rained on Friday of 

 convention week in more than ten years, 

 ^\lthough there has been an occasional 

 shower. 



The results of the athletic contests 

 were as follows: 



KiiscliiiU ganip — All Stars. 0: Bostuii, s. 



Hoys' race — I'liil. Uolunil, first; Victor Iluer- 

 liil. sccoiKl; T. Roliiud, third. 



fJlrls' nice — Margaret llliffo, first; A. Taliner, 

 second: X. IMerce, third. 



.SiiiKlo ladk's' race— K. IllifTo, first: C. N'eil- 

 s<iii, Sfcond. 



^larri^Ml ladies' race -Mrs. (ieo. Sniltli, first: 

 Mrs. CliHs. t"la|>i>. se<'oiid; .Mrs. K. J. Roitt'nu, 

 tliird. 



Open race. 10(i yards — 11. E. Jones, first; W. 

 lllififc, second: Kisenhurdt, third. 



Fat men's race — C. E. rrltchell. tirst; Hobt. 

 Sliocli, second; C. C. Taylor, third. 



General View of Indoor Plant Exhibits at the Boston Convention, with Henry A. Dreer's Display in the Foreground. 



