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SYSTEM ENDS COMPLAINTS 

 ON STEAMER ORDERS 



Once on a time the patron who sent flowers to a passenger on an outgoing 

 ocean liner was betting against odds that the gift would reach its destination — 

 and the florist usually paid the loser's stake. The Utile regard for these bon 

 voyage tokens by the steamship companies, and the carelessness of the stewards, 

 made delivery a matter of chance, despite the florist's watchfulness. Now the 

 great size of the business and the unceasing efforts of the seaport florists have 

 brought about a system that makes delivery almost a certainty. 



|0W an immense business 

 may be handled under try- 

 ing circumstances, yet al* 

 most without error, as the 

 result of a system which 

 has been perfected by time 

 and the work of a compara- 

 tively few men, is shown by the way 

 orders for passengers on outgoing 

 steamers are taken care of by the re- 

 tailers of New York. When one stops to 

 consider the magnitude of this branch 

 of the trado, the surprising fact is, not 

 that there should be an occasional order 

 which failed of delivery, 

 but that such causes for 

 complaint should be so few. 

 And there's a reason. 



coats, in order to get the flowers to the 

 steamer before the gang-plank- is palled 

 in. If a brainless telegraph operator 

 misspells the name of the ship or of 

 the passenger, the florist must use the 

 uncanny power experience has given 

 him to guess what is meant. 



At the Dock. 



And when the order is at the dock the 

 difSculties are not all overcome. Con- 

 stant vigilance is required to see that in 

 the rush of the last few hours before 

 departure these fragile parcels are prop- 



Tbe Beason. 



From the beginning of 

 this branch of the trade the 

 responsibility for the filling 

 and delivery of steamer or- 

 ders has rested almost en- 

 tirely with the seaport flo- 

 rists. The florist in the in- 

 land city mails or telegraphs 

 the order he receives from 

 his customer; it is up to the 

 florist in the port of the 

 steamer's sailing to see that 

 the order is filled and deliv- 

 ered promptly and correctly. 

 Not only must he do his own 

 part of the work, but he 

 must, in addition, see that 

 the others who handle the 

 order do not fall down in 

 one way or another. It is 

 to the fact that the seaport 

 florists do this work well 

 that the present success of 

 the business must be 

 ascribed. 



But it is not easy. For 

 tlio seaport retailer finds 

 himself between the devil 

 ^fd the deep sea — he mu^t make 

 I'p for the shortcomings of the tele- 

 f^"aph company on the one hand, and 

 \'' on the watch constantly to see 

 til at the steamship company takes proper 

 <:'re of the order, on the other. If the 

 '•■legraph boy becomes intereited in a 

 J^ line of craps and gets the message to 

 I' •' florist only an hour before the time 

 1 .0 boat sails, the retailer who receives 

 '•'j order must drop all work to fill the 

 |^"ler and his chauffeur must break the 

 f^lf'ed laws and at the same tiipe escape 

 ' ' hands ,iif the gentlemen in blue 



What the System Handles 



"All packages for the Hamburg- 

 American, North German Lloyd and 

 Holland-America lines must be delivered 

 to the steamer in care of the receiving 

 clerk (m the steamship pier, who gives 

 a receipt for same, and then only when 

 delivery is made one hour before sail- 

 ing time. In order to obtain receipts 

 from steamers sailing at midnight or 

 early the next morning, it is necessary to 

 deliver flowers late the night previous. 

 ' ' That the ocean lines have recently 

 taken special interest in the delivery of 

 packages to passengers departing on 

 their steamers is apparent 

 by the elaborate system em- 

 ployed, by which they try to 

 avoid as much as possible 

 the frequent complaints of 

 former years that the flow- 

 ers were never delivered. 



"On one steamer last summer there were 

 over 1 ,200 packages of flowers, fruit, can- 

 dy, etc." — Charles A. Dards. 



"The Fleischman Floral Co. reports * * * 

 orders aggregating $500 had been trans- 

 mitted to New York for the Vaterland."— 

 Chicasro notes, September 1 7. 



"It is estimated that New York florists, 

 in normal times, do a business of $ 1 ,000 per 

 day in steamer orders.'^—New York daily 

 paper. 



The Receipt. 



erly taken care of. For a gift gives no 

 pleasure if it is not delivered in the 

 best possible condition and manner. 



In the beginning of this business 

 scant attention was given these orders, 

 but as they increased in number the re- 

 tailers of New York, after long and con- 

 tinued efforts, finally obtained from the 

 steamship lines docking there a special 

 service, with a system of receipts, which 

 practically eliminated the previous con- 

 fusion. How this works out is best de- 

 scribed in the words of Q. E. M. Stumpp, 

 the New York retailer: 



"This receipt consists of 

 a parcel-check having three 

 sections, all bearing the 

 same number. One stub is 

 given to the shipper as a 

 receipt for the package, an- 

 other is signed by the stew- 

 ard who received the pack- 

 age on board the steamer 

 and is retained by the re- 

 ceiving clerk to file for ref- 

 erence at the New York of- 

 fice, and the third and larg- 

 est section is delivered with 

 the package by the steward 

 to the passenger, who ac- 

 knowledges receipt by sign- 

 ing same. This last section, 

 bearing the passenger's sig- 

 nature, is also filed at the 

 company's office upon the 

 return of the steamship to 

 this port. 



"I once had occasion to 

 write for a stub to con- 

 vince a patron of mine that the 

 flowers were received by her friend, al- 

 though the latter omitted to acknowl- 

 edge the gift and had since returned 

 from abroad. The stub I had for the 

 package did not satisfy my patron, but 

 upon seeing her friend's signature and 

 observing the similarity of the check 

 numbers, she felt thoroughly satisfied. 

 "In special cases where flowers are 

 to be delivered on a certain date dur- 

 ing the voyage, or where corsages are 

 to be delivered to a passenger each day 

 of the trip, arrangementr can bo madie 



