PARK AND CEMETERY. 
2 
HENRY SHAW ANNUAL BANQUET, ST. LOUIS, MO. 
Ill accordmice with the will of the late Henry Shaw, the 
eleventh annual hanquet to gardeners and doiisls of St. J.ouis 
and vicinity wis given at the Mercantile Club, on the evming 
of November 3d. A large company was present and include d 
employes of the IMissouii Botanical Garde n — ‘he gift of Mr. 
Shaw to St. L'niis — market gardeners and florists of St Louis 
and vicinity and invited guests. 
The banquet was served in the line banquet hall of the IMer- 
cantile Club which was finely decorated with flowers and 
pi luts for the occasion. At the table of honor, which was 
beautifully decorated with roses, carnations and chrysanthe- 
mum.®, were seated Dr. Wm.Trelease, director of the garden, 
who presided; on his right sat Mr. Patrick O’Mara of New 
York, president elect of the society of American Florists; ex- 
Governor and Secretary of the Interior, D. R. Francis; Mr J. C. 
Idrge of St. Louis and former Lieutenant Governor and Secre- 
tary of .\griculture, Norman J. Coleman. On his left were Mr. 
Wm. Scott, former president of the society of American Flor" 
is's and superintendent of Floriculture, Pan-American Exposi 
tion; Mr. J. G. Smith of the Fnited States Department of Agri. 
culture; Prof. J. C. Whitten of the Missouri Agricultural Col 
lege and Mr. J. J. Beneke, manager of the St Louis Chrysan- 
themum and P'lower Show. Among others present were A. T. 
Ne'son of Lebanon, Mo.; Major H. G. MePike, Alton, 111 .; Mr- 
Wallis, Wallisburg, Mo.; INIr. Howard Elliott, General Mana‘ 
ger Burlington, R. R., St. Louis; (L .C. Atwood, editor Practi- 
cal Fruit lirower, Springfield, Mo.; and many other prominent 
per.sons. 
O 1 rising to propose the toasts of the evening. Prof. Tre- 
l iase said Mr. Shaw had a wide purpose in arranging for this 
annual g.ithering of men representing the various lines of in- 
dustry connected with the growth of plants, and his tru.stees 
have taken, as it seems 10 me, a very wise view of the language 
he used when saying that the banquet was to be given to the 
gardenersof the institution, and invited floris's and market gar- 
deners of St. Louis and vicinity, for his trustees have held that 
the vicinity of St. Louis was not intended by him to he limited 
by municipa' lin s, nor by state lines, but is limited simply by 
the willingness of gentlemen to come and assist us in making a 
successful occasim of this b inquet. .Cfcer the gardeners of the 
Missouri Botanical Garden, Mr. Shr.w specifically mentions 
florists. Now the floiists are a very Urge family and as some of 
YOU know there is no better nor more e.irnest organiza ion than 
their national society, the .Society of American Florists. In 
])ropo3ing the toast to the florists, I lake great pleasure in in- 
troducing Mr. Patrick O’Mara of New York, who will respond 
to it. 
Mr. O’Mara in responding at length to this toast, among 
many good things said: It has been well said that institutions 
make men, but in the beginning men make institutions. We 
in the trade who keep in touch with developments, comparing 
the present condition of the florists of the Fnited States with 
what it was the year that the Society of .American Florists was 
established, can readily realize the vast strides that have teen 
made in the methods of culture in horticulture and in the 
amount of capital interested; and, above all, in the degree of 
intelligence that is displayed by the men in the business, which 
tends to make the business a commercial pursuit rather than 
what it was in the early days a sort of sporadic enterprise. One 
thing, perhaps, which the founders of the Society of .American 
Florists probably did not contemplate in the organization of 
the society was the bringing together of men who work in the 
eraft under different conditions of climate, etc., and thus giv- 
ing them opportunity to interchange their views. 
Prof. Trelease in proposing the next toast said: We alwar s 
have an occasion like this, men with us who are given to the 
cultivation of plants for pleasure, or as a means of pleasure. 
One of orrr gues's this evening is a man who has his own home, 
where he is known to give a good deal of his lime and thought 
to the cultivation of plants fur pleasure. I lake pleasure in in- 
troducing Mr. Julius C. Birge of this city. 
IMr. Birge in part said: The sentiment, Mr. Toastmaster, 
of the toast to which you have given me the pleasure of re- 
sponding is a touching one — that of the man w ith a home. The 
w’ord home to a man who is not out very often late at night is a 
very pleasant suggestion, and I do not believe it possible to ex- 
press its exact meaning in a dicuonary; I think its equivalent 
is not found in every language. What is a home as, contem- 
plated by this sentiment? It goes without saying that the re’s 
a good woman in it and probably some children. .A house and 
a lot hardly constitute a home. Not even though there be the 
adflition which w'e often see, of a lawn where the plantain anel 
the dock luxuriate or a few’ specimens of night shade or stran:- 
onium shaded by one or two decrepit and odorous .Ailan' bus 
trees. A’ou have se-.n the lawn, where near the regulation r n- 
painted high board fence where two or three barrels ovei flow- 
big with ashes, ha'f concealing broken glass and pok is whi( h 
do not suggest peace within those w'alls. 'I'he ubiciiiitous 
clothesline dangling with laundered underwear affords a weekly 
change of .scenery. .A marble palace with frescoed walls dees 
not fully make up the requirements of a home. Neither does a 
cottage, but a little vase of healthy blooming roses in the win- 
dow tells that a loving hand has been there. When Ben Butler 
walked along up that east d ive from his home to the Capitol 
and saw men preparing to cut a fine tree, he acted like a man 
with a home. Said he: “Are you going to cut that treei”’ 
One man replied: “A'es, Senator, we have been ordered to re*- 
move it.’’ “A’ou wait until night,” replied Butler, ‘‘and I will 
be responsible to you.” Butl-r, as you know, strode to the 
senate chamber, introduced a resolution, recited with dramatic 
effect M rris’ poem, ‘ AVoedman spare the tree.’’ The tree still 
stands. Butler was unpopular in New Orleans, but if his .'-hades 
w’ere in St. Louis there woul 1 be less tree butchery and more 
ideal homes. We appreciate the skill of the landscape gar- 
dener, who recognizes that art should be subservient to nature 
I was impressed with this skill last winter in visiting the botar.- 
ical gardens of St. I/icia, Mininique a d Demarara, South 
America, countries where the native tropi al growth is as wild 
and luxuriant as any where on the globe. The skill of the gar- 
dener and florist has produced b?a itii’ul effects, as would ap- 
pear natural in the tropics w’ithout permitting nature to run 
wild, yet convenient for stud}’. 
I believe that the man with a home such as you would plan, 
though not a prince of royal blood, nor with a thousand a yer r, 
would nevertheless be a king over at least one little spot where 
niture w’ould smile in blooming flowers and shrubs, where from 
beneath his own vine and fig tree he could listen to music of 
th ; song birds— music as free a.® air. A man in St. Louis wi h 
such a home, if he loves his fellow’men, should have one dom- 
inint feeling of thinks which is that a noble benefactor, Henry 
Shaw, has made it possible for millions of men, w’omen ai d 
children in centuries to come, mibions who may have no homes, 
but who find peace in nature’s smiles, to breathe the sweet per- 
fume of flowers and groves and study the most beautiful of all 
inanimate creations, the trees of the forest. “No tears dim the 
sw’eet look that nature W’ears.” 
Prof. Trelease; I am very often asked, but never on an 
occasion like this, why’ Mr. Shaw provided for this annual 
gathering rf florists, gardeners, etc., and, I believe that his 
