FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
i6 
glowing speeches to which we have to¬ 
night listened. 
The lover, whose eloquent words of en¬ 
dearment and encouragement are breath¬ 
ed into the ear of his beloved, tells but little 
that is new. He repeats the same old, 
old story, but it is always fraught with 
magnetism and poetry for the loved one 
who hears it. This shall always continue 
to be the case so long as Humanity shall 
continue to remain true to those high and 
holy instincts that have characterized it in 
the past. 
The mother standing on the threshold 
of the Home, who receives to her bosom 
the long-absent son, speaks a few broken 
words of welcome and receives in re¬ 
sponse a few words of gladness and com¬ 
fort, only an interchange of expressions of 
welcome of the mother and the response 
from the glowing heart of the son. In 
both of these cases the phrases spoken 
were reduced to the plain, ^^Thou art wel¬ 
come’’ and the response that the welcome 
‘‘is appreciated and reciprocated,” what¬ 
ever is said means the same. 
But in the evolution of these civic and 
fraternal gatherings these addresses of 
welcome and responses have grown to 
things of beauty and things of great pro¬ 
portion, and among the various illustra¬ 
tions of such beautiful addresses, those 
we have listened to, to-night stand pre¬ 
eminent. I do not hope to be able to give 
fit utterance to the feelings that well up 
within me in attempting to-night to re¬ 
spond to these eloquent addresses. I can 
only assure you, Mr. Mayor, and Mr. 
President of the Board of Trade, that 
what my words shall lack in oratory and 
logic they shall amply make up in sinceri¬ 
ty and cordiality. 
This Society in its travels about the 
State, has visited nearly all of the prin¬ 
cipal cities and towns. We have been to 
far-off Pensacola; we have been down 
to beautiful Tampa; we have enjoyed the 
hospitality of the young and lusty Miami 
by the Bay of Biscayne; we have dreamed 
in the historic old St. Augustine, and en¬ 
joyed its hospitality, we have enjoyed our 
visit to Ocala and Ormond and to many 
other places and at all of these towns and 
cities we have listened to glowing words 
of welcome by their distinguished sons, 
and the Mayors of those proud munici¬ 
palities. Our best efforts have been called 
in play to reply to these words of wel¬ 
come and show our appreciation of the 
hospitality extended to us everywhere we 
have gone. On none of these occasions 
have the words of welcome spoken, been 
sweeter to us, or more fittingly expressed 
than at this hour. Your eloquent Mayor 
is famous throughout the State for his 
witticisms, his profundity and his elo¬ 
quence. The President of your Board of 
Trade has in his analytical and business¬ 
like way nobly presented the sentiments of 
the business element of this fair city who 
have greeted us to-night. 
A few years ago we accepted your hos¬ 
pitality and before the meeting time the 
fiery demon ran riot through your fair 
city. The Fire-King added to his trophies 
the destruction of beautiful Jacksonville. 
He added your fire to the history of cele¬ 
brated fires, those of Moscow, Boston and 
Chicago. In your hour of fallen splendor 
and buried glory we accepted the hurried 
invitation of your sister City, St. Augus¬ 
tine. We came as close to Jacksonville as 
we could well come and be entertained. 
As soon as your recovery permitted, we 
again accepted your cordial invitation to 
hold our meeting in your midst. We 
came—and behold! a new city had arisen. 
The spires of your churches and school 
