FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
30 
cheer that Jacksonville had extended to 
us during the dark days of our own ad¬ 
versity. 
RECUPERATIVE POWERS UNDERRATED. 
Acting upon this decision, Secretary 
Powers sent out his first circular an¬ 
nouncing that, notwithstanding the fire, 
the meeting would still be held in Jack¬ 
sonville. A few days later, however, a 
second canvass of the situation, in which 
your President consulted with Vice- 
President George W. Wilson and Secre¬ 
tary Powers, of the Society, and the 
prominent railroad, city and Board of 
Trade officials of Jacksonville, resulted in 
a reversal of our first decision. It be¬ 
came plain that we had underrated Jack¬ 
sonville’s wonderful recuperative pow¬ 
ers. Her burnt-out population, instead 
of leaving the city in swarms, remained 
to rebuild the fallen city and recoup their 
fallen fortunes. The city needed every 
available room for officing and housing 
her own inhabitants. The kindliest 
service we could render Jacksonville was 
to look for other quarters. We accepted 
St. Augustine’s kind invitation, Secre¬ 
tary Powers sent out notices to that ef¬ 
fect, and we are here. 
The thanks of the Society are due the 
railroads, which, with courtesy and 
promptness, made available for St. Au¬ 
gustine the reduced rates that had been 
granted for Jacksonville. Our thanks 
are also due the Board o,f Trade of Jack¬ 
sonville and its large-hearted, whole- 
souled president, Capt. C. E. Garner, the 
worthy president of the Relief Associa¬ 
tion, who, when your President told him 
that we had decided to go to St. Au¬ 
gustine, said, “Brother Taber, please say 
to your Society and to the good people 
of St. Augustine that in addition to the 
losses Jacksonville has sustained by fire, 
she feels the loss of the Horticultural So¬ 
ciety meeting/’ 
In addition to St. Augustine's invita¬ 
tion, we received one from the city of 
Orlando and one from the city of Tampa. 
On behalf of the Society, thanks were 
conveyed to the mayors of both of these 
cities together with the information that, 
under the circumstances, we thought 
better to come here. 
Your President wishes to extend his 
personal thanks to the Executive Com¬ 
mittee for empowering him with their 
prerogative and indorsing, in advance, 
his decision as to place of meeting, when 
red tape would have seriously impeded 
the prompt action that the exigencies of 
the case demanded. 
SOCIETY A SUFFERER. 
The fire which was so disastrous to 
Jacksonville was far-reaching in its ef¬ 
fects, and our Society is one of the suf¬ 
ferers—to comparatively small extent, it 
is true, yet the loss is one we deplore. 
All records of the Society and all annual 
reports on hand for the past years were 
destroyed. This makes it impossible to 
supply life members from now on with 
reports published prior to the fire. I am 
happy to say, however, that the library, 
of which the Library Committee’s report 
will show we have a nucleus, was not 
burned. In this connection I wish, with¬ 
out discrimination against other contrib¬ 
utors, to call special attention to the gen¬ 
erosity of Mrs. Frances E. Manville, of 
Orange City, who, in remembrance of 
her husband, our former Secretary, A. H. 
Manville, kindly donated the complete 
collection of horticultural books whicht 
