Response to Address of Welcome 
Prof. P. H. Rolfs. 
Mr. President , Ladies and Gentlemen, 
Members of the Florida State Horti¬ 
cultural Society : 
I am very sure we are all much pleased 
to be present here in Jacksonville at this 
meeting. We know, Mayor Jordan, 
whenever we come to Jacksonville, the 
latch-string is on the outside. Jackson¬ 
ville has always had a welcoming hand 
outstretched to us and is ready to receive 
us at any time. Other cities, big or small, 
as they may be, have occasionally hung 
their latch-strings on the outside, but, 
Mayor Jordan, your city has said, “Come 
any time.'’ 
This reminds me very much of the sit¬ 
uation the young Jew was in when he was 
elected to his first club. Meeting one of 
the members of the club, and not know¬ 
ing just exactly what he ought to say, he 
remarked: “The club is a very good 
thing to belong to. You can always go 
to the club when you can’t go nowhere 
else.” That’s the way with Jacksonville; 
we can always come to Jacksonville. We 
have been told that a good many times. 
We have acted upon its invitation seven 
times; this is the eighth. Eight times out 
of twenty-four, that’s doing pretty well. 
This society was founded in 1888, and 
it had to get some experience before it 
could trust itself in the bustling metrop¬ 
olis of this State. It was not until 1895 
that we did commit ourselves to meet 
here—shall I say with the barbarians or 
the city folks? Then we came back the 
next year. Then we loafed around over 
the State a little while and came back 
again in 1899 an d again in 1900, and if 
it had not been for the serious fire Jack¬ 
sonville would have been our host again 
in 1901, so that really we should say that 
Jacksonville had already had eight meet¬ 
ings. 
In 1904, 1905 and 1906 we were back 
in Jacksonville again. In 1893 we wer T 
clear over toward the west to Pensacola,, 
but we were not quite satisfied. Then we 
went on down to the south, but they were 
not quite good enough, so we came back 
to Jacksonville, and here we are today. 
Ladies and Gentlemen, I want to say 
that Jacksonville is the city of cities in 
the South. It is the live city. It is the 
city that does things. It does things that 
a city twice its size would hesitate to un¬ 
dertake ; even that big fire ten years ago, 
instead of stopping its growth, served 
only to warm things up to greater achieve¬ 
ments. It is our State’s metropolis. It 
is the biggest port south of Baltimore. 
As a matter of fact, when you can’t 
get anything you want in Atlanta or Chi¬ 
cago or New York, just write to Jackson¬ 
ville and you will get it. If it is repairs 
