228 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
we don’t have any time to sleep. As for Fredonia one 
might as well walked a tread-mill and chum butter as walk 
down its principal street. There is “nothing doing’’ there. 
But it’s a good thing for us to visit these large cities; it 
broadens us in our views and enables us to gain some know¬ 
ledge as to what the real styles are. On some of my returns 
home, to keep off the grass at the side, I proudly march 
down the center of our main road wearing a brand new hat 
with the rim turned down in front and up behind, one side 
of the rim depressed just a little lower than the other side 
of the rim—and my neighbors know I am just returning 
from Rochester, New York. 
These meetings once a year not only afford us much 
pleasure but we also gain much information pertaining to 
our business. For instance, we often spend considerable 
time in study and experiment of those enemies of vegetable 
and human 
life —insects 
and bug s— 
and the juice 
thereof. As 
we pass along 
your business 
streets we are 
somewhat 
hindered i n 
reading the 
signs on the 
stores by the 
large number 
of handsome 
young women 
wearing 
Merry Widow 
hats, but this 
doesn’t mat¬ 
ter. Really, 
we feel about 
it as did the 
gentleman at 
the races in Paris. A very prepossessing young women 
to see the horses better stood up on her seat; noticing a 
gentleman seated behind her, she said to him, “Monsieur, 
I hope I don’t obstruct your view.” ■ Thereupon the 
Frenchman gallantly responded, “Madame, I much prefer 
the obstruction to the view.” 
We try hard to have the reputation of being good citizens 
and some of us enjoy being considered wealthy. While 
recently walking on one of the streets of Buffalo I approached 
a wretched being who was seated on the side-walk grinding 
a dismal little hand-organ. Two newsboys were in my 
rear, one quite a large boy, the other a little bit of a chap; 
the big boy was evidently posting the other on various 
matters of the city and world. They were hurrying as fast 
as they could—doubtless feeling about that music as a 
neighbor of mine did when I asked him if he was coming 
over to hear me play. He replied, “No!” I said, “But I 
thought you were fond of music,” whereupon,he responded, 
“I am and that’s the reason I’m not coming.” On the 
other hand, I asked an eminent professor of music what he 
thought of my execution and he said he considered it an 
excellent idea. Well! to resume my story as the boys 
passed me they gave me one glance as I was in the act of 
throwing a small coin into the tin box of my fellow artist 
in machine music and the big boy said to the little boy, 
“that old devil is rich.” 
These gentlemen before you are mostly engaged in grow¬ 
ing and selling trees and inasmuch as the commercial 
tourist would say “trees are out of my line” and also as 
tree men suffer in their minds and business from strenuous 
bashfulness I will speak a word for them. It will be readily 
seen that they all carry a small memorandum book and a 
stub of a pencil in the vest pocket and inasmuch as this 
trip is costing them considerable for railroad fare, board, 
etc. (etcs. cost them the most) if Your Honor has really 
determined to 
purchase a 
few trees 
most any of 
them will be 
happy to take 
your order. 
We have 
one member 
with us who 
has a chronic 
habit of run¬ 
ning about 
nights. Last 
•year at De¬ 
troit, I invited 
him to attend 
a prayer meet¬ 
ing with me 
(Baptist, of 
course, on ac¬ 
count of large 
water -sup - 
ply). Being 
a resident of a small town in New York, he innocently 
inquired what sort of a function or “joint” a prayer 
meeting was anyway. At the meeting he seated himself 
beside the tallest and most solemn elde-r in the bunch 
and in an undertone began relating his famous story 
about the Newark Pony —a story which as he tells it 
would make a wooden Indian grin. I hardly think Your 
Honor would care for the story inasmuch as it is 
lengthy and in some respects is not a very good story 
and in some other respects not so very bad—to borrow an 
idea from Dickens, the horse “is such a little one.” When 
the hour arrived for the passing of the hat this was the only- 
portion of the programme with which my friend was familiar. 
As a collector, he has no living equal and he undertook to take 
charge of that part of the service. But the congregation on 
looking him over unwisely decided not to allow him to 
handle the money. He was just alive when I got him out. 
When we arrive at our homes, it will be a great satisfac¬ 
tion to us to reflect on our pleasant trip and sojourn in 
How the American Association of Nurserymen Appeared at the time of the Annual Convention. 
