My suggestion seemed reasonable, and in course of a week or two I heard that things had been adjusted to their mutual satisfaction.
It was simply this: Mr. Brown happened to have an unusually large lot of split Carnations, and a number of Geraniums that showed no blooms. It was a question between throwing them in the rubbish heap and offering them to the public at bargain prices. He chose the latter method, and realized enough to justify the experiment. His best stock he held at regular prices. My customer evidently had heard but one side of the story about the cut prices, but never knew that on his best stock Mr. Brown realized more perhaps than did he himself. The fact of the matter is that often a customer will come in, and ask the price of one thing or another; and upon being given the regular prices he will inform the florist that he is too high, that his competitor in town sells his Carnations or Geraniums at so much less, never mentioning the kind of stock offered at the cut price.
The florist, before investigating things for himself, jumps immediately at conclusions, and is either disgusted with the condition of affairs, giving it up as a bad job, or goes his competitor one better, and actually begins to slice prices on first-class stock. In either case, the business suffers in the end.
It is things of this sort that are often obviated in the larger cities by means of discussion among the members at the florists' meetings. Florists' clubs are of incalculable value to their members, and I can foresee the time when topics of this sort will be brought up before the conventions of the S. A. F. and O. H., and will receive due consideration, not from men of any one location, but from florists of all sections of the country. In their general nature, these questions affect all men of the trade alike.
During my early travels through the New England States, I met many men who, like myself, were much younger than they are today, and who, like myself, are still at it. With many my relations have become somewhat more than those that ordinarily exist between buyer and seller. Among these I may mention with pleasure the names of A. N. Pierson and S. J. Renter.
A. N. Pierson of Cromwell, Conn.
I met Mr. Pierson about twenty years ago, when I first applied for his line. Mr. Pierson, although not generally well known throughout the country, was already a prominent figure in New England territory. His place, though about half the size of its present dimensions, was a large one nevertheless, and ranked among the very largest at that time in the land. It was on a Summer afternoon that I paid my first visit to Cromwell. Although I had heard about Mr. Pierson's place long before, I had never expected to see such a mammoth establishment, with such a diversified stock. A glance through the greenhouses soon convinced me that the head of the establishment was a man who knew his business from A to Z. I was looking for Mr. Pierson, expecting to behold a man overbearing in manner, unapproachable, formal, and reserved; though why I so expected I cannot exactly say. I may perhaps have been influenced by the magnitude of the place. To my surprise, however, Mr. Pierson's personality was utterly unlike my anticipation. I beheld a man extremely democratic in his manner. I stated the object of my visit, and was invited to accompany him on a stroll through the place. Our business relations, which began twenty years ago, have been most pleasant. At all times Mr. Pierson believed in "the square deal." Like the late William K. Harris, he impressed upon me at the start never to promise any more than he could fulfill, but to rest assured that he would fulfill all that he could promise. At no time during our business experience in these many years has he disappointed me in this regard.
