concern, and was rewarded with an answer bidding me come to New York and talk over terms. I got that line.
The Carnation business seemed alluring to me. I knew even during my supply days that Carnations were grown extensively, and that rooted cuttings were being sold in quantities. If I had Carnation cuttings, I could surely sell them. I wrote a number of letters to different growers, many of whom, if not all, had at that time never suspected my existence, with the result that I never got any answer. Again I was determined to get a Carnation line if there was any possibility of doing it. Chance favored me. I soon met Albert M. Herr, of Lancaster, who at that time was one of the most prominent Carnation growers in the country; and after explaining to him my plan and assuring him of good accounts only, I got his line. It is interesting to me to look back on that first beginning of what has turned out to be one of the most active and remunerative parts of my business.
And now I needed flower pots. It seemed to me that I could sell pots by the stacks, though in this particular I was quite disappointed. At that time there was a war going on between flower pot manufacturers in different sections of the country, and for a short time at least I had the chance to obtain a line and sell pots at cut rate prices, prices that did not perhaps pay for the clay, let alone the manufacture and overhead expense. This was, however, the manufacturers' business and no concern of mine.
Jardinières came next in line, and after that other things seemed to follow each other in rapid succession. I had things to sell which I never saw in my life, and which I could not explain to customers. One instance I well recall. A party in the upper part of New York State wanted to know what I thought of the merit of Martha Washington Pelargonium as compared with some other variety. As a matter of course, that question was beyond me. Not only could I not tell him the comparative merits, but I wouldn't have recognized a Pelargonium if I met it. Yet it would not do to confess my ignorance. I had to play the part of know-it-all. I had to tell him "frankly" that the only way really to ascertain the comparative values of the two was to grow them both, and that I could supply stacks of either if he said so.
Selling Things From a "Toothpick to an Auto"
I became a veritable walking department store, as some of my competitor friends chose to call me. It became generally known (through the courtesy of those same friends) that I was selling things all the way from a toothpick to an automobile and a greenhouse. And here I may remark that I did help to sell a greenhouse establishment, but of this later. I have never succeeded, though, in selling an automobile; and there was good reason for it—I never had any automobiles for sale.
One prominent house never failed to play a joke at my expense by telling florists that I was peddling Asparagus seed out of my pocket. The humorous part of it is that that very same house soon made every one of its salesmen do likewise, adding to Asparagus seed other items, such as Pansies, Primulas, Cinerarias, and so on. That same concern thought wise and proper, as a matter of business policy, to put all sorts of stumbling blocks in the way of my progress. If, for example, a new Carnation was put on the market, the introducer was given implicit instructions that unless I was barred out from handling it they would not catalogue it nor offer it to the trade. Such narrow-mindedness has my heart-felt sympathy to this very day.
On the Road Again
So, having gathered together several lines, I started out on the road, I must confess not with a very light heart, for after all, my future was still a closed book
