CHAPTER II. . !.

EARLY PREPARATION OF FLOWERS.

John Thorpe Sent to the Front— The Erection of Greenhouses and other Floricultural Structures— Loans
of Palms and Ferns By Wealthy Owners of Conservatories in Philadelphia and New York —
Millions of Plants Under Way— A Mountain of Palms and Ferns— A Winter Exhibition— Mag-
nificent Tribute Paid the Great Florist by the Brilliant John McGovern— Press and People Filled
With Admiration and Praise — A Flowery Article from "Uncle John."

HERE are four men connected with the World's Columbian
Exposition whose names will live long after many others of
prominence and worth have been partly or wholly forgotten.
These are Davis, Burnham, Handy and Thorpe, whose ident-
ification with the commencement, progress and completion
of the great Fair has been brilliant, impressive and eminently
satisfactory. It is underrating none of the other earnest and
competent chiefs of departments and hundreds of others who
by their energy, wisdom and ability contributed vastly toward
the sublime creation to make especial mention of this quar-
tette of masters.

Early in the day of construction it was apparent that the work in floriculture
must be commenced as soon as possible; and John Thorpe, the most eminent
floriculturist of any age, who had already been appointed chief of floriculture, was
instructed to proceed at once to Jackson Park and make preparations for what has
proven to be the greatest assemblage of plants that has ever been seen.

It was not many months, therefore, after the first spadeful of earth had
been turned, before long rows of greenhouses and a system of heating for the
propagation of various plants had been erected; — and more than a year before the
opening of the Exposition " Uncle John," as Mr. Thorpe is best known, was patiently
nursing hundreds of thousands of 'plants that to-day bewilder the observer in the
rotunda and eastern curtains of the Horticultural Building and which have at times
ornamented and enlivened every structure at Jackson Park. So intelligently and
so satisfactorily did the great florist proceed with his work that a fall and winter
exhibit was given prior to the spring opening which alone attracted nearly half a
million people and earned over a hundred thousand dollars. A mountain of choice:
palms and ferns and cactseceous plants which " Uncle John " had secured as loans
from owners of conservatories in New York and Philadelphia excited praise
and admiration from all beholders and Mr. Thorpe became a favorite not only
with the press and the public, but with all the officers interested in the administra-

70 HISTORY OF THE WORLD'S FAIR.

tion of affairs. Mr. John McGovern, the brilliant and distinguished editor of the
Illustrated World's Fair, has truly said of him: "In the huge volume of his knowl-
edge, each page is a flower, the tenderest, sweetest, lovliest thing that man touches
with his five rude senses. By common fame, no other man known to the western
hemisphere has come upon such a height of experience, instinct and devotion.
John Thorpe was born in England. Three generations before him worked in the
gardens along the Thames and elsewhere in England. He commenced at the age
of seven, and has been among plants and flowers for nearly fifty years, laboring at
Stratford-on-Avon fourteen years. His patrons and admirers are innumerable,
conspicuous among whom are the Goulds, Vanderbilts, Lorillards, Childs, Drexel,
and others. He has been in this country about eighteen years, owns extensive
gardens and greenhouses in New York, and was for several years president of the
Society of American Florists. He is probably the best known floriculturist in
America, and is the presiding spirit over the floral exhibit at Jackson Park."

The author has been permitted by the editor of the Illustrated Worlds Fair
to publish the following special article by Mr. Thorpe:

Ever since God commanded " Let there be light!" all human kind has lived
among plants and flowers, and from the earliest period down to the present day a love
and respect for these beautiful gifts of nature has been manifested in every hab-
itable part of the globe.

The Bible contains many allusions to others than the Rose of Sharon and
the lilies of the field, while Solomon, according to the book of Ecclesiastes, gave
much of his time and wisdom to the care and collection of the many varieties
within his reach, and tradition transmits the delightful legendary information
that the Arum Sanctum was taken from Egypt to Jerusalem to adorn the gardens.
of the voluptuous king. The monarch upon his throne rejoices in the possession
of rare and beautiful flowers, while the untutored savage betrays a reverence for
his native plants; and all ancient and modern languages are full of eloquent pas-
sages where flowers are used as a figure of speech to express a sense of beauty and
loveliness. The bards of all times have dedicated stanzas to these silent inhabitants
of hillside and dale, and given .sentiment and tongue to blossom, bud and leaf.

There is no land and no clime where flowers are not found in greater or lesser
varietiesand abundance. " From Greenland's icy mountains to India's coral strand,"
and from the Azores to antipodal isles, the earth is promiscuously strewn with millions.
upon millions of varieties of plant life, many of the blossomo of which exhale distilla-
tions of delicious scent. Europe, Asia, and Africa are the homes of innumerable
varieties, and America is even richer in the abundance and diversity of her floricult-
ural treasures. Mexico is bespangled with brilliant specimens, and so also is Cuba,
Florida and Arizona. China, Japan and the Hawaiian islands may be called lands
of flowers. The Pacific Coast, from the Cascade mountains to the Cordilleras, is
carpeted with wild flowers of amazing variety, beauty and odor for a number of
months during the year, from December to May, while the uncultivated portions of
the great valleys of the Sacramento and the San Joaquin, from Mount Shasta to
Tehachepi, abound in vast sweeps of named and unnamed flowers, reveling in all

HISTORY OF THE WORLD'S FAIR.

71

the colors of an axminster and perfuming the air with intermingled spices and
sweets. The Alps, the Appenines, the Andes, the Sierra Nevada and the Moun-
tains of the Moon are the habitats of flowers only surpassed in gorgeousness and
circumference by the enchantresses of the Amazon and the Nile.

The symbolism of flowers is probably as old as the utterances of the first poet,
but the first recorded traces of it are found in the land where poetry had its birth.
It was the graceful fancy of the Greek which, uniting flowers with the events of
every-day lite, blended sentiment with the beauty of the flower world. The
Romans also used flower symbols, though in a less degree. The red and white
roses mark a bloody era in the history of England, as do the lily of the Bourbons
and the violet of the greatest military genius of modern times.

MOSES P. HANDY,

CHIEF DEPARTMENT OF PUBLICITY AND PROMOTION.

HISTORY OF THE WORLD'S FAIR. 73