A FLORIST'S STORY.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12468, 18 February 1909, Page 4

A FLORIST'S STORY.

♦ , . Most suggestive of the sign of tho times is the bankruptcy announced ol Mr Joseph Flefschmah,' the most fashionable florist in JMew York, wh.>bo magnificent establishment >.i Fit in Avenue, was: typical of all the wouith and extravagance of life in -the \n4tropolis. For a year past, ever since the panic of la&t autumn, in fact, l''leischman lacked purchasers for his costly flowers. He explained thissr-d---den decline in the popularity of flowers in -an interview full of cyrihal comment on the social habits in New Ytrk. "Since the panic," he says, Ai-oalt-hy folk are living ,the. simple life livstead of "supping after theatre Tit h chorus girls, -they are econoaiis.«ig by Yeiilaiiiihg quietly. at home;" Acco t)-" ing to Mr Fleischman,". the millionaires of New York are Jie [ilg&ist fools in the world, as far aa.moiicy.. is concerned. They have no idea or its value. When they,) cap big profits'', they simply "throw them ; away?' The great florist gives extraordinary instances if extravagance, and asserts that- scores of his"- customers used to spend more than £200 a week o.n flowers for girls -who were 1 earning £4 a "week in the chorus of some Broadway theatre. "They 'tell me to cend flowers worth _£25 .: every day. 1 Many of the girls come to'ine and t say, 'I don't - want all these flowers. ! You take them back and; give me the 1 money. What I want ia a good square breakfast, or a new hat or coat. The 'lost . time that man . orders flowers for me, just put the money in the cash box and save it for me.' ' "Mr Fleischman declares . that -since ■ the panic he has been forced to write" off £25,000 worth of bad debts contracted by millionaires who had. become bankrupt. All the customers of the leadings florist were prominent men. \Mr Fleischman; started his^carecr as' : afl6wer-seller in the streets. Before he was 21 he had amassed a fortune of £25,000. v He declares his difficulties how are only temporary.