Los Angeles daily herald., 1886-04-04
FLORA's GRAND FETE.
The Greatest Exhibit of
Flowers in History.
FOR SWEET cHARIrY's SAKE.
Daisies in Hundreds-Pansies IN
Thousands Callas in Tens of
ThOusands-Roses in Hun
dreds of Thousands.
nro SPORT an hour with peauty,. chaln,


Is pleasant occupation, but to do a
the noble ladies' who inaugurated th'
Flower Festival and who are carrying
the work along-combining the True
the beautiful and the good in the caus,
Of charity--is to bring human life al
near the standard Of the divine as car
well be done.
A year or more ago these ladies stood
as it were, upon bridge of sighs" and
saw in the turbid, dangerous stream o.
life many girls and older women making
strenuous effort to obtain an honesi
livelihood by their own efforts. They
saw the stream was hard to stem, and
that many inexperienced swimmers were
being
Dragged down to muddy DEATH"
Or lured by some siren voice ol
pleasure and ease to waste away
in the loneliness Of those who hav'
forfeited the good esteem of society OF
the barren shores Of isolation with The
sad sounds Of weary sea OF despair
ever sounding in their ears.
Such were the circumstances which
called out the effort to found Woman'i
Home where homeless and deserving
women aud girls might find at mini
mum cost comfortable lodging and
wholesome food.
To further the good work flower
festival was held year or more age
and for many months past ''home" on
limited scale has been in operation.
1t Is now proposed TO undertake this in
more enlarged sphere and to this end q
SECOND ANNUAL
Flower Festival has been in progress al
the Tabernacle, corner Main and Fourth
streets since last Wednesday night. 1t
took week before the exhibition
was thrown open to the public
to put the affair in order. The
organization Of the plans and theiI
execution WAS a thing remarkable for
order and energy. Duly at the time ap.
pointed the doors were opened upon the
festival aud more than 5000 people
thronged into the vast hall to look upon
every flower in order in the most
MAGNIFICENT FLORAL DISPLAY
Ever witnessed in the history Of the
world.
To give an adequate description Of the
exhibit is utterly impossible. Not the
pen Of Byron nor Moore; not the poetic
tongue of the most impassioned poet Of
ancient Greece can begin to do justice
to this varied, gorgeous, gigantic, ex-
quisitely lovely and grandly magnificent
collection of flowers, all grown out of
doors, In the open yards and garden:
Of the citizens of Los Angeles in the
last days of the bleak month Of March
as 1t is experienced the world over ont.
side the sunny southland of semi-tropic
/ California. The HERALD has daily tried
to give what could be said OF the affair
and now, at the end OF the first week,
.resume is given even at the risk Of be-
4 ing st...s tiresome ia the way Of neces-
sary repetition. This is done. however,
in order to get together more succinci
account Of the affair which an effort will
be made TO get into the ANNUAL HERALD
about to appear in a few days. The
Flower Festival will put very fitting
finishing touch to that beautiful pictorial
publication, detailing phenomenal beau
ties and richness Of this remarkable sec
ton Of the Union.
THE HALL Is IN AREA
About 1000 SQUARE feet, being
i20xl60 feet, with an extension
lOx40 at the south end. OF this
one half is devoted to the booths and the
other moity is in the aisles. To the
apex OF the central roof the height i.
probably rs feet. There is room here
Tor ''big spread" and the ladies have
let none Of II 60 to waste. The great
multitudes OF flowers are spread ovel
all the horizontal space available in
booths and when that failed the myri
ads of blooms and foliage of rare
shrubs have been festooned, made up il
baskets. hung up, strung up, iooped up
terraced, heaped in banks, spread ovel
the roofs, dropped from the cornices
trimmed round the posts and pillars
put in all possible shapes and on every
available ineh OF space, on every coigl
OF vantage and every picturesque cut
look until there is more space actually
covered with decorations OF some
sort than tho whole area OF th,
floor. Il takes some flowers t.
cover 20, 900 square feet Of area, Wher
it comes to keeping this wonderful dis
play renewed daily for a period Of tws
weeks, discarding the flowers as fast a.
they fade and putting in their place new
ones gathered from the gardens pre-
yiously depleted for the first, second
third and each subsequent day some ideI
will reach the mind Of the quantity o
the blossoms of beauty necessary {,
keep up such display for fourteen con
secutive days. These flowers are al
free-will offerings from such as may fee
moved to send them in. While there i
very general impulse to aid the ladiei
in their noble work, il goes without say
ing that there ere many gardens iron
which no flowers have been sent.
VOW MANY FLOWERS
Are in the Tabernaclel II is hard /,
answer that question with any sort o
certain approximation. There is q Tyr
on the platform made OF callas It i
I4xs feet. There are by actual coun
ll20 flowers in the piece. From SAINT
Ana there came on Thursday out Of on
ward barrel OF the same flowers whicl
by actual count contained $50 blooms
In the first four days Of the exhibi
Santa Ana sent 10 1900 roses. Tustii
sent up display Of pansies when tn
festival opened which contained all O
1000 blossoms. This has been renewe,
twice during the week. In the Bouton
iere Booth on Friday the HERALD re
porter counted the daisies ON one disl
and found upwards Of 1900. Aroun,
the ice cream booth some one counted tn
callas in a yard space and multiple,
the sum by the space in the terraces
There we're by such estimate not les
than 5000 callas in the decoration OF tn
booth. A similar estimate was mad
around the fountain, and the result wa
1000 flowers. 1t is utterly true tina
there are 10, 900 callas in the hall at an,
given moment. The two weeks will no
take less tLan probably 50,000 callas
II one booth took nearly 800 roses
day--and that not specially devoted l.
this flower, it not being sale booth
and moreover having to draw its sur
plies from town 30 miles distant
now many roses were there in nearly 8
booths for single day! And ho,
many will be used in the two weeks
There are besides all this the banks an,
parterres of roses around the fountain
when the cushion in front of the plat
form was but just begun by a yer
careful innate there were 25, 900 of th
aueenly flowers in the piece. Daily a
roses could be spared additions hay
been made to the collection and il i
now safe to say there are now not les
than twice the number here in one grea
mass. There were yesterday in III
Tabernacle probably 100000 roses. tn
fete will first and last take from III
gardens of Los Angeles and her fai
sisters in the semi-tropic Paradise fror
900, 600 to 10000 blooms Of the rose
Whenit comes to counting the smalle
flowers the task becomes impossi
HE. The Tustin booth i
one week used over 10000 pansies
There is booth devoted to this flowe
where many times that sum were use
as they were sold both cut and growing
Then all the booths had more or les
pnnsies. As stated, on one platter l50
I.iaiaa ware countad There vera te