Los Angeles herald., 1892-02-27
MRS. WILDER.
HON. l.. ]. ROSE EXPLAINS HER AP-
PoINTMENT.
He Consulted the Annex and Understood
That She Was Their Choice-A Plain
Statement of Fact.

kicked up such q row in the ladies' an
mex:
EDITORS HERALD: Allow me to ex-
plain, in answer to ga protest to the
women of sSouthern California and la
dies of the annex" by "a Member of
the Annex" which appears in your pa
per of the 25th. This protest is very
unjust to Mrs. Wilder, and it is remark
able how such broad charges can be
made without any foundation. The
history of the appointment requires
some little detail, but in view of so
much having been said about it, this
will not be out of place.
To begin at the beginning, Mrs.
Wilder and her husband, the doctor,
called upon me at my residence the
night before my leaving for San Fran
cisco to attend meeting OF the worlds
fair commissioners. She came to in
quire whether the ladies of the annex
could get piece of ground set apart for
the purpose of erecting an adobe build
ing modelled after some old-tlme land
mark and as reminiscence of the past
and to surround such building with
trees and shrubbery typical OF Southern
California. 81 l toldEher to make written
application and l would present the
matter to the board. | believe she
called board meeting; at any rate, the
written application was sent me
and L laid it before the board.
After discussing this subject for some
time with Mrs. Wilder, the conversation
drifted about various matters between
the doctor, his wife, Mrs. Rose and N.Y.
L.
related her work in the annex and her
being delegated by the annex and the
chamber of commerce to help take
charge OF the citrus exhibit at Chicago.
And she told me that she had built the
court house of oranges, which was one
of the marked features of the exhibit;
that she sold after the exhibit, the or
anges, and had been very busy woman.
She also incidentally related that they
had voted her $3.50 for the trip, but by
living with her own people in Chicago,
thus saving hotel bills, and by economy,
had been able to return $125 of this $3.50
to the powers that appointed her. She
also told with some humor of being
robbed of $S6, and really lost money by
her trip.
Now all this occurred before | or any
one else knew that there would be
board of managers, for that board was
created at our next meeting, without
any previous suggestion from any one.
On my return from the meeting which
created the board of lady managers, and
giving me the right to appoint whoever
chose, thought it over and concluded
that the ladies of the annex, being in
active accord with the worlds fair ex-
hibit, being also in active accord with that
love, that energy, that push which every
devotee of Southern California feels, also
being organized and doing good work in
every way to bring the advantages of
this land of flowers and fruits to the
knowledge of the world, that these
ladies could make more intelligent ap-
pointment than myself. Concluding
thus, called at the rooms of the cham
ber of commerce and met a few of
the members and Mr.. Virgins, who
may be considered the most active and
capable secretary that can be found for
such work in Southern California. 1t
may be said that it was he who, with
Mrs. Wilder, made the citrus exhibit in
Chicago and again are now making the
citrus exhibit here. laid the matter
before him and spoke with some few
other members.
was met with but one opinion, and
that was that Mrs. Wilder was the per-
son. They said she has had large ex-
perience. She has been president of the
annex twice, and has been very active
member 1t was also related how she
had worked in Chicago, where she was
delegated by the chamber. In short,
there was nothing but praise, and the
impression was left on my mind that
- 10 ,x,t1o,,k
selected by the annex.
A day or two after my return and
after / had spoken to the secretary of
the chamber of commerce about laying
it before the annex, Mrs. Wilder and
her husband again called, and she made
inquiry about her application for build
ing and ornamentation OF ground which
l had promised to lay before the COM
mission, and told her that regretted
that / could not report anything en-
couraging. then told her that there
would be board of managers, and that
from my information thoughtathat she
would be the suitable person. She
jokingly turned it off, but when about to
leave / urged her to seriously consider
the matter. She remarked she would
see about it.
In the course of eight or ten days she
wrote me letter accepting. My not
hearing from the annex or chamber of
commerce led me to believe that she
was the choice, and if there is any one
to blame it is myself in taking this for
granted; but it, must be remembered
that thep bad had eight or ten. days to
come to conclusion and to let me know
& if they wished some one else.
After appointing her the president
and the lady chosen by the annex called
ON me and told me of their choice.
When asked why they had not taken
earlier action, they said they had called
a meeting but had had no quorum,
which had caused delay. When asked
the objections to Mrs. Wilder, they said
that there was none, except that Mrs.
Wilder had had more than her share OF
honois, and that that was the only OBJ
lection. From this it will be clearly
seen that Mrs. Wilder was not even an
applicant. but that the appointment to
an extent was urged upon her by me.
That her, action should even cause one
member to feel indignant, or to say that
Gre person in a hdhdfed could honestly
indorse Mrs. Wilder would sound rather
harsh, and it Rhows that ladies can ere
ate quite as much tempest in teapot
as the Other sex.
Mrs. Wilder is the appointee, and
will be the appointee, unless some valic