Chicago [excerpt]

     Generally speaking, the market has not been very active this week, but on Tuesday the demand for material for the funeral of President McKinley swept the wholesale houses clean. The local retailers did not have a great amount of work to go to Canton, but it seemed that every florist in Ohio who ever bought in this market was loaded up with orders for designs for the funeral of the nation’s chief magistrate and relied upon Chicago for his supply of stock. Cleveland was wiring all day long and dozens of other towns sent in requisitions, many of which were necessarily left unfilled, because it was impossible to scrape up another flower on Tuesday night. A large part of the demand was for American Beauty roses and red carnations, although nearly every order called for more or less white asters and white carnations. The biggest local order on the President’s account was that which resulted from the collection taken up by State street [sic] merchants and placed in the hands of Postmaster Coyne’s committee. In only an hour or two on Monday $700 was raised and the committee asked a number of the leading storekeepers to meet them at the Wellington hotel on Tuesday afternoon to bid on the work. In the end the order was divided between the John C. Schubert Company and O. J. Friedman. The former constructed two vases six feet high, of white asters, with long American Beauties in the vases and draperies of lilies of the valley. Friedman made a seven-foot cross of American Beauties, using 3,400 flowers in the one design, and a broken column of white asters with a base of Bridesmaid roses. The four gigantic designs were shipped to Canton Wednesday night, Oscar Friedman and Henry Rowe accompanying them.

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     On Thursday all the wholesale houses closed as soon as they had their morning orders out and many of the retailers did not open at all. They very generally decorated their windows in good taste for the exercises of the day. It is probable that never before was there such a general cessation of business in Chicago on a week day as on the day of President McKinley’s funeral.