The Californians are naturally very proud of their flowers, and when
President Harrison was making his trip to the West in 1891, the people
of the State very sensibly concluded that in his progress from the East
he had seen every kind of flag decoration that the mind could suggest,
but that flowers such as they could show him would be a novelty to him.

The people of Santa Barbara therefore decided to hold a flower carnival
in their city as a welcome to the President when he visited them.

Arches forty feet high were stretched across the principal streets, and
decorated with flowers of all kinds. Some were all of roses, some of
palms and pampas grass, some of wild flowers, and some of the wonderful
yellow Californian poppy. From these arches hung festoons of
marguerites, wistaria, orange and lemon blossoms, the streets being
canopied with flowers.

The festivities were all of a floral character, winding up with a flower
dance, in which forty-eight young ladies of the city took part, each
representing a different flower. Their dresses were fashioned and
colored like the flowers they represented, and were covered with bunches
of the real flowers.

After the young girls had danced for a few moments a number of young men
dressed as bees joined the dance, and a few moments later a score of
little children as butterflies.

This first carnival was such a success that it was decided to repeat it
and make it an annual affair.

Since then, not only Santa Barbara, but a number of other Californian