RECOLLECTIONS TO 1890. 89 



the asses who had awarded the premiums ? The chair- 

 man of the committee who was behind me, pulled by 

 a sudden jerk the skirt of my coat, so as to say, "keep 

 your tongue, but it was too late, so I uttered again the 

 same expression, so that the audience could see I did 

 not want any misunderstanding ; that chairman was a 

 nice quiet man, a German gardener a florist of 

 Brooklyn, called Rauch ; he had a great knowledge of 

 plants, he was well educated, but he was too fond of 

 PLEASURE ! ! and his income did not permit him to culti- 

 vate such a common plant, but expensive to grow in 

 specimen ! ! In that circumstance he was what the 

 French call " Tirer le Diable par la queue," " Pulling 

 the Devil by his tail," to be hard up / that is to say, 

 not independent. Our owner of the Ancechtochilus 

 was gone, but the litigation about the awards of the 

 two plants was not settled yet ; after our owner of 

 Anoechtochilus was gone the chairman of the committee, 

 tried to justify himself. He said: Mr. Menand ! you 

 have been too rash in your decision ; had you known, 

 the whole affair you would not have talked as you did. 

 We gave the 1st prize to the Caladium because we 

 found out that the Anmchtochilus was not his plant, 

 he had borrowed it from Mr. P., his friend, a few 

 days before the exhibition. Well, my friend ! Your 

 justification is worse than your fault. If you had found 

 discovered the trick you ought not to award him any 



