XI 



EXHIBITING 



209 



anxious to find a difference. I compared them in every 

 way I knew, but still could make hardly more than a 

 point between them, if so much. No difference was to 

 be found in arrangement. I knew who the exhibitors 

 were as I had seen them, but I did not the least know 

 which stand belonged to each. Their style was the 

 same as they had been brought up in the same school, 

 and they were well known as at that time of very nearly 

 equal strength. Yet one must have the cup and the 

 other get no prize at all. In my perplexity I mounted 

 on the central table in the tent, and took a careful 

 bird's-eye view, holding on by the pole. This confirmed 

 me in my previous idea that there was the slight shade 

 of difference that I had noticed at my second attempt : 

 I gave my judgment accordingly, and was most 

 sincerely pleased when I found the loser was quite 

 satisfied. 



Another very equal case was in a class for seventy- two 

 at a Northern show. I had the proper number of two 

 coadjutors this time, one being a very experienced and 

 able Rosarian, and the other a local man who was 

 generally discreetly silent. We pointed through both 

 the best stands without any disagreement except in the 

 case of one bloom where I was for three points and 

 my experienced friend for one only. The third judge 

 opened his mouth for the first and only time, and gave 

 his voice against me. That decided the principal prize 

 of the show, for we found only one point of difference 

 between the two stands of seventy-two each, and if my 

 view of that one bloom had been acted on, the other 

 seventy-two would have won by one point. 



The silent judge played his part and did what was 

 required of him. He did not act, I hope, or give his 

 judgment from the same motive that influenced one at 



p 



