THE BONNEWITZ GARDENS, VAN WERT, OHIO 
approached me and said, “Will you kindly tell me the story I heard you telling 
a few moments ago?” which of course I was glad to do. 
When it was concluded, she told me she was a reporter for an evening paper, 
and when I bought a copy of it, I found that a whole column had been given to 
the peony show, and that three fourths of the space was taken up with the 
story of Mrs. Pleas, her seedling peonies and jubilee. 
At that show I was awarded a second prize in the amateur class, which with 
my present experience, I now know amounts to nothing, but I was delighted, 
and wired the news to Miss Anderson and her friend, and it was published in 
both of the daily papers. On the trip home, I wrote a general letter, telling of 
what had happened at the peony show, putting all of my enthusiasm into that 
one page letter. On my arrival home, I had my local printer make about two 
hundred copies of it and I mailed a copy to every member of the peony society. 
There were less than two hundred members at that time and if any of 
these members of twenty years ago happens to read this story now, and has 
preserved that printed letter of 1916, I will make him a present of a division 
of the most precious peony in my garden, in exchange for it. 
The next year jubilee again bloomed at exactly the right time for the 
National show, which was to be held in Philadelphia. This time I invited both 
my wife and daughter to accompany me; I engaged a lower berth in a sleeper 
for my wife and daughter; I took the upper one myself, and in addition en¬ 
gaged another lower one in which to carry “jubilee,” with its stems submerged 
in a large jug of water. I doubt if any other flower has ever had a lower 
berth engaged for its sole occupancy. 
Arriving at the exhibition hall, I followed the same plan I had used the 
preceeding year, helping “first time exhibitors” to display their flowers. While 
my daughter at that time about ten years old was helping me arrange my 
exhibit I was approached by a man carrying a camera and he asked, “May the 
little girl hold some flowers while I take a picture of them?” to which I replied, 
“Certainly, if it is my ‘jubilees’ which she holds,” and while he was taking the 
picture, I related to him the story of the widow and her seedlings, and of 
jubilee, which I thought the most beautiful peony in the world. When he had 
completed his work he told me he was taking the picture for an evening news¬ 
paper, and that if I was willing, he would be glad to send a reporter to write up 
the jubilee story. I did not need to be coaxed, and the story was told. At 
noon the doors were closed to the public, the judges and exhibitors alone re¬ 
maining in the hall. 
As I was quite tired from my morning’s work, and as I do not enjoy seeing 
my own flowers judged, I went to the hotel to rest for an hour or more. My nap 
was not finished when I heard the telephone bell ring, and Mrs. Bonnewitz 
asked me to come over to the exhibition hall at once. On the way over I pur¬ 
chased an evening paper and I was gratified to see that it contained a picture 
of my daughter holding a bunch *of beautiful jubilees, and it also contained 
the full story I had given the reporter. I was greeted at the door by Mrs. Bon¬ 
newitz and Alice, both of whom were apparently delighted to tell me, that in a 
class of fourteen exhibits, jubilee had taken the most coveted of all prizes; 
the one for the best six blooms in the show. 
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