Two rules for one cup

The 1920 show published its rules in full, and printed the Emblem Club cup's old terms and its new ones in the same column.

Then the rules, and this is where it gets interesting. One of them reads: “No flowers, plants or vegetables not included in the published list will be eligible for a prize except as part of the ‘general display’ of flowers, for which the Emblem Club cup is offered.” Further down: “Any one desiring to enter a general exhibit for the Emblem Club cup must notify the secretary, Mrs. E. M. Thompson, at least one week before the Flower show so that space may be reserved for it.”

And then, in the same column: “As special prizes, the Commercial club cup will be awarded for the best general display of flowers, while the Emblem club cup will go for the most artistic arrangement of flowers. Under the first classification the rating will be 50 per cent on greatest variety and 50 per cent on perfection of blooms. In each classification, half a dozen choice iris roots will be given as second prize.”

The general display, twice, and the most artistic arrangement, once — for the same trophy, on the same page. This archive had the two arrangements as a before and an after: the cup was offered for the general display in 1915, 1916 and 1917, and by 1920 it was going for artistic arrangement of not less than five varieties, terms still being printed in 1922. Here is the seam. The old wording is still sitting in the rules while the new terms are announced beside it, and six days later the paper reported the cup awarded on artistic arrangement, which settles which one the judges used.

The rest is the ordinary machinery of a small-town show, and worth keeping for that: the Library Club sold the flowers and furnished the entry cards; exhibits had to be in by twelve on the day and could not be removed until evening; nothing outside the published list could win a prize; no award would be given for inferior flowers “although they may be the only ones entered for contest”; prizes were made possible by an appropriation from the county court; and punch money went into a fund for the following year's show.

One more thing this page settles. It places the show “in the new Downing building on Bond street”, which is where four other Bulletin notices put the building, including the editorial on page two of the very issue whose front page called it Wall street.