Evening star., 1916-03-19

John Saul. OFF the 7th street road be-
yond the Rock Creek Church road were
the farms of o. B. Taylor and T. Mosh-
er, and off the 18th street road in the
Piney branch neighborhood were the
farms of DR.. Noble W. Blagden, Mrs
c. Saunders. William Morrison and
Mrs. s.. A. Greeves. About a year ago
the Rambler jotted down some valu-
able memoranda which were given him
concerning this territory by William j.
FriZzell. but he lost the notes.
The Rambler is reminded of some in
teresting matter relating to the gentle
man who now lives in the old brick
house in the big garden by the side of
Georgia avenue west of Park road.
George Field and his brother, Thomas
Field, were propagators, or developers,
or whatever the right word may be, of
that rose which is now famous as the
American beauty" George Bancroft.
the historian and diplomatist. and John
Brady. a florist. still living in Wash
ington, and who is also one of the
Rambler's friends, were actors in the
romance of the great American rose
which the whole world now knows as
''the American beauty" A very bitter
controversy arose IS to the origin of
this rose when it became rich and ia
nous. but the Rambler is not party
to this war of the rose and his chief
interest in it is that it was born in
Washington and discovered and devel-
oped to it's present state of beauty by
Washington men. There Is glory
enough for all those men who were
concerned in discovering and develop
ing the American beauty.
AS great many persons know,
George Bancroft was a lover OF flow
ers and at his home at Newport had one
of the great rosarums. or rosari. OF
the United States. He had brought to-
gether there hundreds of the fine va
rieties of roses grown in france, Ger
many. Belgium and England Part OF
7, Ia 1tain a1
grounds appurtenant to his Washing
ION home on II street. At this point it
IS proper to give few facts relating
to Mr.. Bancroft. He was born near
Worcester, Mass. i'll 1900. He was
educated, or at least he received his
youthful schooling. at Harvard and in
Germany. In 1882 he published trans
lation of Heeren's Politics of Ancient
Greece" and small volume or poems,
and at that early period in his life was
contemplating writing a history of the
United States and was actually collect
ing materials.
Three volumes of that history were
published between 1884 and 1910. He
was appointed Secretary Of the Navy
in 1S45, but in the following year he
was transferred to England as am
bassa dor from the United States and
remained in that distinguished office
until 1S49, when he returned to New
York and began to prepare for the
press the fourth and fifth volumes of
his history, which appeared in 1852.
The sixth volume appeared in 1884. the
seventh in 1858, the eighth volume fol-
lowed soon after and the ninth volume
was given to the public in 1866.
In 1867 Mr.. Bancroft was appointed
minister from the United States to
Germany and held that post at the
court Of Berlin until 1874. In the lat
ter year the tenth and last volume of
his history was published. but an ad-
ditional section. which first appeared
as a separate work, was published in
1882. On returning from Germany in
1875 Mr.. Bancroft took up his home in
Washington and died here January Il,
1891, in his ninety-first year.
Mr.. Bancroft's gardener in Washing
ton was John Brady, Snd John is still
with US, known to every florist in
Washington and to thousands of other
citizens. Brady had some plant hot
houses at his own home. 915 25th
street, and "A great many rosebushes
which he raised here were from cuttings
from the Bancroft roses. Bancroft and
Brady were good friends as employer
and employe, and Mr.. Bancroft did his
gardener many kindnesses. In the
Bancroft garden was one rose which
attracted the particular attention of
Brady, and he and Mr.. Bancroft often
conferred about it. The gardener
thought he saw in it possibilities.
though the bush was not vigorous, and.
despite all effort, its health continued
to decline.
1t was quite we'll settled in the minds
of Mr.. Bancroft and his gardener that
this particular rose was La Madame
Ferdinande Jamin." French rose
which had been transplanted to Ger
many. and for considerable time was
cultivated there. 1t languishsd in
Germany, and a prominent rose grower
in Hamburg gave a bush to Mr.. Ban
croft, and that particular bush was
said to be the last specimen of la