REPLY OF VICE-PRESIDENT. 21 



Vice-President E. G. Seeley. Your Honor, the Mayor of 

 Willimantic, and ladies and gentlemen : I was informed after 

 coming into this room that the Governor was not to be here. 

 That was the first intimation I had of it, and that, consequently, 

 this response devolved upon the Vice-President. Well, I said, 

 give me a chance to get out into the open air, and I walked 

 down the street a little way thinking what I would say and 

 what I would do, and do you know what came into my mind 

 as I passed down the street? I remembered about that grand 

 old patriot, Cincinnatus, who was called from the plow to 

 arms. I remembered, when reading and studying about him in 

 history when a boy, my father said to me, if ever you are 

 placed where you cannot help it, and a responsibility rests 

 upon you, do the best you can. Do not make unnecessary ex- 

 cuses or back out under those circumstances. So, following 

 that instruction which has remained with me all these years, 

 I will endeavor to say a few words in response to the very 

 hearty welcome extended to us by the Mayor. Perhaps it is 

 only proper, to commence with, that I should say that we come 

 here not as a band of robbers ; not as a band of impostors, 

 for we do not come here in any such guise. We practice no 

 jugglery and none of the fine arts. We are a kind of insur- 

 ance company, but it is not exactly the kind of insurance that 

 some companies have been carrying on, because we pay our 

 premiums and we take none ourselves. We have not even 

 a place to lay our heads if we depended upon the State Board 

 of Agriculture, because we get nothing. We have no graft 

 in any shape. We are simply men of the soil and men of toil. 

 We have come among you and we are glad to have this 

 hearty welcome and see so many faces here at the opening of 

 our meetings. We are very glad to come among you and 

 feel something of the warmth and kindly greeting extended 

 by your Mayor. 



Let me say to you what perhaps many of you have noticed, 

 ,that the year book of the agricultural department, as issued 



