76 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



in teaching it to do so. What should you think of those parents if they, not 

 knowing the full pleasure of that faculty should take no interest in its 

 development in their child? Would you not be indignant if they not only 

 neglected doing this, but even threw obstacles in the way of its development? 

 And yet in your own town, possibly in your own household, are children grow- 

 ing up in whom all appreciation of the beautiful lies dormant and undeveloped, 

 and the parents not only do nothing for its development, but oppose every 

 attempt to do so on the part of others, and say that no part of the public 

 money can or shall be used in trying to teach the children to love the beauty 

 that is spread out before them. You say all children have not this faculty. 

 If you could have seen my boy rush across the garden crushing the flowers I 

 had tended so carefully, you could but admit that he at least was destitute of it. 

 Perhaps so, but do you remember when that boy was in your arms how he 

 reached out his tiny hands with a cry of delight for the pretty ribbon at your 

 throat? He was met with, "Tut! tut! mustn't touch ! " Do you remember 

 that summer evening, when for the first time he was put upon the lawn, how 

 he crept to that same bed of flowers and cried in his eagerness to get them? 

 Wasn't he snatched up with, "Johnnie musn't? " Do you remember a little 

 later how, when he came rushing in with muddy feet and torn jacket crying, 

 "Oh, mother! see what splendid flowers I've got!" was he not met, "Oh, 

 Johnnie ! just see how you have tracked all over the carpet, and how you 

 look!' ; A sad, sad thing that the beautiful carpet should be soiled, but a 

 little thing that the child's appreciation and dawning love of the delicate 

 beauty of the Anemone or the Hepatica, which he held in his hand, should be 

 crushed out. Is it not possible that his inborn truthfulness prevented him from 

 understanding why the gorgeous flowers of the carpet should be so carefully 

 guarded while the far more brilliant and delicate ones he held should be so 

 lightly prized, and with the natural tendency to undervalue that which he 

 could not understand, a contempt instead of a love for the beautiful in all 

 things should be planted, which has gone on developing until now? 



I am by no means a childless bachelor, and 1 know that baby fingers would 

 soon spoil the pretty ribbon, but I claim that the very eagerness children 

 always display for such things shows that they are born with a natural love and 

 appreciation for the beautiful. They must be if made in God's image, and I 

 believe that although it does cost us something of trouble yet, still, we are in 

 duty bound to try to develop this good element in their nature as well as any 

 other. And I think that there never has been a subject discussed in our Soci- 

 ety of more importance to the future welfare of our State than just this one of 

 ornamenting our country school houses, and I hope the Society will not drop 

 it until every school yard in all our fair State is a thing of beauty, a joy and 

 pride, not only to the children but to all in the district. 



Following Mr. Tracy, Mr. Haigh and President Lyon warmly endorsed the 

 sentiment of the address. 



Mrs. Mayo spoke on behalf of farmers' wives, she believing that they should 

 take time each day from their duties and devote it to educating their children 

 and to making their homes pleasant. 



Senator T. W. Palmer, of Detroit, was called on, and made a few felicitous 

 remarks, stating that he could concur with Mr. Tracy on his views of the 

 aesthetics of life. The speaker said much has been said about European refine- 

 ment and culture, but he thought that America was favored above other coun- 

 tries in that respect, yet he would heartily concur in any scheme for the 

 advancement of sesthetical culture in the homes and elsewhere. 



