2 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



directed by the citizens of Normal to welcome you to our town on this 

 occasion. This we gladly do, for we have known you well in times past ; 

 many of your prominent members have lived in this community ; some 

 are with us yet; some have moved away from us, and some have gone 

 from us on that journey from which there is no return. We have known 

 these men as intelligent, upright, public-spirited citizens ; and for this 

 reason we are glad to welcome the body of which they were or are 

 members. 



I can well remember when only rank grass and prairie flowers covered 

 the surface now occupied by our pleasant village. The change in its 

 appearance we recognize as due largely to the work of some of your 

 members, and to the influence of your Society. For this reason, also, 

 we welcome you to our town and to our homes. 



In the name of the State Board of Education I welcome you to this 

 building. We desire you should feel perfectly at home here ; that you 

 should use its halls for your purposes ; that you should freely visit its 

 recitation rooms and its laboratories at any and all times when you may 

 choose. 



We feel that your work and ours are not very far apart. We are 

 striving to elevate the people of this great commonwealth, intellectually 

 and morally; you are striving to benefit them by increasing their physical 

 comfort and by ministering to their love of the beautiful. In all my 

 acquaintance with the affairs of this institution I have never known a 

 member of this Society who was an enemy of the Normal University. 

 There may have been such a case; but, if so, it has not come to my 

 knowledge. 



I desire to add my personal welcome. I remember attending one of 

 the meetings of your Society when I first came into this community. If 

 I mistake not, it was twenty-one years ago this month; the meeting was 

 held in the old "College Hall," in Bloomington. I was then much 

 pleased with your work, and interested in it, and some of the members 

 I there met for the first time I was afterward privileged to call my 

 friends. 



It is not necessary for me to prolong these remarks. Your time is 

 precious, and I have claimed quite enough of it. In conclusion, I desire 

 again, in the name of the people of Normal, of the Board of Education, 

 and for myself, for I would not be excluded, to welcome you heartily to 

 this place and this people. 



