94 Transactions of the 



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the wliole State depends upon tliose who cultivate the soil. Having 

 madl^ these few remarks, 1 be^ now to introduce to you the President 

 of the State Agricultural Societj^ Mr. Boruck, who will deliver the 

 annual address. 



ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT M. D. BORUCK. 



Mr. Boruck, on being introduced, delivered the following address: 



Ladies and Gentlemen : It is an old saying, and tr^e as it is 

 trite, that the world moves. If we do not move with it, the fault 

 does not lie with the world, nor with its Maker, but in our own con- 

 trariness. Either we remain heavily passive and sutler it to slip by, 

 or we offer a savage resistance to natural progress, and go, crab-like, 

 backward. Tlie Tartar is a specimen of the unimproved, the Mex- 

 ican is an example of the retrograde. The civilization of the present 

 Great Khan of Tartary is i)recise]y that of Timour, who lived, I for- 

 get how many hundred years ago. The civilization of the Mexican 

 is a lower degree than it was in the days of the Aztec. The Emi)eror 

 of China, who is of the Tartar dynasty, wears to-day the same sharp- 

 toed, thick-soled shoe, and ornamental glass balls as insignia of rank 

 thathe didin the time of Confucius; wliile the wattled huts of Tabasco 

 are simply barbaric cages compared with the majestic ruins of old 

 Tehuantepec. Having arrived at a certain eminence, the Tartar 

 builded himself a resting-place, unmindful of what lay beyond the 

 further and loftier hills, careless of discovering if the country there 

 was fairer and richer tlian that he lived in. Having arrived at a 

 certain eminence, the Mexican found up-hill walking inconvenient, 

 and quietly turning his ])ack on the towers his ancestors had built 

 heavenward, lazily strolled down the hill to sleep and moon away 

 the years in the glowing valley. 



I have introduced these two characters, not because they are the 

 sole available ones, but because, from our familiarity with them, they 

 do the more plainly embody the truth of the ])ropositioii advanced. 

 Yes, the world moves, and, thank God, we move with it. Aye, more 

 than that — it is not a willing and eager following o^" apostles that we 

 indulge in. We congratulate ourselves on being in the van, and that 

 in the ennobling game of follow the leader, the crowd of earnest 

 pushing ones is not going before but coming after us. To put our 

 feet in the ])rint of those who have gone before is good; to keep 

 abreast of the racers is better; but to lead the world is the noblest 

 lot that ever fell to man or nation. It is to reach the last rung in 

 the ladder of ambition, to fill the highest niche in the Temple of 

 Fame! 



And who is there shall say we — I mean Americans — are not in the 

 van? Young as is this country, compared with those of Euroi)e, she 

 can furnisli a list of names ])orne by the great ones of earth as long 

 and bright as the catalogue of the stars. Without rustling the pages 

 of a biographical dictionary, let me mention, in art: Benjamin 

 West, who gave to his pictured faces everything short of actual 

 vitality; Randolph Rogers, under whose cliisel new Galateas have 

 been born; Albert Bierstadt, who has caught the spirit of American 

 scenery and chained it to his palette; W. J. Hamilton, the American 

 Turner; Tliomas Nast, the American Hogarth; and Toby Rosenthal, 

 in whom we have nearer interest tlian in the others, because he is 



