Golden Gate District Fair Association. 245 



ANNUAL ADDKKSS 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE GOLDEN GATE DISTRICT AGRICULTURAL FAIR 



ASSOCIATION, AT THE PAVILION, ON THURSDAY EVENING, SEPTEiM- 



BER TWELFTH, EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-EIGHT. 



BY REVEREND DOCTOR EELLS, OF SAN FRANCISCO. 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : With no time for worthy 

 preparation, and almost nnder protest because of the injustice to you, 

 if not to myself, I have consented, since this exhibition commenced, 

 to take this place to-night, which we all hoped would have been filled 

 by one far more able to meet your wishes on an occasion of so much 

 interest. Had I been invited to deliver a religious or literary address, 

 pressed as I am by my other duties, I should certainly have declined, 

 but I confess that the urgent courtesy of your committee received 

 some emphasis from my willingness sometime to come before you in 

 some other relation than that of a clergyman, and no onjiortunity 

 could be more pleasant to me than is aflbrded by the platform from 

 W'hich I now speak. For the interest of this fair is not to be limited 

 to those who bring their various products for display and generous 

 comj)etition ; nor to those who are themselves engaged in those 

 employments which ma}' gain stimulus or profit from what they 

 here .see; nor to those who seek healthful recreation in the midst of 

 so much that must delight; nor to all those combined. All that large 

 number who liave both pleasure and pride in what our young State 

 has produced, who rejoice in such a prophesy of what may be pro- 

 duced in years to follow, who have an interest in everything mate- 

 rial, while them.selves directly concerned with interests no less real, 

 though not wrought out of the earth or furnished by the mechanic 

 arts, meet with their fellow-citizens on this common ground for 

 mutual congratulations. This beautiful and most creditable exhibi- 

 tion belongs to us all, and few of you will gain more from it than 

 will those of us whose wares and products are of such a nature that 

 Ave cannot bring them here in hope of prizes or diplomas. Among 

 the other reasons this is one why I have consented to speak to you, 

 and am thankful for the privilege of identifying myself with those 

 who desire to make California foremost in the grand procession of 

 the States, as they bring their varied resources to the treasury of the 

 Union they form. At the outset I feel constrained to congratulate 

 all who have conducted the an-angcmcnts for this introductory fair 

 upon the marked success that has rewarded their efforts, maniiest in 

 every department. If this is the beginning, what will be the dis- 

 plays that shall succeed? If this is the infant, what will be the 

 adult? For we know that the child is the father of the man. A 

 traveler was passing through a European monastery in which were 

 many relics tliat were shown to visitors. In one room, among other 

 things, was the skull evidently of a baby, and he asked whose skull 

 it was. The guide, to whom all was an old story, paying little atten- 

 tion, answered listlessly that it was that of Saint Patrick. The trav- 



