172 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



OPENING ADDRESS. 



Delivered by Hon. John P. Irish, at the Pavilion, on Thursday evening, September 10, 1885 



Note. — President Carr called the assemblage to order, and stated that it 

 was customary for the President to deliver the opening address of welcome, 

 but owing to an impediment in his speech he had called to his aid an orator 

 whom all would be pleased to hear. He then introduced the Hon. John 

 P. Irish of San Francisco. Mr. Irish said: 



I am bidden by the President of this association to declare the formal 

 opening of this annual exhibition, and to utter the Directors' word of wel- 

 come to the thousands who are here, and the thousands who are to come. 



I am ordered by the President, as you will be appalled to know, to say 

 some things that are not true, for he bids me say that the Presidency could 

 have been conferred upon one worthier to exercise that authority which is 

 created by the law. I refuse, for I know none worthier than he who wrought 

 in that war that was concurrent with the conquest of this soil, and preceded 

 the treaty which gave us title, and since then has witnessed and promoted 

 the beginnings of those varied industries which ripen to-night in the enchant- 

 ing results which surround us. 



Saying so much, and refusing to say so much under orders, let me speak 

 now for myself of the charming impressions made by this opening day of 

 your annual Fair. To this Pavilion architecture has lent all the charms 

 that are its own, and it is filled with the testimony of the physical versa- 

 tility of California soil and climate. This land of corn and wine is here 

 with all its beauties and blandishments, and our State, mindful of the 

 sources of prosperity, stands alone in the Union in the spaciousness and 

 convenience of this building that shelters the gathered results of her peo- 

 ple's energies, offered here for the prize of first excellence. It is well for a 

 commonwealth, which is so attentive to the source of all prosperity, to the 

 fountains of all comfort and wealth and refinement, 



We can imagine a time in which men so bow to the laws of life as that 

 the physician will not be called upon to heal, for there will be no sick. We 

 fancy a period in which men are so regardful of the rights of life and lib- 

 erty and property that the lawyer will be without a brief; and there may 

 come a time of such universal subjection to the moral law that the neces- 

 sity which lies behind the pulpit will have vanished, and the lesson of 

 peace on earth and good will to men will have been so well learned that 

 teachers are needed no more. But we cannot imagine a time in which the 

 fruits of the earth and the results of productive industry will not be required 

 by men. Inasmuch as in some form the tilling of the soil and converting 

 its products to the use of man was the earliest occupation of the race, before 

 laws and letters were, and before religions were crystallized into creeds, so 

 man's dependence upon the soil and cunning ways to force its yield of food 

 and raiment will be the last cares that engross his attention and enlist his 

 ingenuity. 



Coming from the midst of those great mediterranean States which I saw 

 grow from thousands to millions of population, in the icy teeth of Arctic 

 Winters and in the sweaty face of torrid Summers, I am inexpressibly im- 



