STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 199 



OPENING ADDRESS 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY AT SACRA- 

 MENTO, CALIFORNIA, ON THURSDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 7, 1888. 



By Hon. Geo. A. Knight, of San Francisco. 



Mr. President, Ladies, and Gentlemen: I hardly know why the honor 

 has been conferred upon me to deliver the opening address of the State 

 Fair in Sacramento. Possibly they have used the same rule lawyers do in 

 obtaining their jury. When we find a man whose mind is a perfect blank 

 upon the issues and subject of the case that is about to be submitted to him, 

 we say that man is a pretty fair juror; he knows nothing about the case, 

 and we think he will take in by absorption, if nothing else, enough to make 

 him arrive at a just and a fair conclusion. In this instance, and with these 

 surroundings, it seems to me that that is the reason I have had the honor 

 extended to me this evening of being requested to deliver the opening ad- 

 dress at this annual fair of the State of California. In looking around this 

 room it seems to me now, at the present moment, to be more of an honor 

 than I had anticipated. Here in Sacramento, the first city of this Golden 

 State, a city that has done more towards the civilization of this State than 

 any city in it; built by the pioneers and made by them a stepping stone 

 for our State's proud position; being the sunrise of intellectual and invent- 

 ive progress that has always characterized our State; it is fit and proper 

 that this place should be designated the capital of the State for the holding 

 of the State Fair. 



Have you a,ny idea — of course you have — what a wonderful people we 

 are getting to be? Stop for a moment and know what a wonderful country 

 these United States of America have grown to be, and California a part 

 and parcel of it. The principles that underlie, control, and sustain our 

 national life are to be tested in the coming years of the future. In our 

 present we have much to be thankful for. Sixty million happy, free, and in- 

 telligent people, living within the confines of the most wonderful country 

 in the world, speak to the nations of the earth in language that cannot be 

 misunderstood of the success of a government founded by the people, of the 

 people, and for the people, and one that shall never perish from the earth. 

 When we undertake to comprehend the wonderful advancement made by 

 this nation, yet in the swaddling clothes of experiment, it seems like a fairy 

 dream. One hundred years of a nation is in the ratio of primary school 

 time to the child; and yet we are to-day, in art, science, resources, and in- 

 vention, the leading spirits of the age. The raw material is everywhere 

 present, waiting for science and labor to present new industries and greater 

 demands for our common country. The workshop of industry is open early 

 and late, and the sparks from the anvil of time lightens up the future of 

 reward for the patient Vulcan employed for the interests of our common- 

 wealth. The iron mines of our country, that for a long time lay carelessly 

 indifferent to affording one pound of their priceless treasure, have been 

 opened to equip the steamers of commerce, furnish the busy mill of the 



