Addresses — Local Societies. 259' 



•a word of friendly counsel, and the impetus of sympathetic interest. 

 Let us then see if we cannot help others in this matter. What 

 will cost a little money, a few kind words, some practical advice, 

 may brighten many lives. Let the spirit of the sweet flower chari- 

 ties of the city extend into the county, and bring to the strong 

 and well a new and delightful pleasure as well as to the sick and 

 suffering. In helping others, we aid ourselves, and add usefulness 

 and happiness to our own lives. 



HOW TO MAINTAIN INTEREST IN LOCAL SOCIETIES. 

 WERDEN REYNOLDS, Green Bay. 



"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy; g 

 All play and no work mates him a mere toy." 



Corollary — Duly intermingle work and play and make a sprightly 

 sensible young man out of Jack. 



You may have heard the rhyme before. Perhaps Adam's boy 

 did. On this point the Bible is silent; nor have I been able to find 

 in history, sacred or profane, account of its origin or its author. 

 But the memory of man runneth not back to the time when it was 

 said or sung, and I am constrained to believe that it sprang up 

 spontaneously from the experiences of much vexed mothers, as 

 weeds spring up spontaneously from the harrowed bosom of mother 

 earth. I accept, therefore, the authorless rhyme as a compendium 

 of fact and an aphorism of philosophy, and rank it first among 

 apothegms for universality of the fact and comprehensiveness of 

 the philosophy. Fact done and demonstrated by a measureless 

 majority of the male babies borne of Adam's race — philosophy 

 rooted and grounded in the fundamental elements of living nature. 



I propose to recognize the doctrine of this trite aphorism, in both 

 its branches, in a brief discussion of the question, "How can in- 

 terest be sustained in the meetings of country agricultural and 

 horticultural societies?" 



First the fact. I do not go back through the ages, nor pry into 

 archives of any nation past or present, to gather notable examples 

 and collate illustrations, but content myself with a single case — 

 the only one in which we are at all particularly interested — and 



