? 



1884.] THINGS WHICH SEEM WOETHLESS. 81 



EVENING SESSION. 



The meeting re-assembled at seven o'clock. Mr. Barstow 

 presided, and introduced as the lecturer, Mr. J. M. Hubbard. 



"CONCERNING THINGS WHICH SEEM WORTHLESS." 



By J. M. Hubbard. 



The ideal utterance upon an occasion of this kind should be 

 practical and instructive. Some one who has the ability and 

 the opportunity to master in whole or in part some subject of 

 interest to us, and who has made good use of both, should tell us 

 what he has found out, and how the knowledge he has acquired 

 may be of use to us. It is because I am not able to do this tliat I 

 come before you with some embarrassment. But I take refuge in 

 the thought that suggestion as well as instruction has a value, and 

 the man responsible for my appearance before you at this time and 

 with this theme i^new that it would be all that I could offer. If, 

 therefore, you fail to receive benefit from what I shall have to say, 

 the responsibility for your disappointment must be partly his. 



The subject which I bring to your attention "upon this occasion 

 has none of the attractions of novelty. Whatever of interest it 

 excites, or benefit it brings, must be drawn from other soui'ces. 



With worthless things, or things which seem worthless, we are 

 all familiar, and there come to most of us times and seasons when 

 they seem far too familiar with us. There isn't any strife for their 

 possession, nor contest over their ownership. Like the poor, we 

 have them always with us. Indeed, it seems sometimes as if we 

 were shut in, imprisoned almost, by them; as if they limited 

 sharply our achievements and acquisitions and formed an unwel- 

 come escort, attending us everywhere, and by their constant 

 presence keeping away the things of worth which are .the objects 

 of our ardent desires. The farmer may think — I know of one 

 farmer who has sometimes so thought — that he has more than his 

 share of this most unwelcome escort. The farms are few, if, 

 indeed, there are any, which do not contain plats of worthless land. 

 The sandy plain, the rocky ledge, or the saturated bog — how often 

 the farmer thinks, if I could but sink out of sight that worthless 

 tract, how gladly I would do it. And if he turn for consolation to 

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