APPENDIX. xxxix 



the drive or ride to the man of business ; and it is to be hoped that 

 rightly conducted it may subserve the same end, — recreation, — and 

 perchance lead to more profitable observances. Even among our 

 more rural populations, we find it necessary to defer to the major- 

 ities, and provide a fair fund for premiums for speed ; and though it 

 is often said with sombre shakes of the head, that farm work don't 

 need speed, but only strength in horses, and that " Eclipse " would 

 have cut but a sorry figure in a hay wagon, or before a plough, yet 

 the young farmer will tell you that his rights are as much to be 

 respected as his dad's, after he is old enough to take charge of the 

 work, and he needs a quick team before the wagons and mowing 

 machines, and a much quicker one when he goes courting Sunday 

 nights, or attends the farmer's festivals, and other frolics in the 

 winter, or the summer picnics, or even when going to and from 

 town in the course of business. 



So that weighing the whole matter, while it is wisest and best to 

 get along without the trotting of horses for speed on our agricult- 

 ural grounds, it cannot be deemed injudicious or straying out of the 

 proper precincts to indulge the taste of the crowd to a moderate 

 extent, when the circumstances of the society seem to demand it. 



But to return to Taunton. 



From what remained in the hall it was apparent the show there 

 had been extraordinarily fine, and the plan of each exhibitor having 

 allotted to him ample space for his products, naturally made him 

 desirous to fill it worthily, and the machine work of the president 

 of the society was happily set off by the specimens from his con- 

 servatories. 



Britannia and silver-plated goods from the manufactory of Reed 

 & Barton, vied in brilliancy with the contributions of other man- 

 ufacturers and merchants, who, as well as the ladies, were liberal 

 in the display of their wares, — sewing-machines and organs, dry 

 goods and ready-made clothing, contrasting with affghans, quilts, 

 rugs, carpets, mats, patent anchors, carriages, and nearly all the 

 goods we might wish our tutelary gods to provide us with on our 

 passage through this mundane sphere, whether in double or single 

 harness. 



Distance lends its enchantment in the superb Zanzibar articles 

 collected and exhibited by Mr. Morse, consisting of a variety of 

 implements of war, ornaments and articles of vertu peculiar to some 

 of the African tribes. But works of art — videlicet, pictures — were 

 few and far between, though we noticed one or two oil paintings, 

 some very good water-colors of vessels, and mechanical drawings, 

 showing that the talent is in the society if properly fostered, as it 



