FIGHTING THE INSECTS 



chard of Paris responded on behalf of the delegates. Blanchard 

 was especially eloquent, but he used the French language (he 

 knew a little English at that time but did not trust himself). 

 In the course of this delightful talk he complimented Secretary 

 Wilson highly and spoke especially of the very liberal policy 

 of the United States Department of Agriculture in sending out 

 its valuable scientific publications to all the countries of the world. 

 These remarks were delivered so impressively and so beautifully 

 that they were followed by vigorous applause, in which Secre- 

 tary Wilson joined heartily. ' 

 A day or so afterwards I called at Secretary Wilson's office '^ 

 on a matter of business, and he said to me, "Doctor, that French 

 professor was a real orator, wasn't he? I was greatly taken by 

 his eloquence, although I couldn't understand a word he said. 

 But I was carried away and applauded with the rest, and then 

 it dawned upon me that he must have been saying very nice 

 things about me, and that I had hardly done the right thing 

 in applauding. It reminded me of Blind Tom, the wonderful 

 negro pianist, who, at a concert, always applauded himself 

 vigorously." 



I think it was in that same year, 1907, that an International 

 Congress of Agriculture was held in Vienna. I had been out 

 in Russia and had come back from the Crimea by a Black 

 Sea boat to Constantinople, and thence up to Budapest, where 

 I left my courier and friend, Pichler, of the Hotel Hungaria, 

 and then came on to Vienna and the Congress. I went to the 

 Hotel Bristol and found my old guide, the then well-known 

 courier, Carl Binder, who arranged matters for me with the 

 local committee of the Congress. Of all the functions of the 

 sort that I have ever attended, this one was possibly the most 

 perfect. The local committee in charge of the arrangements 



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