242 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc' 



The captain said, "All right, you shall see it; and the day Ave cross 

 it, I will take you out on the deck and adjust the telescope and 

 you can take a look at the equatpr." And in a day or two, he said, 

 "Come out on the deck and I will show you the e(iuator" and he ad- 

 justed the telescope for her to look through and pulled a hair out of 

 her head and stretched it across in front of the telescope and said, 

 "Do you see that line in front of you?" "Yes, I can see that plainly." 

 And the captain said, "That's tlie equator" and the old lady said, "I 

 see it plainly, and I see a camel crossing at this time." So I want to 

 tell you, my dear friends, that the man who starts out — I wrote an 

 article for the platform of Chautauqua not long ago and in that 

 article I made the statement that the man who steps on a Chautauqua 

 platform — I know they have been saving us poor country people for 

 years and years and years, but the man who steps on a platform 

 to tell the people how to build a community, I want to tell you, if I 

 am in the audience, I am going to ask him what he has done to 

 build any community in this country. I want to look at it; I v/ant 

 to see it and I want to see it with my eyes. 



Eight on my own farm where Mr. Eighty was the other day, you 

 can talk about looking at alfalfa all you want to, how it will look 

 and all that, but I like to go out and see it with ni}^ eye; I like to 

 see it being cut with the scythe on the 1st of May and put on the 

 wagon and hauled into the bam and see the pigs and the bull and 

 the cattle eat it. I like to look at it; I like to see it with my eye. 

 That is the part that cuts the ice; and I have seen it time and again, 

 and you know what I would do if I had the power? I would go to 

 Harrisburg and go before the legislature and I would say, "Gentle- 

 men, I want so much money to pay the taxes on some farm in the 

 centre of every county; we will ])ay the taxes on that farm and give 

 it to any young man or any old man that will come out on it, give 

 it to him for nothing and all we ask him is to take the farm and 

 say 'Here, come and look at it and I will show you how to do it.' " 

 I v.'ant to see things and I want to look at it, and that's where the 

 particular part of it comes in. 



It is nearly four o'clock and I didn't intend to make a speech, and 

 haven't made a speech ; I have simply talked to you, but I want to 

 tell you, my dear friends, that as 1 travel from one end of this 

 country to the other, my heart is getting into this work more 

 and more every year, and getting into the }>i actical part of it, and as 

 I travel over the country I see wherein we can make the communi- 

 ties better if we unite and go hand in hand and shoulder to shoulder. 

 We can make this country better every year, by building and making 

 the communities better. 



