284 ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



until the county superintendent came in, and at that time I had forty- 

 four scholars ranging from sixteen to twenty years of age, and they 

 all had been well instructed; their school laws are better than ours. 

 The superintendent was a highly educated man; he asked no ques- 

 tions but made his observations and stayed a couple of hours and 

 went out and told the supervisors in that district that the school 

 was the best school in that county outside of the village of Owego. 



Now that is just the case with the institute workers and the 

 farmers of Pennsylvania. 



I wish to divert your attention from the State Board subject. I 

 wish to call your attention to the question of having men go out 

 as instructors in whom the people have confidence to believe they 

 can instruct them. In my judgment that is important, if we are 

 to obtain the results desired. 



Now, gentlemen, the attainment of success in the institute work 

 is not a question of the dollars and cents paid for a hall, or for a 

 band of music, but it is a question of the quality of your teachers, 

 and a question of the impressions which they leave and of the im- 

 portance of their instruction. 



I drew the line eight years ago — I have been in this work for some 

 fifteen years, and I drew the line — I would not go into a cold room 

 under any circumstances. I have lain within three feet of a hot 

 fire in a bar-room to avoid a cold room, for as I said, I wijl not go 

 into a cold room, and I can stand thirty degrees below zero because 

 I dress accordingly, but when ten o'clock at night comes, and the 

 speakers have passed through their meetings of the day in a strong 

 effort to leave an impression that is of value to the farmers, and 

 then when they go to their stopping-place to remain over night, 

 you can judge about the condition they are in. Give us a warm 

 room, a warm hand and a warm heart and we will do our best in 

 whatever work we have to do. 



We have got to inform ourselves during the season, and be pre- 

 pared for it. You are all wide-awake and the men who come to 

 you as instructors must be wide-awake. 



Now, gentlemen, from the incipiency of this enterprise there has 

 been great progress made. I can recall when I have been driven 

 away from a church door in places where institutes were appointed 

 to be held just because of the prejudice of the people in that lo- 

 cality; they thought we were a humbug. Those prejudices have 

 been dissipated by the force of the arguments presented, and the im- 

 portance of the facts brought home to the farmers, showing the 

 conditions which must be met. They have been impressed by the 

 truth as it has been presented, so that now they value very highly 

 the work that is being done for them along this line, so that now 

 where appointments are made all over the State, they are anxious 

 to receive us. I think my five minutes are up. 



MR. RODGEES: Mr. Chairman, I move that the order of the day 

 be taken up at 10.,30. 



The motion having been duly seconded and the question put, it 

 was agreed to. 



MR. McHENRY: Mr. Chairman, I have listened to these remarks 

 here and I was very much pleased with some of them, and I want 

 to give just a few words of my experience. I have found when I 



