FORTY-SECOND ANNUAL REPORT. 99 



we need and more of the good things of life and at a cost so low as 

 compared with what those in the city have to pay for them, as to be 

 almost nothing. 



"The City Garden" was the topic of a toast responded to by Mr. R. 

 M. Smythe. 



Mr. Smythe — I am very sure that Mr. Garfield must have known that 

 there was a sentimental strain in my make-np. I am a lover of flowers, 

 and think they add more than anything else in the beantifying of a 

 city. One of the most striking illustrations of this is the city of Hart- 

 ford — there was a piece of land lying along the main street, very un- 

 desirable looking, but the property was bought by a gentleman who 

 named it after his mother and set aside a certain amount for beautify- 

 ing it, and now that is the most attractive spot in the place. Parks 

 and flowers are what make the cities beautiful. There is an uplifting 

 influence about flowers. You never see criminals lying around in flower 

 gardens, and suicides are never there. The flower garden is one of the 

 greatest educational factors in the life of a child. My little boy is 

 only eight years old, yet he knows the names of all the common varie- 

 ties of wild flowers, and I am spending more or less time teaching him 

 the names of birds and trees and flowers and insects — it is giving him 

 a wonderful fund of knowledge — something that will last him through 

 his entire life. 



"The Feminine in History" was responded to by Mr. R. G. Phillips, 

 who said : 



Mr. Toastmaster, Ladies and Gentlemen : Kipling says that when a 

 man performs good works out of proportion, in seven cases out of ten, 

 a woman is back of the virtue, and Kipling is right. Ever since the 

 Garden of Eden, she has had it over man like a tent, and she is really 

 at the foundation of all the wonderful progress of the age in which we 

 live. Ever since then men have been working night and day, week- 

 days and Sundays, to supply her with Avhat she wants, and replace 

 that which she uses. All of you remember the story of how Adam 

 was found mourning one day just before lunch over the loss of that 

 new green Sunday suit of his, and he said to Eve, "Where is my new 

 suit?" "Where did you leave it?" Eve replied, "Oh, those lettuce 

 leaves? I used them for the sandwiches." (Laughter.) Well, Adam 

 had to get right busy and get a new suit, and he has been busy ever 

 since. So, in the last analysis, it is woman that makes the world 

 go round. She builds our factories, tunnels the rivers, plants our 

 orchard and paints the red on her own cheeks as well as on the cheek 

 of the apple, and whatever she tells you to do, you will do, because mere 

 man is as nothing in her hand. She trims him, sprays him, cultivates 

 and reclaims him : top- works a Ben Davis into a Northern Spy, keeps 

 the fungus from his brain and develops the finest cultures in the garden 

 of good works. During the day you men among men, go around like 

 a roaring lion, seeking whom yon may devour, but in the home circle, 

 you become Mary's little lamb, so tame that you will eat out of her 

 hand, and so amenable to discipline that you will sleep in the woodshed 

 if she says so. 



