Vermoi^t Datrtmen's Association'. 55 



sharpened our wits accordingly for we were pretty sure Ave had 

 a Yankee to deal with, and from his general appearance we reck- 

 oned he was a Vermonter. Ah, well, there is always hope for one 

 who knows enough to know that he don't know much, and I 

 hope I have arrived at that place. It matters not whether the 

 men of a state be tall or short, lean or fat, smooth-shaven or be- 

 whiskered, buckskin swathed or broadcloth clad,, whether they 

 speak in the reputed nasal twang of the Yankee or the much 

 quoted, soft, southern drawl, "A man's a man for a' that and a' 

 that." In every age of the world there has been a demand for 

 real men, and in our modern times the demand has increased 

 rather than diminished. 



I thank you for the privilege of standing tonight in the 

 land of intelligent, educated American men and women, this 

 land of Morgan horses and thorough-bred sheep and cattle, of 

 marble and of slate, of milk and sugar, where the song of the 

 p'lOw has ever risen superior to all other industrial music and of 

 speaking to an audience comprised of the descendants of Ethan 

 and Ira Allen, Jonas Fay. Thomas Chittenden, vSeth Warner and 

 John Stark and in the home of Justin Morrill, Redfield Proctor, 

 George Dewey and Charles E. Clark. 



Sometime ago I received a letter from Secretary Davis in 

 wh'ch that deluded man gave himself away in the very first 

 sen:ence : "You are a lucky man," he wrote, "you are to address 

 the Ladies' Auxiliary." There comes a time in the life of every 

 tru; man when he must prepare an address to the ladies, or, to 

 a lady, rather, and on this momentous occasion he is prone to 

 rack his brain for language logical, convincing and entrancingly 

 beautiful. 



When I received Brother Davis' letter I did not feel half 

 so .£;ood about it as he did. True, he had no means of knowing 

 thai fate had twice required of me that I search mv brain for 

 language logical, convincing, and entrancingly beautiful, and that 

 the double efifort had somewhat exhausted my vocabulary of 

 pretty talk, else he would have given me an easier one. You will 

 therefore excuse me on the ground of incompetency if a con- 

 tinua' string of beautiful pearls of thought do not drop from mv 

 lips xnd if I confine myself more to the homelier things of life 

 for ir is of life that I will speak. 



\ convention of dairymen is necessarily a convention of 

 rura' dwellers. As such, every man and every woman is inter- 

 estec in country life, whether it comes to them laden with the 

 sacred memories of a happy past, abides with them in the 

 strenuous, golden present, or stirs the blood while planning for 

 thenselves and the loved one who are to come after them a future 

 of ^eace, plenty and prosperity. In all the walks of life there 



