354 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



And little darling, 

 Mignonette and gratitude and 

 Polianthus and flowers that say, 

 Felt never man thus, 



A recitation by Miss Mary Birdseye was well received and ap- 

 plauded. 



REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON OBITUARY. 



Your committee on obituary have to report the loss of two promi- 

 nent valued members, who, during a long, continuous membership, rarely, 

 if ever, failed to respond to their society's annual roll call. Their accus- 

 tomed places are vacant in our meeting to-day. Maj. Z. S. Ragan, late 

 of Independence, and W. M. Hopkins, of Springfield, have died since our 

 last meeting. As the ready ripe grain falls before the inevitable reaper, 

 so these, our long-tried friends and brothers, after a long, successful life, 

 went down at the good, ripe age of seventy-one and seventy-two. 



Such were their virtues, so well done their life work, and so long 

 and so endearing their associations with us, that it is in our hearts to say 

 more than is admissible now. 



Maj. Ragan, the first called from us, was a model man in all his re- 

 lations and life-work with his fellow-men. A mere reference to the 

 noble deeds so beautifully done in all this good man's eventful life, would 

 fill a volume of faultless matter, echoing the fact that though he be dead 

 he still lives, and his works follow him. On the best page of every clean 

 heart in this society the name of Maj. Ragan will be cherished till its last 

 member goes out to meet him, when oui work, too, is done 



Maj. Ragan possessed the finer sensibilities in such large measure 

 as to develop in him the highest type of manhood, which evinces only 

 love for the good and the beautiful, eminently fitting him for the finer 

 and more delicate duties so often assigned him, and which no others 

 could do so well. 



Such men are a benediction to the world, making all men better 

 and happier with whom they come in association. 



