RESPONSE. 41 



sions are not largely attended, it undoubtedly will be because the farmers 

 are very busy at this season of the year. But I assure you that the 

 people of Wyraore are with you so far as their hearts are concerned, and 

 we hope you will have a very successful session. [Applause.] 



RESPONSE. 



PRESIDENT HARRISON. 



This incident reminds me of a country church where they had pur- 

 chased an organ set to play forty tunes without stopping. There was 

 no one who knew how to regulate it or to stop it after it had once 

 started. So upon this Sunday, after it had been started and they could 

 not stop it, the minister appointed a committee to set it out upon the 

 lawn. I thought our speaker here would not be troubled that way. We 

 would have liked to have had him go along and give us two or three 

 tunes at least. 



Now, I w^ould say that your beautiful city has quite a reputation on 

 account of its parks. The park system is immensely important in con- 

 nection with a village, hamlet or city. It is a new idea comparatively, 

 ft was only a few years ago that a city with parks was hardly thought 

 of. Chicago was parkless for a long time. Central Park, New York, they 

 have been adding to it for some time. Boston has a system of parks 

 and a most magnificent one of 150 acres. Then there is another large 

 park connected with this by a splendid boulevard. That contains nearly 

 a western section of land. Then there other parks in connection 

 with that. The idea of bringing the country right into the heart of the 

 city and giving the people a chance to rest is one of the great things 

 of the present century. 



In Boston T have watched the poor women coming into the park with 

 that tired look with sickly looking children. Only five cents brings them 

 to the gate of a most magnificent park, and they go and sit there and 

 rest. What is wanted for this seething population of overworked men 

 and women is rest. Sometimes they do not overwork — they don't exactly 

 dodee it, but there are those who do work and they worry. Once in 

 a while a man thinks he doesn't have to work, and he lives by his wits 

 and his capital. But those who work so as to be tired out need a good 

 fomfortable seat in the park to rest, and a seat in a beautiful home. 

 We did not think much of this when we were plowing up Nebraska 

 prairies and making tremendous efforts simply to pay for the farm. 



But those frontier days are past. We are entering upon a new de- 

 velopment altogether. Years ago men came to this great country plod- 

 ding along with an ox team at the rate of thirty miles a day. Now 

 you go around the country like a king iu a steam car at the rate of 

 irom thirty to fifty miles an hour. Fifty years ago I commenced work 

 way up in Minnesota. They sent me up there — I used to be a minister: 

 you wotjld hardly believe it, perhaps, but it is a fact — and I used to 

 rough it. and T broke my arm in iireparlng trees to build a log house. 



