332 



Missouri Agricultural Report. 



fore them so they will take notice, that in the end everybody will 

 come to these advanced ideas of conditions of life and we will have 

 achieved a wonderful success in public service. 



Hon. Doc. Brydon. 



ADDRESS OF HON. DOC BRYDON. 



(Mr. Brydon is Editor of the Essex (Mo.) Leader and a Member of the Missouri 



Legislature.) 



It is rather unexpected to me that I should be called upon to 



take part in this program so quickly after I 

 arrived in the hall. I had hardly gotten in- 

 to the spirit of the meeting. I received 

 some days ago an invitation from the As- 

 sistant Se(3retary of the Board of Agricul- 

 ture to appear before this conference and 

 discuss some of the relationships of the coun- 

 try newspaper with the farming interests of 

 the State of Missouri. I accepted that invi- 

 tation, but since that time have been very 

 busy with the duties devolving upon me as 

 a legislator, and I have not had an oppor- 

 tunity to prepare a set speech for this oc- 

 casion. 



As I understand, and understood from the letter, it is only ex- 

 temporaneous talks that are desired, and I want to say to you in the 

 beginning that you are not going to be burdened for any great 

 length of time by the things I am going to say. In fact, my fellow 

 citizens, I feel this afternoon as did the young minister who was 

 traveling in a strange country and stopped over Sunday in a hos- 

 pitable home — except that I am not a young minister and neither 

 am I entirely among strangers. They learned that he was a min- 

 ister and invited him to go to church and preach to them. He ac- 

 cepted the invitation, and Sunday morning at 11 o'clock he preached 

 as best he could. After the sermon was finished the people 

 lingered about the hoyse, as hospitable country people do, shaking 

 hands with one another and commenting upon the sermon. Finally 

 somebody approached an old grandmother in the congregation and 

 asked, "Grandmother, how did you like the sermon this morning?" 

 And the old lady said, "There were just three things about it I 

 liked fine. In the first place, it was short ; I liked that part splen- 

 didly. They didn't take up any collection in. the second place; \ 



