390 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



a half dozen children. So we have consolidated our schools, the 

 city furnishes teams, the children are brought to school and taken 

 home again, we have got better teachers and each teacher has schol- 

 ars enough, and the schools are better in every way. 



Prof. Hays : The movement for the consolidation of schools 

 has got to come gradually. It does not mean the consolidation or 

 bringing of two schools together, but it needs to take in the whole 

 county. It has got to be an entire county and not the children from 

 a little country school taken to a village school. When this thing 

 of wholesale consolidation comes to pass all those little jealousies, 

 this petty opposition of one district to another on account of tax- 

 ation, will pass away, and we will get this rural school business on 

 the same basis as we now have the rural delivery of mail, 



Mr. O, W. Moore : I think the most sensible idea is to consoli- 

 date the schools of only one township. Let each township consoli- 

 date its schools, let the township bear the expense, and let each 

 township have a school by itself. 



THE NOBILITY OF SERVICE. 



PRES. CYRUS NORTHROP. ' 



(Address at a banquet given by the Horticultural Society Dec. 3, 1904.) 



Mr. Toastmaster, Ladies and Gentlemen. I do not like to be- 

 gin by differing from you, Mr. Toastmaster, but I must say at 

 the outset I am quite uncertain whether I shall speak on that 

 subject or not. Your very excellent secretary, who was so 

 kind as to invite me here tonight, suggested that topic, and I ac- 

 cepted it as being as good as any that could be suggested at that 

 time, and probably it is as good as any that could come at this 

 time. 



I have in the course of my life had occasion to address a 

 great many assemblies of different kinds, and they come to me 

 always with a certain degree of difficulty in meeting the require- 

 ments of the occasion. I think I never pondered over a coming 

 engagement with more apprehension than I did last summer 

 when I was called upon to give an address before the National 

 Convention of Undertakers of this city. I had in my good 

 nature granted their request to make them an address and con- 

 sented to appear on that occasion and speak to the convention, 

 but I had no idea that that convention would ever meet in Min- 

 neapolis, or if it did that I should be here at the time; but, 

 unfortunately, I remained in the city all summer, and I went to 

 that convention, and I had a good time, but what I suffered in 

 anticipation can be imagined only by gentlemen who are called 

 upon to address assemblies without an opportunity for adequate 

 preparation. 



