MEMORIAL HOUR. 445 



than the dollars we are after, or the apples we aspire to, or the fruit 

 that we would perfect. 



I said in the opening that I did not know what I was going to 

 talk about, and I scarcely now know what I have been talking about. 

 The truth is that my heart is full of the spirit of this occasion, and 

 if we could all feel as I do just now I am sure that this occasion, 

 this hour would have as much to do in improving men and women 

 as any hour we spend in trying to improve apples and other fruits. 



MEMORIAL HOUR ADDRESS. 



A. J. rillLIPS, Wi:ST SALEM. WIS. 



^Ir. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, and Members of this So- 

 ciety : Air. Owen has covered the ground very f Lilly, and I have not 

 the knowledge, I have not the ability, and I am not familiar enough 

 with the lives of these men to add anything to what Mr. Owen has 

 said that would make any impression upon your minds. All I can 

 hope to offer is perhaps a few words about the worth and the use- 

 fulness of these men. 



As far as Mr. Pendergast is concerned, Mr. Owen has very 

 fittingly described him. He was one of the most genial presiding 

 officers I ever saw. He always had a fund of humor in things that 

 he said that would take with the audience, and an audience would 

 respect him and like him for it. He was just as pleasant when 

 you met him at the hotel as he was when presiding in this room. 

 He was a pleasant man to greet wherever you met him. You could 

 see in his countenance that he was a Christian man. I do not know 

 whether he belonged to a Christian church, and I do not care, he 

 was a man who meant to do right. 



Of Mr. Grimes I can say that I always had very much respect 

 for him. I met him and his wife a number of times, and at the 

 summer meetings he was always present, and he was always cheer- 

 ful and full of kindness. He never said as much as the rest of us, 

 but he was a well informed man, and one thing for which I shall 

 always cherish his memory was that he was the first man to call my 

 attention to the Virginia crab. He sent me my first tree. He made 

 it possible for me to produce that tree which I have given, to Pro- 

 fessor Green, thinking it might be an inspiration for some young 

 men at the school. It is a very fine tree, but I thought it would do 

 more good there than it would where it was before, and that at the 

 school of agriculture, where they take such great pains to train the 

 young men for the work we are doing now, that it might be a valu- 

 able lesson in doing that work. Mr. Grimes made it possible to do 

 that ; he recommended the stock and then sent me the tree, and I 

 have always honored and revered him for it. 



In regard to Mr. Dartt : I was more intimately acquainted with 

 Uncle Dartt than with the other two. Mr. Dartt was on my mind 

 during the entire meeting last year. I always missed him, I always 

 loved to hear him, whether it was here or in Wisconsin or Iowa. I 

 loved to be with him. We used to spar considerably. I recall one 

 circumstance which shows one of his characteristics. During one 

 of the meetings he said to me at the hotel, "It was a little dull this 

 morning. Now, I am going to read a paper on girdling and top- 



