238 THE GBOUNDSWELL. 



doris, Hock Island County; H. C. Lawrence, Warren 

 County. 



The Executive Committee was empowered to appoint for 

 other counties as Clubs might report. 



SPEECHES AND POETRY. 



Various stirring addresses, interspersed with songs by the 

 Kewanee Glee Club, were delivered toward the close of the 

 Convention, one, upon the subject of education, by Mr. C. 

 C. Buell, being exceedingly well delivered. Mr. S. M. 

 Smith, since widely known as one of the great champions of 

 the cause, made a strong speech, in which he called atten 

 tion to the growing taste among the rural population for 

 home adornment, and recited the following extract from the 

 beautiful poem of John G. Whittier, &quot; Among the Hil&amp;gt; ;&quot; 



I look across the lapse of half a century, 



And call to mind old homesteads, where no flower 



Told that the spring had come, but evil weeds, 



Nightshade and rough-leaved burdock in the place 



Of the sweet doorway greeting of the rose 



And honeysuckle ; where the house walls seemed 



Blistering in sun, without a tree or vine 



To cast the tremulous shadow of its leaves 



Across the curtainless windows, from whose panes 



Fluttered the signal rag of shiftlessness ; 



Within, the cluttered kitchen-floor, unwashed 



(Broom-clean, I think they called it) ; the best room 



Stifling with cellar damp, shut from the air 



In hot midsummer, bookless, pictureless, 



Save the inevitable sampler hung 



Over the fire-place, or a mourning-piece, 



A green-haired woman, peony-cheeked, beneath 



Impossible windows; the wide-throated hearth 



Bristling with faded pine-boughs, half concealing 



The piled-up rubbish at the chimney s back ; 



