DISADVANTAGES OF COUETKY BOYS. 



AN ADDRESS 



DELIVERED AT THE FORTY-FIRST ANNUAL FAIR OF THE HOUSATONIO 



AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, 



BY REV. WASHINGTON GLADDEN, 



OF SPRINGFIELD. 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : — When I received your 

 invitation to deliver an address at this Fair, I asked myself why have 

 they sent for me ! The business which brings you here is one that I 

 have no knowledge of. I know nothing of ensilage, potato bugs or 

 hog cholera. You did not ask me to come here to make myself ri- 

 diculous. I therefore infer that you wished me to say something that 

 goes outside of your regular work. The lawyer who is nothing but 

 a trader, the minister who is nothing but a parson are unlovely speci- 

 mens of men. No doubt the tendency of the present time is to make 

 men specialists, but something more than this is needed. The farm- 

 er needs something outside of his trade. The development of man- 

 hood on the farm is a matter of no secondary importance to you. 

 What men are growing up on our farms, and what facilities our farms 

 have for raising men are, I believe, subjects which interest you. It 

 is said that the farms of New England are the best farms there are 

 for raising men. Such a product is above all others in value. We 

 may imagine that men could have been created mature men at once ; 

 but the process of nature is one of growth. Every tree was once a 

 sapling, every goose was once a gosling. The age of immaturity is 

 disagreeable ; boys are hard to manage ; they are always breaking 

 something. Thus the critics complain ; but we say it is as it is, and 

 maintain that the present method is the best. It alone is capable of 

 giving men character, and character is the fruit of experience and ex- 

 perience is the fruit of trial. To be a man, you must have gone 

 through trials and temptations, losses and gains, defeats and tri- 

 umphs. You must bear the marks of discipline. Many a man has 

 been spoiled in the process ; but there is no excellence, no beauty of 

 finish, but it is a result of this experience. No ready made man 



