FIFTY YEARS OF A SHOWMAN'S LIFE 



I was then twenty-three years old, and, to save 

 his appointments passing into other hands, I had 

 to use my best endeavours to secure them. Mainly 

 because I was my father's son, I was unanimously 

 elected to the vacant offices, although I had little 

 knowledge of the work they represented. So it was 

 in fear and trembling, and with many misgivings, 

 that I shouldered my burden. At the same time 

 I wanted to hold on to my librarianship, as a 

 stand-by, in case, as was only too probable, I came 

 to grief in my new responsibilities. But I was in 

 doubt as to how my committee would take this 

 combination of duties. So I unbosomed myself to 

 the chairman, one of the most kindly-hearted of 

 men, and he said, " Hold on and say nothing, but 

 take care not to give any of us a chance to say 

 the city's interests are suffering thereby." I took 

 his advice, and was never disturbed from start to 

 finish, but it meant working double shifts. 



Then followed the ever-present dread, which 

 weighed on me like a nightmare, that my ignorance 

 would infallibly betray itself to my own shame 

 and discomfiture. I had undertaken to run an 

 Agricultural Society with an annual show, to con- 

 duct a Corn Exchange, to administer various 

 agricultural agencies, and, whenever required, to 

 act as a sort of agricultural general-utility-man 

 and all this without any previous education, 

 except that of a most superficial character, to fit 

 me for the position. My bibliographical know- 

 ledge, on which I had set such store, was nothing 

 better than a drug in that market in which I now 

 found myself. I will give an instance in connection 

 with my first show of how profoundly ignorant I 



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