A HALT ON LIFE'S HIGHWAY 



fact that M. Henri Sagnier, the distinguished 

 secretary of the National Agricultural Society of 

 France, was joined with me in its conferment. 

 The artistic qualities of the official document and 

 badge accompanying the communication render 

 them mementoes worthy of being included among 

 those cherished possessions which one likes to feel 

 will survive when the original recipient has laid 

 down for ever his burden of work in this world. 



One other recollection, personal though it be, 

 cannot well be omitted if this is to be a faithful 

 record of a showman's - experiences. In May, 

 1915, the Society held its last show for the present, 

 and in September of the same year, as I was 

 plodding along life's highway, I was suddenly 

 arrested in the middle of my stride, and, in terms 

 admitting of no denial, bidden to surrender myself 

 into the hands of the doctors to deal with me as 

 they listed. This, as it meant a long sojourn in a 

 nursing home, entirely deflected for a time the 

 current of my working life. By no merit of my 

 own, but simply because I was greatly blessed 

 by Providence 'in the matter of health, during 

 my thirty -two years of office with the Bath and 

 West Society, I had not only been at my post 

 throughout every one of the thirty-two shows 

 this period represented, but I had never missed 

 a single Council of the 195 held, nor more than 

 one of the hundreds of committee meetings 

 summoned during the time. It was a sore trial 

 to spoil such a record, but there was no help for 

 it, for my life, if it could be saved, depended 

 upon such success as might attend the taking 

 of immediate action. I had, therefore, sadly to 



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