126 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



Douglass was when he was urging my father to go on to the 

 next station of the " Underground Railway." Many of you 

 have seen your fathers do the same thing. Slavery was 

 done away with by the lyceum in the country school-house, 

 where the evils of slavery were first openly discussed. 



In the country towns the old-fashioned mills are preserved 

 still, — the mills that our fathers used to put up on the little 

 streams in the mountains, and in which they began to make 

 some utensil not found in any other place. The people of 

 the country towns have a wide experience in an untold 

 variety of duties. 



If a girl goes to the theatre in the city and is stage struck, 

 foolish people will say to her, "You ought to go on the 

 stage." But the people in the country, with their good 

 common-sense, suppress the foolish, and encourage the solid 

 and practical. There you get the straight-forward, square, 

 moral, horse-sense of the world. An illustration flashes 

 into my mind. I wanted to l)e an actor myself. Ofi' in our 

 country town we had a theatre in the church. They called it 

 a " school exhibition," but we had a platform and curtains, 

 and everything of that sort. I remember that I was very 

 anxious to be an actor. I thought I would like to " strut 

 and fret upon the stage, and then be heard no more." In 

 this theatre I was to be the insane man. I was to rush 

 in just as the man was proposing to the lady, and frighten 

 them out of popping the question. I had to practice my 

 piece when I went after the cows, and whenever I could get 

 a chance. One day my father sent me to Huntington village 

 with a load of maple sugar. The load was so high that I 

 could not take the wagon seat, so I left it behind. When I 

 went back I had to stand in the wagon. 



The good horse jogged along and when I came to the 

 woods I thought I would practice my piece, the first line of 

 which was " Woe unto ye, daughters and sons of men." So 

 I began as the horse was trotting along, " Woe," and that 

 was as far as I went. No, that is not as far as I went, but 

 as far as the horse went. When I said " Woe," the horse 

 stopped and I went right over and landed on the shaft of 

 the wagon, and the scar is on my forehead now where it 

 brought the blood as I landed on the step and rolled over 



