152 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898. 



speaker should be talking a long while and not really saying 

 anything at all, it would not surprise me if the President should 

 rap on the table. 



It is stated that a little girl in this city, the daughter of a 

 prominent politician, was saying her prayers one night. She 

 had been taught to pray for brothers and sister, father and 

 mother, and she wound up by saying, "Now, God, you take 

 care of the city for if we lose you we should have nobody to 

 look after us but Mayor Dodge, and papa says he has the 

 bridge on his hands and he cannot do everything." 



I now have the pleasure of introducing to you our Mayor, 

 Rufus B. Dodge, Jr. 



Mayor Rufus B. Dodge, Jr. Mr. President, Ladies and 

 Gentlemen, and Fellow-Farmers : — I assure you that it delights 

 me beyond measure to meet with my fellow-agriculturists. It 

 is refreshing indeed to see Farmer Parker without his overalls 

 and jumper, and Farmer Paine, leaving his pastoral pursuits 

 and donning his dress-coat, a luxury which we farmers cannot 

 often enjoy. 



I was approached a iew days ago by a musical gentleman of 

 the city who desired my name in connection with some musical 

 entertainment. I said to him while I would be very glad 

 to endorse it, I feared it would have but little weight if the fact 

 was known, because, to tell the truth, I was unable to tell the 

 tune of Yankee Doodle from Old Hundred, which I assure you 

 is a fact. And he remarked that if that were true I had cer- 

 tainly missed my calling, that I ought to have been a musical 

 critic. And taking that for a fact, I see no reason why I cannot 

 discuss with the farmers of the city and the growers of plants 

 and fruits all the great questions which make them prominent. 



The example which our elders set is responsible in a measure 

 for the conduct of the younger people, and I must say that I deem 

 it my duty to solemnly call your attention to the conduct of my 

 venerable friend Mr. Hadwen when he told you the reason why 

 he did not make a speech. The real reason of it was as he told 

 me, and I have every reason to believe that it is true, that he had 



