50 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY [1911-12 



in part for the reason that he desired to increase his powers of 

 observation, this young man made it a matter of daily practice 

 to try and remember as many faces as possible of the people 

 he passed on the street going to and fro from his work. And 

 from experiments lasting two weeks, he has been able to place 

 fifty-four different individuals in mind. I wonder if many of 

 us, in this assembly, could .pass such an examination as that 

 with good results? 



If after this meeting we were to go to Barnard and Sumner's, 

 or if we should go to the Boston Store or to some other place 

 of business, it is quite likely that to-morrow one of our best 

 friends would say that he saw us with this or that person and 

 that we were looking directly into his eyes and yet we saw him 

 not. 



You have heard, perhaps, of the game sometimes played by 

 children in front of a store? They will stand looking into a 

 window and some older person will say to them, ''Look into 

 this window for five or ten seconds and then write down the 

 different objects you have seen. Only one or two will give a 

 fairly accurate account of the things on display. 



You have heard no doubt of the Hindu father who said to 

 his boy, ''Go and pick a fruit from yonder tree and bring it 

 here." He then said, ''Take a knife and cut the fruit in two and 

 tell me what you see." The boy answered, "I see a number of 

 small seeds." Then the father replied, "I want you to cut one 

 of the seeds in half and tell me what you see." The boy 

 answered, "I see nothing." The father said, "Where you see 

 nothing, there is a great tree." I have been trying to illustrate 

 the fact that we are, many of us, extremely blind. 



II 



And in the next, and second place, let me say that it is the 

 people who use their eyes who accomplish most. 



I wonder if you know how khaki was invented and how it 

 came about that soldiers in England and America, and travellers 

 throughout the world, are wearing khaki uniforms, instead of 

 uniforms made of some other material? Well, several years 



