1875.] REPORT OP SECRETARY. 57 



foulness that offieaded eye and nostril alike during the later tenancy of the 

 Saints ; he feels thoroughly qualified to attest and appreciate the admira- 

 ble order, cleanliness, and good taste, which greet him at every turn. 

 You are to be congratulated upon having secured the services of Mr. John 

 C. Newton as custodian of your propert}''. His report has disclosed to you 

 the unprecedented prosperity of your finances, notwithstanding the pres- 

 sure of extreme and rare claims and liabilities. But his report will not 

 reveal to you the assiduity with which he has watched over your interests ; 

 personally doing labor that most persons would have hired ; performing 

 repairs of ever}' mechanical kind with his own hands, to save demands 

 upon your limited treasury ; and imperilling health if not life, in hours of 

 storm and sleet, upon that roof which, whether originally built or sub- 

 sequently reconstructed, has been the fertile source of financial woe. 

 I^or have such exertions been fruitless. Our Hall, which had become a 

 by-word and reproach ; a common resort of the dissolute and impure, 

 and therefore to be shunned by the decent ; is reinstated in public esteem 

 and grows more popular as each day elapses. Its value increases with its 

 good name, each re-acting upon and enhancing the other. This tribute 

 which to some of you may appear extravagant, is tendered in these pre- 

 cise terms, because the writer is thoroughly familiar with the facts, and 

 considers it simple justice that they should be as well known to the whole 

 Society. 



The Committee on the Library were instructed by the Trustees, in 

 pursuance of a suggestion by the Secretary in his Annual Report then 

 submitted, to procure a portrait of the late John Milton Eakle. 

 Nothing more was originally contemplated than a good and durable like- 

 ness. But deliberate reflection upon his individual merits, and due 

 consideration of the fact that it might tend to the ultimate creation of a 

 pictured gallery of Horticultural worthies, induced the Committee to 

 believe that they should best discharge their duty by procuring an oil 

 painting of their lamented associate. Accordingly a contract was made 

 with Mr. J. S. Lincoln of Providence, R. I., an artist of deserved celebrity, 

 and perhaps as noted for the skill with which he revives the lineaments 

 of the dead as for felicity in limning the living countenance ; the result 

 of whose labors is before you. The Committee are thoroughly pleased 

 with the painting, as a likeness and a work of art, and doubt not that the 

 Society will share in their satisfaction. It is hoped however, that this 

 will prove but the first step towards the procurement of portraits of all 

 our benefactors, whether deceased or happily spared to us. The benig- 

 nant features of Daniel Waldo and John Green ; of George 



