Tenth Annual Meeting 49 



exercise and far more profitable in the long run than quar- 

 reling with the hired man. 



"The paragraph in the prayer book which tells how prone 

 we are to do those things which we ought not to do, and 

 to leave undone those things which we ought to do, is no- 

 where more strikingly illustrated than in the line of trade 

 papers. A man will look for his daily paper and miss it as he 

 would miss his morning coffee if it were not regularly forth- 

 coming. He will cling to the strap of an elevated train with 

 one hand and wrestle with his paper with the other in a wild 

 endeavor to find out how somebody he doesn't care about was 

 murdered by some one he doesn't care to know. 



"That same amount of effort devoted to his trade paper 

 would quite possibly have brought him ten cents more per 

 barrel on that day's car-load of apples. And, what is more, 

 you, sitting at your cosy fireside, reading the paper which he 

 neglected, will have gained the right to say: 'Why didn't 

 you get that extra ten cents on my apples ? I see Mr. 

 Jones, on the opposite corner, did so. I guess I'll try Mr. 

 Jones.' 



"I know that many of you are pomologists, not for revenue 

 only, but because the artistic side of your natures cried out for 

 the development of the earth's gifts. You don't believe that 

 talents should lie hidden in a napkin. You want to put a red 

 cheek on a green apple or to make the red apple redder. You 

 love to flirt with Mother Nature: to stroke her breast with 

 the hoe, massage her with the harrow, and manicure her with 

 the pruning knife, and feed her with fertilizers to see how 

 she'll act. 



"And so far as you are willing to confide in us we gladly 

 send the results of your labor and thought out to the world, 

 and our only regret is that the world to which we send it 

 isn't larger. 



"If I am not exceeding the time limit I will say in con- 

 clusion : 



"Men glance the morning paper through and say: 

 'There's nothing in it. All a senseless mess.' 

 Three lines of censure when they go astray, 



They'll climb ten flights of stairs to stop the press. 



B 



