4 



demands. The artist brings the product of his pencil, and whole 

 departments of beauty proclaim that we have higher wants than 

 food and shelter, and that cunning hands are busy in our midst to 

 minister to those wants. The young girl, hardly budding into 

 womanhood, and the aged mother whose children have long been 

 men and women, both contend for the prizes. The tables are ])iled 

 with apples more delicious and beautiful than all the famed fruit of 

 ancient m^^thology, grapes in richer clusters than Bacchus and all 

 his ancient votaries ever dreamed of. All the fruits and flowers 

 w'hich New England soil can be made to yield, all the handicraft 

 which fertile New England brains can invent, are gathered in these 

 fairs for our admiration and for our profit — for the honor and grati- 

 fication of those whose care and labor have produced them. These 

 fairs, then, are the grand review days of the great peace forces 

 stationed within our borders, holding the farm houses and villages 

 the school houses and churches of happy New England. 



All these products represent so much toil of hand and brain. 

 The earth has indeed yielded her strength, for all this wealth of 

 fruits and flowers was molded from her soil. Last spring most of 

 them were dirt beneath oui* feet. 



All nature has been in action both to build up and to destroy. 

 And it is because man has lent the energies of his mind and the 

 strength and cunning of his hand to secure the favoring influences 

 and to ward off destroyers, that the hills are filled with flocks and 

 the valleys are covered with corn. If this wealth here gathered is 

 the product of the earth, it is also the result of human toil. 



We are readj^ to maintain the dignity of laboi', but it is the 

 product of labor that is the measure of its dignity. There is no 

 dignity in wasted labor. Labor wholly unproductive would become 

 intolerable 2:)unishment . even to the most industrious. But the 

 hardest toil is lightened when every blow is followed by results, and 

 every blow is honorable that is struck for the j^hysical, intellectual 

 or moral welfare of the human race. Labor becomes dignified just 

 in proportion as it becomes powerful for good, as it yields greater 

 products than the best ci\dhzation demands. And all this grand 

 exhibition is to show vvhat means of enjoyment the labor of the 

 year has supplied and how the labor of the coming years may im- 

 prove such products and give larger returns for the thought and 

 strength expended. The grand problem is to uillizc labor, that 

 evei*y hour of toil may produce more and better results, as the years 

 pass. The wants of savage life are few and call for Httle economy 



