cd her nothing. They had no ear for the lessons of Mother 

 Earth. There are some children now-a-days who will not 

 mind their mothers, and who get sent to the State Reform 

 School. The reform of those old oyster-eaters and bone- 

 splitters was very gradual. Aachaeologists tell us that they 

 first became pastoral in their habits, and took to keeping 

 horses. Now I am not going to assert, in the presence of 

 our honored president, that horse-raising is a semi-barbaric 

 practice ; but the archaeological succession does go to prove 

 that wheat-growing is a step beyond it. Nor do I maintain 

 that the men of the ancient stone period raised horses artisti- 

 cally, as they are to-day raised at the Home Farm. On the con- 

 trary, the numerous skeletons found on the sites of those long- 

 forgotten villages, show us that the pre-historic horse had too 

 big a head. I might say he was all head ; and, as a Hunga- 

 rian officer once remarked : "A horse does not trot with his 

 head." In our day we have improved. We try to have the 

 driver all head and the horse all legs. Again, our horse- 

 breeders are advanced in respect that they use trotting wa- 

 gons ; albeit we must not boast of them too much ; for, in 

 the museum at Florence, you may see a trotting sulky that 

 was found in a pyramid of Egypt. You are told it is a Scy- 

 thian war chariot — Scythian it may be, but a clearer trotting 

 sulky I never met. Not certainly a sulky of our manufacture. 

 It is made, axles and all, of wood and leather. Shall we laugh 

 at it for that ? Remember it is 3000 or 4000 years old, and 

 still is in running order. What kind of order do you think 

 one of Brewster's best 500 lb. wagons will be in when it is 

 3000 or 4000 years old ? Not even the " deacon's one-hoss 

 shay " lasted 3000 or 4000 years. All honor then to that 

 Scythian sulky and to its unknown maker, who, were he 

 now alive, would have a rare reputation for durable v>^ork ! 



