43 



institutions, and to become a part of the material resources that will 

 ultimately go to the creation, around this Park, of the home of a 

 National University. 



What nobler exhibitions could be given of the crowning achieve- 

 ments of this municipality than those which this Museum and its sister 

 institution, the Art Gallery, will afford ? This peerless pleasure ground 

 for the people, which will proudly boast of these twin jewels as its 

 legitimate offspring, will contain within itself in miniature the records 

 of the progress of the country. Its wilderness spots remain as sou- 

 venirs of what the whole tract was a few short years ago — when a 

 prophetic Samuel B. Ruggles saw the possibilities that are now 

 accomplished facts. Its artistic decorations and its Museums of Art 

 and Natural History will show the best results of a high civilization, 

 and of a liberality directed by the wisest forethought and the most 

 cultured taste. 



ADDRESS OF GOVERNOR DIX. 



Ladies and Gentlemen : 



I did not come here with the expectation of addressing you. 

 You may find it difficult to believe what I say when you see me pres- 

 ent, and my name in the published order of exercises as a speaker. 

 But, lean assure you, that I had no intimation from any quarter 

 that such a service was expected of me, and no knowledge that such 

 a notice had been given to the public until I saw the programme a 

 day or two ago, by pure accident. I only say this to exonerate my- 

 self from the possible imputation of having made an engagement and 

 failed to perform it ; and to tender to you an apology which I am 

 sure you will, under the circumstances, deem a valid one, for respond- 

 ing in the most summary manner to your kindness and courtesy. 



I am very much gratified to be with you on an occasion of so much 

 interest. It is pleasant to stand amid this brilliant assemblage of 

 beauty and fashion, and of those solid qualities, by which the welfare 

 and prosperity of cities and communities are wrought out. It is pleas- 

 ant to see a great metropolitan city like this, casting aside for the 

 moment the habdirnents of its industry, to lay the foundation of a 

 Museum in which the dead past is to be linked to the living present ; 

 to be followed as we trust, at no- distant day, by a repository of art, 

 where the ages that have gone by may be kept in our remembrance, 

 by gathering together the memorials of their achievements ; where 



