172 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



neath these mules was written, "Missouri stands at the Head, the 

 only safe place." 



I would that I might today paint another picture that you 

 could take home with you and preserve on t he tablet of memory. 

 It would be the picture of a dairy cow and underneath would be 

 written "Illinois stands at the other end, the only harbor of safe- 

 ty from financial panics and crop failure and industrial paralysis 

 and commercial depression." 



I am not here today to discuss the dairy cow from a scien- 

 tific standpoint. I haven't the time and this is not the place, and 

 further than this, I confess my knowledge of her from this point 

 of view, as compared with eminent authorities who are here for 

 that purpose and who you will hear during the week as some- 

 thing like that of one of the boys in a large Sunday school class, 

 who was being examined one day on prominent "incidents record- 

 ed in the Bible. The teacher pointed her finger at the little fel- 

 low and said, "Jimmie, you tell me who killed Cain." He said, 

 "Teacher, you needn't ask me; I didn't know he was dead." I 

 know her having a long uninterrupted history of usefulness. I 

 am not here to discuss her ancestry, because her influence and 

 usefulness cannot be estimated by this. Neither do I ask for her 

 a place in the deliberations of your councils on the basis of what 

 is to be accomplished by her posterity, but I present her not 

 alone for what she has done, but for what she is doing now and 

 what she stands ready always to do. 



It would seem impertinent almost for me to attempt to give 

 this intelligent and well informed audience the definition of a 

 dairy cow and yet, I apprehend if each of you were asked to give 

 one, there would be a marked variance in the answers, for I am 

 convinced that to an extent we each make our own dictionary. 

 A man goes into a blacksmith shop, picks up a piece of iron and 

 drops it without being told. The blacksmith asks him, "What's 

 the matter," and he says, "It's hot." He says, "No, that isn't 

 hot," and he picks it up and handles it without inconvenience. 

 Their definition of hot is not the same. The man who offers to 

 help his wife wash the dishes, sticks his hands into the water 



