296 



to offer freely and voluntarily all those valuable things which 

 have constituted our premium list, and enabled us to hold a 

 butter exhibit of the Illinois State Dairymen's Association this 

 year.' " 



It was moved that the resolution offered by the secretary be 

 inserted with the others and included in the report. The mo- 

 tion was seconded and carried. 



The President: " You have noticed all through this associ- 

 ation, ladies and gentlemen, that there has been a constant con- 

 test between the worthy secretary and myself as to who should 

 have the biggest words, and the most words, and the last word. 

 Now, I wish to show my appreciation of the secretary and be- 

 sides that I wish to gain his favor, and I will do that by yielding 

 to him and letting him have the last word." 



The Secretary: " Ladies and Gentlemen : Our president has 

 certainly placed me in rather an awkward situation for a modest, 

 humble man. While I confess I have got a meek and agree- 

 able lady, the privilege of the last word is one that I have not 

 enjoyed for a long time, or even tried to encompass, having 

 never had an occasion to find any use for such a thing within a 

 decade of married life. Ladies and gentlemen, we bid you 

 farewell to-night; farewell to meet again, we hope, upon our 

 chosen paths of life, but to some of you, perhaps, we now say 

 farewell to whom it will never be our privilege to give greeting 

 again during the course of our natural life, for we little know 

 what moment we may be called to answer at another bar, an- 

 other tribunal than a mundane one. In extending to you the 

 heartfelt thanks of the officers of this association and of its mem- 

 bers, I wish to express our appreciation of the kind reception 

 and feelings with which we have met in every part of your 

 beautiful city, and I wish to say to you, for a last impression 

 to-night, that of all the places where we have met, all the places 

 we have been to for the last fourteen years, carrying along this 

 banner of successful dairying we have never been received at 

 any place with a more enthusiastic and admirable reception than 

 we have at Mount Carroll. 



Music, chorus, " Auld Lang Syne." 



The convention adjourned sine die. 



