40 
ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 
at the Paris exposition in 1867. 
The swiss determined to send hither a wonderful spec¬ 
imen of Schweitzer-Kase. 
“ So rosy milkmaids, 
In caps and long braids, 
Milked the bonniest cows in the fields.” 
By no mischance was the plan defeated. A mam¬ 
moth cheeese was pressed, and turned, and cured, and with 
the pomp of a royal progress it was ushered into Paris and 
throned at the Exposition. Of course it took the prize, 
and the worthy burghers, wishing to recognize the compli¬ 
ment, voted to make the cheese a gift to the poor of Paris, 
and to show proper gratitude for such -munificence four 
commissioners are appointed to thank the Swiss in behalf 
of the prior, which they do with speech and toast and ap¬ 
propriate ceremonies. Eight Normandy horses wait and 
the porters are ready to push their utmost in order to get 
His Majesty forward a little space, when, “ One ! Two! 
Three ! Ready ! ” and down they all go sprawling, for the 
Royal Cheese has ignominiously collapsed. The - rats, the 
underground poor of Paris, have taken their share first hav¬ 
ing stealthily entered from below through a hole in the 
platform. 
“ Now nothing but just, 
A crushed-in crust, 
A cart-load of scraps and a pungent dust.” 
Remains of the great Gruyere, to the vast chagrin of the 
Swiss and the officials who stood around sneezing and 
astonished, and to the vast merriment of all the world be¬ 
sides. 
Sometimes, again, it happens that a joke is perpetrated 
by somebody in spite of somebodies, and at the expense of 
both. 
To illustrate: Once upon a time when the world grew 
hungrier and hungrier for the dainties of the dairy, which 
lingered in many a man’s memory as “ such butter and 
cheese as mother used to make down at the old farm,” the 
Great Northwest rose up and casting a glance at its ample 
grazing lands, and impressing the man-milkmaid into its 
service, said, “ Go to, now, let us give this great world, 
