250 WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
a literary taste, this would be sure to awaken it early and bring 
them in daily contact with the best minds of the world. Such a 
family does not live in the rural districts alone—they tread all the 
higher walks of life. Send daughters having these early advan¬ 
tages to our metropolitan town, and saying nothing of the fashion¬ 
able butterflies that flirt there, you will find that in real intelli¬ 
gence, .true refinement, and all the sweet and pure graces of 
female loveliness, they are fully the equals, if not the superiors, 
of the best city bred belles. 
If I wanted to make a drunkard of my son, I would keep a 
whisky bottle standing open upon the side-board ; if I wished to 
excite in him a taste for literature, or test the natural inclination 
of his mind, I would keep a few well selected volumes always 
within his reach. I would not drive him to their perusal, but if 
he chose it, they should always be there, a free will offering to the 
better part of his nature. Next to the private book case, is the 
school district circulating library; but it is not for me to dwell 
upon it in detail. There is one thing, however, I would gladly 
see enforced by statute law, under heavy pains and penalties, if it 
were not better supported by enlightened public sentiment; and 
that is the establishment of a winter evening debating society in 
every school district in the state of Wisconsin. Why an institu¬ 
tion so beneficial in every respect is so sadly neglected throughout 
the west is difficult to determine. 
It would be a curiosity to see the names of the men in public 
life, to-day, who started out and received their first encourage¬ 
ment by discussing the somewhat fresh and novel questions: 
“Whether Columbus was entitled to more credit for discovering 
America, than Washington was for defending it“ whether there 
is greater pleasure in participation than in anticipation “ which 
is the more perplexing, a smoky chimney or a scolding wife;” 
“which could more easily be dispensed with, fire or water /” and 
last but not least: “ How did the milk get into the cocoanut 
shell?” But better these startling and momentous questions than 
not to discuss at all. There is nothing which so sharpens the in¬ 
tellect, provokes research, promotes accuracy of knowledge and 
clearness of statement, trains the mind to calmness under opposi¬ 
tion and dispute, inures it to self-possession under victory or de- 
