Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 January 1875 — Public Meetings. [ARTICLE]

Public Meetings.

Subordinate Granges can add to their membership by an occasional public meeting. The meeting, though, must be interesting and of an informatory character. A dull, insipid meeting will not only be of no benefit but it may prove a detraction. The speakers ought to be farmers, horticulturists, Horticulturists — in other words, practical producers from the soil; and this should be their paramount interest. There is not much show of consistency in having a lawyer the leading speaker at a meeting where the interest to be advanced is agriculture, and the plea presented that agriculture is the most honorable of all occupations. A farmer, though he may not have the flowery eloquence of a Talmage, will cause more conversions in his own practical way than a man of city habits and city life, be he ever so popular as an orator. It sounds well to hear townfolk declare that of all callings agriciilure is the most ennobling; but when you examine these town-folk from top to toe, and arrive at the conclusion that they cannot tell a cultivator from a plow, and that they never turned a furrow in their lives, the oily-language isn’t quite so convincing as if given under different circumstances. And then the thought will come up: “ Why don’t you live in the country, then?” Patrons, have your public meetings; let the time and place become widely known; make the occasion an interesting one; have short speeches; have pointed addresses; don’t be afraid of a little appropriate music; let the objects of the Order be fully made known, and you will find your local Grange increasing in interest and membership, and, it may be, applications coming in for new Granges in adjoining townships.—Farmer''» Friend.