The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1889-10-12
IT. &. SENATOR WALTHALL'S
SPEECH,
BEFORE the NOXubee County Fair
Association at Macon.
From the Columbus Index, Oct. 81

To-day we give nearly all our availa-
BILE space to the synopsis of Gen. Wal
thall's speech at Macon yesterday, it
being the opening occasion Of the Noxu-
bee County Agricultural Fair.
The attendance was large. and just
such as to please a man OF fine presence
and commanding attainments in the
field of thought aod diction, whose du
ties and obligations made it incumbent
on him to address constituency OF and
to whom he had every reason to be proud
and grateful. The speaker was graceful-
" and appropriately presented to thu
audience by Mr. j. L Griggs, President
of the Association.
After thanking Mr.. Grggs for his kind
and pimentary illusions to him
personally, Gen. Walthall said:
He accepted the invitation tomake the
opening address here to day with great
pleasure, because he was gratiiied by the
compliment implied in his selection tor
such duty, and because he knew the
occasion would afford him the opportu.
nifty to meet many people whom he want
ed to see, and to witness the evidences
which we're all around him, of their pro-
gress and improvement, and their daily
increasing thrift aud independence. Bu;
he said, contradictory though the state
ment might appear, he accepted the in,
vitation with great hesitation, because he
found it difficult to gain his own consent
to address an intelligent and apprecia-
tive audience on subject with which
nipe-tenths of them were presumed to be,
and were in fact, more familiar, so far as
related TO practical knowledge, than he
either was or pretended to be.
He stated that though reared for the
most part upon small farm, his life
work, since he reached mans estate, had
been in different field. He alluded to
the advancement which had been made,
since that time, in agriculture in all its
phases-the higher skill in the cultiva>
tion of the soil and its improvement by
the employment Of fertilizing agents and
the resort to science and intelligent ex4
pertinent in agricultural machinery in
its endless variety, AID its manifold
adaptations; and referred to the many
new directions in which the efforts OF
farmers were being made every day more
available in the South. He said he was
as much identified with and dependent
upon Agriculture as if his living came
directly from it, instead Of indirectly as
it does, and that he was as deeply inter-
ested in it as any who were listening
TO him.
He knew something Of too, and had
sought by observation and investigation
to Keep himselfinformed as to the ad'
vancement made in this, the leading in,
dustry of our own people. His genera
knowledge of the subject was of grea
service to him in his efforts to represent
the interests of an Agricultural Constit
uency, faithfully and c'pably as public
servant, but it did not qualify him t
discuss Agriculture in any of its practl
cal phases, and for him to venture to dt
so before such an audience would be th'
sheerest affectation, not to say the mos
indefensibIe presumption. This is
PRACTICAL AGE,
he said, and the men before him wer
practical men, as he claimed to be him
self, and he assumed they did not desir
him to theorize before them on a purel
practical subject, or to glorify them wit
any laudation or compliments, or t
seek 10 gIorjfy himself by indulging i
caudy rhetoric or high-sounding bu
empty defamation. They did not car
to hear him recite the wonderful re
sources of our great and growing State
to tell how much cotton we are maxim
compared with former years, ho
many bushels of corn or how man
tons of hay to tell of our immens
timber product; the rapid develop
ment of manufacturing enterprises
our midst, or the number of new raj
roads constructed in the State in tn
last few years. or the marvellous progre
we are making in stock raising, or grow
ing grass and grain, in truck farmin
market gardening and the like. 1t woul
be going over an old story if /
presented the threadbare statistics show
ing that this fair and fruitful Southel
land of ours had improved and develop
ed more in the last ten years than ar
other quarter ofthe Globe, and that it
steadily and certainly tending toward
destiny as the seat of industrial empil
in America. All these and all such d
tails are highly interesting, instructi'
and important, but they are in print
q hundred forms, thanks to the ente
prising press and his audience, as reat
ing people, were as familiar with the
as he was, to say the least; and to T
peat them would be but stale and il
sipid recital-unnteresting and unprof
able. Therefore he concluded he cou
interest his audience more, and serve
more useful purpose, by discussing b
fore thtm some Important public que
tion, which though general in its natul
vet bears directly, Immediately and {
pecially upon the great interests viii
most concern the people here.
The speaker said he was not one
those who believe that in
THE LEGISLATION OF OUR STATE
the farming interest is discriminat
against or neglected. In turning throu
the Statute books of Mississippi he iou
the unmistakable evidences of consta
earnest and intelligent efforts to fos'
farming and favor the former as far Ms
can be accomplished by liberal, and
the same time, justand equal legislati'
It would be strange indeed if this w