The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1913-08-23

| Robert S. Seeds, better known as
Bob" delighted one of the largest
audiences that has gathered at this
years Chautauqua by his lecture on
The Mistakes of Life mixture of
| fun and fact that had the audience
roaring with laughter one minute and
| thinking seriously the next.
Il am a farmer" began Mr.. Seeds,
''and / am proud to be one. The Amer
! ican farmer is the greatest thing on
the face of the earth. | want you to
understand that we are it Every one
talks agriculture now. The great rail-
| road industries can not be compared
to the farmers. Why, the little Ameri-
can hen makes enough money to pay
the National debt every year. But l
did not come to talk agriculture, l
came to tell you about the mistakes
! of life. Mistakes have been made all
through the worlds history. Some
of you men like to get chesty and talk
am made, but Adam never made some
of the mistakes that you commit. Ad-
and never sat in the village grocery
| until one o'clock and then told his
wife that the stage was late and he
| had to wait on the mail; he never
stood on the street corner and chewed
| tobacco, and he never brought a crowd
of men home to dinner on wash day.
| 1t seems that the richer we get the
| more mistakes we make, and these
mistakes cost. There is Vanderbilt,
! hn ic vi nd
the same newspaper clipping that an
nounced their suit for divorce, gave
the name of the person that each was
going to marry. There is Corey, presi-
| dent of the steel trust, with a salary
of 100000 a year, and when he at
| tanned this high position, he divorced
| the sweetheart of his boyhood days,
who had given her money to help buy
his books and educate him, and he
married a young actress.
At his trial for divorce his sister
took the stand and swore that he was
not a fit companion for his .16-year-old
son. Friends | would not take the
whole state Of Pennsylvania as a price
to have that truthfully said about me-
/ | tell you, Corey will never get what's
coming to him until he strikes the
country where the thermometer stands
at $50 in the shade. Then there are
the mistakes that make you laugh and
don't do any special harm. Those are
the only kind of mistakes that l allow
around my home. Laughter is better
than medicine. | thank God that a
| long face is no longer sign of relig-
ion. l like religion that you can see
once in while and not just hear.
love laughter. For years l have kept
"a sunshine book and in this book
have entered all the things that make
me laugh. l have done this long be-
fore l ever though about going on the
platform. In central Pennsylvania
there isn't a person who don't, when
they find a good story, write me and
say, Say, Bob, have you got this one"
have received stories from all over
the United States and even from Eng
fand. / always save these stories un-
til get to the table. I think it's good
to laugh when you eat. Show me the
man who can laugh and I will show
you a tender heart and one who can
shed tears. Always try to find the
funny side and the good side. The
world will give you what you want
it is just as broad and grand as you
want it. One of the greatest things in
this world is love. 1t is no respector
of persons and nine times out of ten
the older the fool the bigger Don't
blame the fellow. he can't help it. it
| Just comes over him. Love is the
thing that makes homes, and this is
the great, grand, glorious country that
| it is because of its homes. A man
will shoulder a musket for a home
when he will not do it for boarding
house.
Il appreciate this audience. You
laugh at my jokes and I tell you there
is nothing harder than to try to make
an audience laugh when they will not
smile. I know of town in Iowa
where the people refuse to laugh and
1 told the agency that I wouldn't go
there again for three times the or
dinary price