My own diary records attendance at fifty meetings before a single society had resulted therefrom.

It was weary work for a long time.

These gatherings were miserable affairs compared with those which greeted our political speakers.

On one occasion the agricultural community was represented by the Dispensary Doctor, the Schoolmaster, and the Sergeant of Police.
Sometimes, in spite of copious advertising of the meeting, the prosaic nature of the objects had got abroad, and nobody met.
Mr.Anderson, who sometimes accompanied me and sometimes went his rounds alone, had similar experiences.

I may quote a passage from some of his reminiscences, recently published in the _Irish Homestead_, the organ of the co-operative movement in Ireland.
It was hard and thankless work.