"We walked down the street arm in arm, and this is the rather unsympathetic monologue in which the reader indulged: "'The bill-board--and I mean by the bill-board coarse and obtrusive advertising in general, whether shown in this defacement of natural objects, road-signs, street car panels, or in newspaper columns--an evil from which even the public library is not free--the bill-board is an evil, but after all only a minor evil. If we had nothing worse than that among our social problems to vex us, we should indeed be fortunate. Advertising is a legitimate incident of commerce. The merchant who has wares to sell may properly make his commodities known. I own I study the advertising pages of my _Century_ and _Scribner_ with scarcely less interest than I do the text. But the world is so full of bad taste! There is no sanctity or silence through which the coarse scream of the huckster may not at any time penetrate. The loud bill-board is but the scream of the huckster transmuted so that it may attack still another sense. The wonder is that this bill-board, and its fellow enormities in the street car panel and the newspaper columns, do not repel instead of attract. In the case of refined minds certainly repulsion must be felt. Now for myself,' said the reader, and here I thought he spoke conceitedly, 'the fact that a thing is coarsely and loudly advertised is a strong, almost invincible reason for my not buying it, however necessary it may seem. With the world in general, however, the standard of taste is low. Coarseness does not offend; also, it pays to use it. "'I have sometimes seen on library walls placards sent in with the demand, 'Please display this prominently,' that have exercised upon me an immediate deterrent effect. Still,' said the reader, with his superior air, 'do not think me ill-natured. The best thing we can do is to keep our temper, stamp down as we can what becomes too outrageous and indecent, and labor and pray for the refinement of the world's taste. This no doubt will come very slowly.' "'Can we help the thing forward at all?' said I, falling in for the moment with his humor. "'Only as we can promote in general the diffusion of sweetness and light,' said the reader. 'If a man should be aroused to attack directly I believe he might strike a more effective blow through ridicule than through denunciation. Keep denunciation for the more weighty and ghastly evils that beset us; a mere annoyance it is better to laugh away if we can do it.'" Adjourned at 3.30 p.m. _FIFTH SESSION._ (FOUNTAIN SPRING HOUSE, TUESDAY MORNING, JULY 9.) The meeting was called to order by President CARR at 10.20 a.m. The president announced the receipt in pamphlet form of the REPORT ON GIFTS AND BEQUESTS. (_See_ p. 87.) This was read by title, and filed for publication in the Proceedings. W. I. FLETCHER presented the