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Of this book there have been printed from 
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 hundred and one, nine hundred copies 
 on specially made paper and one hundred 
 copies on Van Gelder hand-made paper. 
 
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SPEECHES AT THE 
 LOTOS CLUB 
 
 ARRANGED BY 
 
 JOHN ELDERKIN 
 CHESTER S. LORD HORATIO N. ERASER 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 PRIVATELY PRINTED 
 
 MCMI 
 
T5U7 
 
 THE LIBRARV u" 
 CONGRESS, 
 
 t Two Copies Received 
 
 MAY. 22 1901 
 
 Copyright entry 
 
 dLASS CC XXc. N9. 
 
 COPY S. 
 
 CopyrigM, 1901, by 
 The Lotos Club 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction xix 
 
 Charles Kingsley 1 
 
 At the dinner in Hs honor, February 15, 1872 
 
 James Anthony Froude 5 
 
 At the dinner in his honor, October 12, 1872 
 
 WiLKiE Collins 7 
 
 At the dinner in his honor, September 27, 1873 
 
 Lord Houghton (Richard Monckton Milnes) . 9 
 
 At the dinner in his honor, November 21, 1875 
 
 Bayard Taylor 13 
 
 At the dinner to Lord Honghton, November 21, 1875 
 
 Edmund Yates 16 
 
 At the dinner rii his honor, March 8, 1877 
 
 John Gilbert 19 
 
 At the dinner in his honor, November 30, 1878 
 
 William Winter 22 
 
 At the dinner to John Gilbert, November 30, 1878 
 
 William S. Gilbert 26 
 
 At the dinner to William S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, Novem- 
 ber 9, 1879 
 
 Horace Porter 29 
 
 At the dinner to Charles G. Leland, February 1, 1880 
 ix 
 
X CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Whitelaw Reid, President of the Club ... 33 
 
 At the decennial dinner, March 28, 1880 
 
 William M. Evarts 36 
 
 At the decennial dinner, March 28, 1880 
 
 Alexander E. Macdonald 40 
 
 At the decennial dinner, March 28, 1880 
 
 Whitelaw Reid 45 
 
 At the reception to Thomas Hughes, October 30, 1880 
 
 Thomas Hughes 48 
 
 At the reception in his honor, October 30, 1880 
 
 Ulysses S. Grant 50 
 
 At the dinner in his honor, November 20, 1880 
 
 Whitelaw Reid 52 
 
 At the dinner in his honor, December 3, 1881 
 
 Horace Porter 56 
 
 At the dinner to Whitelaw Reid, December 3, 1881 
 
 Oliver Wendell Holmes 61 
 
 At an informal reunion, April 14, 1883 
 
 William M. Evarts 65 
 
 At the dinner in his honor, February 21, 1885 
 
 Henry M. Stanley . . . ' . . . . 68 
 
 At the dinner in his honor, November 27, 1886 
 
 Whitelaw Reid 77 
 
 At the dinner in his honor, April 27, 1889 
 
 Sir Edwin Arnold 81 
 
 At the dinner in his honor, October 31, 1891 
 
 Abram S. Hewitt 90 
 
 At the dinner to Whitelaw Reid, upon his retirement from of&ce 
 as Minister to France, April 30, 1892 
 
 William H. McElroy . . . . . . 94 
 
 At the dinner to Whitelaw Reid, April 30, 1892 
 
CONTENTS xi 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Abram S. Hewitt 96 
 
 At the dinner to the Mayor of the City, William L. Strong, Jan- 
 uary 12, 1895 
 
 Robert G, Ingersoll 99 
 
 At the dinner to Anton Seidl, February 2, 1895 
 
 William Henry White 108 
 
 At the dinner to Anton Seidl, February 2, 1895 
 
 Almon Goodwin Ill 
 
 At the dinner to Anton Seidl, February 2, 1895 
 
 Frank R. Lawrence, President of the Club . . 114 
 
 Upon its twenty-fifth anniversary, March 30, 1895 
 
 Joseph C. Hendrix 119 
 
 At the twenty-fifth anniversary dinner, March 30, 1895 
 
 Sir Henry Irving 122 
 
 At the dinner in his honor, November 16, 1895 
 
 William Henry White 124 
 
 At the dinner to Sir Henry Irving, November 16, 1895 
 
 Parke Godwin 127 
 
 At the dinner to Jean and Edouard de Reszke, December 21, 1895 
 
 Charles A. Dana 130 
 
 At the dinner in his honor, January 16, 1896 
 
 Horace Porter 132 
 
 At the dinner to Charles A. Dana, January 16, 1896 
 
 Charles A. Dana 136 
 
 In reply to Horace Porter, January 16, 1896 
 
 Elihu Root 137 
 
 At the dinner to Charles A. Dana, January 16, 1896 
 
 Chauncey M. Depew 140 
 
 At the dinner in his honor, February 22, 1896 
 
 Seth Low 152 
 
 At the dinner to Chauncey M. Depew, February 22, 1896 
 
xii CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 EoswELL P. Flower 156 
 
 At the dinner to Chauneey M. Depew, February 22, 1896 
 
 Joseph Jefferson 158 
 
 At the dinner in his honor, April 4, 1896 
 
 Parke Godwin 163 
 
 At the dinner to Joseph Jefferson, April 4, 1896 
 
 Henry van Dyke 170 
 
 At the dinner to Joseph Jefferson, April 4, 1896 
 
 John A. Taylor 173 
 
 At the dinner to Joseph Jefferson, April 4, 1896 
 
 Simeon Ford 176 
 
 At the dinner to Joseph Jefferson, April 4, 1896 
 
 Joseph Jefferson 180 
 
 At the dinner in his honor, April 4, 1896 (Closing Speech) 
 
 John Watson (Ian Maclaren) 182 
 
 At the dinner in his honor, December 5, 1896 
 
 William Winter . . . . . . . 190 
 
 At the dinner to John Watson, December 6, 1896 
 
 Horace Porter 200 
 
 At the dinner in his honor, January 9, 1897 
 
 Henry van Dyke 205 
 
 At the dinner to Horace Porter, January 9, 1897 
 
 Charles Emory Smith 209 
 
 At the dinner to Horace Porter, January 9, 1897 
 
 Stewart L. Woodford 213 
 
 At the dinner to Horace Porter, January 9, 1897 
 
 William Winter 215 
 
 At the dinner in his honor, April 24, 1897 
 
 Anthony Hope Hawkins (Anthony Hope) . . 226 
 
 At the dinner in his honor, October 23, 1897 
 
CONTENTS xiii 
 
 PAGE 
 
 W. BOURKE COCKRAN 229 
 
 At tlie dinner to Anthony Hope Hawkins, October 23, 1897 
 
 John S. Wise 239 
 
 At the dirner to Anthony Hope Hawkins, October 23, 1897 
 
 Elihu Eoot 242 
 
 At the dinner to Anthony Hope Hawkins, October 23, 1897 
 
 Charles H. Van Brunt 245 
 
 At the dinner in his honor, December 4, 1897 
 
 Joseph H. Choate 247 
 
 At the dinner to Presiding Justice Van Brunt, December 4, 1897 
 
 Morgan J. O'Brien 253 
 
 At the dinner to Presiding Justice Van Brunt, December 4, 1897 
 
 Frank R. Lawrence 255 
 
 At the dinner to Lord HerscheU, November 5, 1898 
 
 Lord Herschell 258 
 
 At the dinner in his honor, November 5, 1898 
 
 W. BoURKE COOKRAN 264 
 
 At the dinner to Lord Herschell, November 5, 1898 
 
 Seth Low 274 
 
 At the dinner to Lord Herschell, November 5, 1898 
 
 Frank R. Lawrence 279 
 
 At the dinner to Rear -Admiral Schley, November 26, 1898 
 
 Winpield Scott Schley 284 
 
 At the dinner in his honor, November 26, 1898 
 
 Henry C. Potter 294 
 
 At the dinner to Rear -Admiral Schley, November 26, 1898 
 
 Wallace F. Randolph 297 
 
 At the dinner to Rear- Admiral Schley, November 26, 1898 
 
 Robert G-. Ingersoll 302 
 
 At the dinner to Rear- Admiral Schley, November 26, 1898 
 
xiv CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Whitelaw Reid 309 
 
 At the dinner in Ms honor, February 11, 1899 
 
 St. Clatr McKelway 315 
 
 At the dinner to Whitelaw Reid, Fehruary 11, 1899 
 
 Cbatjncey M. Depew 320 
 
 At the dinner in his honor, March 11, 1899 
 
 Theodore Roosevelt 328 
 
 At the dinner to Chauneey M. Depew, March 11, 1899 
 
 George H. Daniels 333 
 
 At the dinner to Chauneey M. Depew, March 11, 1899 
 
 Sir Henry Irving 335 
 
 At the dinner in his honor, October 28, 1899 
 
 David H. Greer 338 
 
 At the dinner to Sir Henry Irving, October 28, 1899 
 
 Charles William Stubbs 341 
 
 At the dinner to Sir Henry Irving, October 28, 1899 
 
 Edward C. James 346 
 
 At the dinner to Sir Henry Irving, October 28, 1899 
 
 Andrew Carnegie 351 
 
 At the dinner in his honor, January 27, 1900 
 
 Robert S. MacArthur 357 
 
 At the dinner to Andrew Carnegie, January 27, 1900 
 
 WiLLLO^ H. McElroy .363 
 
 At the dinner to Andrew Carnegie, January 27, 1900 
 
 Walter S. Logan 366 
 
 At the dinner to Andrew Carnegie, January 27, 1900 
 
 Frank R. Lawrence 369 
 
 At the dinner to Samuel L. Clemens, November 11, 1893 
 
 Frank R. Lawrence . . . . . . 371 
 
 At the dinner to Samuel L. Clemens, November 10, 1900 
 
CONTENTS XV 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain) . . . . 374 
 
 At the dinner in his honor, November 10, 1900 
 
 Thomas B. Reed 380 
 
 At the dinner to Samuel L. Clemens, November 10, 1900 
 
 Chauncey M. Depew 385 
 
 At the dinner to Samuel L. Clemens, November 10, 1900 
 
 WiLLLAM Dean Howells 394 
 
 At the dinner to Samuel L. Clemens, November 10, 1900 
 
 St. Clair McKelway 397 
 
 At the dinner to Samuel L. Clemens, November 10, 1900 
 
 Wu Ting Fang 402 
 
 At the dinner in his honor, December 15, 1900 
 
 Wayne McVeagh 408 
 
 At the dinner to Wu Ting Fang, December 15, 1900 
 
 Frank E. Lawrence 413 
 
 At the Yuletide dinner, January 5, 1901 
 
LIST OF PLATES 
 
 Frank E. Lawrence Frontispiece 
 
 Whitelaw Eeid Facing page 34 
 
 ^^ 
 
 Horace Porter . . 
 Chester S. Lord . . 
 William Henry White 
 Chauncey M. Depew . 
 Joseph Jefferson . . 
 w. bourke cockran 
 Charles H. Van Brunt 
 Morgan J. O'Brien . 
 Robert G-. Ingersoll 
 Andrew Carnegie 
 Group 
 
 58 
 80 
 108 
 140 
 180 
 230 
 244 
 252 
 302 
 352 
 374 
 
 Seated on Sofa (left to right): 
 
 Thomas B. Reed 
 Fkank R. Lawrence 
 Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain) 
 Chauncey M. Depew 
 
 Seated (extreme left): 
 Isaac N. Seligman 
 
 Seated (extreme right): 
 Thomas Bailey Aldrich 
 
 Standing (left to right): 
 
 John Kendrick Bangs 
 MoNCURE D. Conway 
 William Dean Howells 
 a. f. southerland 
 St. Clair McKelway 
 William Henry White 
 John Elderkin 
 William T. Evans 
 William Wallace Walker 
 David B. Sickels 
 George H. Daniels 
 Horatio N. Fraser 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 SINCE its organization in 1870 the Lotos Club has 
 been known and distinguished by the practice of 
 hospitality. The small parlors of its first house, No. 2 
 Irving Place, were the scene of frequent gatherings 
 for the reception and entertainment of men of distinc- 
 tion. These gatherings, whether they took the form 
 of reception or dinner, were enlivened by music, song, 
 and speech-making. There were many actors, artists, 
 journalists, and public men among the habitual atten- 
 dants of the club who took an active part in its affairs, 
 and the entertainments grew in importance until the 
 finest music and the best after-dinner speaking were 
 often to be heard there. Men of letters were the guests 
 especially sought out to honor, although visiting artists 
 and musicians were frequently entertained. The Lotos 
 has done a gracious and important service in greeting 
 eminent foreigners and bringing them in contact with 
 prominent Americans and those of congenial tastes. 
 
 The club owes to its literary and artistic member- 
 ship much of its freedom from artificial distinctions. 
 The primary questions in regard to the guest of honor 
 have been, What has he done ? What can he do ? As 
 was said by Wayne McVeagh at one of the late din- 
 ners in the present house, '^In this club nobody stands 
 upon anything except that on which Disraeli stood 
 
 xix 
 
XX INTRODUCTION 
 
 with pride when he stood for Parliament— on his 
 head." Nothing extraneous avails one who rises to 
 speak at the Lotos table; he must then show himself 
 to be capable of original thought and feeling, or he is 
 a lost man. Not that the members are unduly critical 
 or exacting, but that a wholesome, manly, personal con- 
 tribution of something apposite to the occasion is im- 
 perative. 
 
 On the twenty-fifth anniversary of the formation of 
 the Lotos it was deemed appropriate to issue a small 
 volume containing a brief history of the club, with 
 short selections from the after-dinner speeches. That 
 publication, which gave mere fragments of the feast of 
 good things, has proved so popular as to excite a desire 
 for a larger book, in which the best speeches should be 
 given, with only such unimportant excisions as the lapse 
 of time and the requirements of a volume for perma- 
 nent record rendered necessary. 
 
 In the choice of speeches for this volume the editors 
 have by no means exhausted the supply. Long pe- 
 riods in the life of the club have been passed over with- 
 out a contribution. This is in a measure due to the 
 fact that it was not until 1895 that systematic steno- 
 graphic reports were made of the speaking at the din- 
 ners. Only such fragmentary reports of the earlier 
 speeches as appeared in the daily newspapers and were 
 preserved in scrap-books were available for the pur- 
 pose of this compilation. While much has been omitted 
 that might well have found a place, it was thought 
 better to give preference, in making up the principal 
 part of the volume, to authoritative reports of what 
 was actually said. 
 
INTRODUCTION xxi 
 
 In choosing its presidents the Lotos Club has been 
 remarkably conservative. Whitelaw Reid filled the 
 place for fourteen years, and Frank R. Lawrence, who 
 succeeded him, has served continuously for twelve 
 years, and is about to enter on a thirteenth term ; thus 
 these two presiding officers are identified with nearly 
 all its public functions; indeed with all that are men- 
 tioned in this book. 
 
 In the preparation of the speeches for the press, 
 some of them have been submitted to the authors for 
 correction, but in many cases this was not feasible. 
 It seemed advisable to print all of them as nearly as 
 possible exactly as they had been delivered, so as to 
 preserve the freedom and spontaneity of the original 
 utterance. 
 
 An after-dinner speech is not to be judged by the 
 canons which are applied to elaborate orations; it is 
 rather to be regarded as the play of intellect and imagi- 
 nation under the influence of good-fellowship and keen 
 appreciation. While not altogether unpremeditated in 
 substance, it is often in form and allusion, in what is 
 most characteristic and telling, the offspring and im- 
 provisation of the moment of delivery. All recipes 
 for after-dinner speech-making, even the excellent one 
 imputed to James Russell Lowell by Dean Stubbs when 
 Sir Henry Irving was a guest, are merely crutches, of 
 little use to halting speakers. This view of the subject 
 has governed in the selection and editing of matter for 
 the present book. 
 
 If the prosperity of a jest resides as much in the ear 
 of the listener as in the tongue of the maker of it, then 
 surely the speakers at the Lotos dinners have been 
 
xxii INTRODUCTION 
 
 favored with a highly responsive body of co-laborers. 
 The club has furnished an educated, and indeed a pro- 
 fessional, audience. The membership from the begin- 
 ning has been largely of journalists, artists, authors, ac- 
 tors, physicians, lawyers, and business men of the most 
 intellectual and vigorous type, composing an audience 
 of successful men in the various callings of professional 
 and commercial life ; an audience which has embraced 
 young, middle-aged, and old men, although the pro- 
 portion of the last is possibly greater now than in the 
 earlier years of the club 's existence. How much of the 
 splendid success of the banquets at the Lotos, and of 
 the inexhaustible gaiety which has characterized them, 
 is due to this trained, sympathetic, and brilliant audi- 
 ence, and how much to the orators, this reproduction 
 in a printed book of the speeches which seemed so good 
 when delivered will now disclose. 
 
SPEECHES AT THE 
 LOTOS CLUB 
 
" To you, my hearers, fortunate children of the Lotos 
 flower, within the twenty-six years of your club life 
 has fallen the golden opportunity of personal com- 
 munion with some of the foremost men, whether of 
 action or of thought, who have arisen to guide and 
 illumine the age : Froude, who so royally depicted 
 the pageantry and pathos of the Past ; Grant, who 
 so superbly led the warrior legions of the Present ; 
 Charles Kingsley, with his deep and touching voice 
 of humanity ; Wilkie Collins, with his magic wand 
 of mystery and his weird note of romance ; Oliver 
 Wendell Holmes, the modern Theocritus, the most 
 comforting of philosophers ; Mark Twain, true and 
 tender heart, and first humorist of the age ; and 
 Henry Irving, noble gentleman and prince of 
 actors. Those bright names, and many more, will 
 rise in your glad remembrance ; and I know you will 
 agree that, in every case, when the generous mind 
 pays its homage to the worth of a great man, the im- 
 pulse is not that of adulation, but that of gi'atitude." 
 William Winter, at the dinner to Ian Maelaren, Dec. 6, 1896. 
 
CHAELES KINaSLEY 
 
 AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, FEBRUARY 15, 1872 
 
 I AM not accustomed to such kind words. Kind deeds 
 I am accustomed to in every part of the world. 
 Wherever I go I find plenty of kind people— I believe 
 the world is full of kind souls if one will be a little 
 kind one's self, and therefore take the small trouble 
 of finding them out. But, really, such kind words and 
 kind deeds as I have met with from Americans at home 
 and since I have been here I did not expect. One 
 thing I may say as a simple rejoinder to the too kind 
 speech that has just been made— that, whatever your 
 president has done me the honor to say in regard to 
 a certain book called "Alton Locke," I have never 
 regretted and I have never altered, except in one case, 
 which does not refer to any one here, a single word in 
 that book. That book was written out of my heart's 
 heart, and I go by that book whether I stand or fall. 
 It was the youngest and ugliest egg that I ever laid, 
 yet I am fondest of it. 
 
 As for cooperation, I bide my time about that. I 
 have not in vain read in old times books that are called 
 heretical, and would by some be called so now— poor, 
 half-mad, half-inspired Fourier and others of the old 
 social school. Fourier is dear to me to-day. I am, in the 
 true and highest sense of the word a socialist, and I 
 
 1 1 
 
2 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 have always been; not that I learned it from Fourier, 
 but from a man far older and wiser than Fourier— 
 my master, Plato. I read Plato in the public schools 
 when I was a lad, and Plato's republic has been the 
 lodestar and the guiding genius of my political and 
 social thought ; and I hope it will remain so until I die. 
 And, therefore, neither upon the question of coopera- 
 tion nor the questions started in '* Alton Locke" do 
 I regret a single word I have written, nor shall I with- 
 draw a single word. It may be, as one grows older, 
 one gets more and more the painful consciousness of the 
 difference between what ought to be done and what can 
 be done; and sits down rather more quietly when one 
 gets on the wrong side of fifty, and lets others start 
 up and do for us the things which we cannot do for 
 ourselves. But it is the highest pleasure that a man who 
 has turned down the long hill at last— and to his own 
 exceeding comfort— can have, to believe that younger 
 spirits will rise up after him and catch the lamp 
 of truth, as in the old lamp-bearing race of Greece, 
 out of his hand before the flame expires and carry it 
 on to the goal with swifter and more even feet. And 
 so I trust that whatever has been said and thought— not 
 by me, for I do not pretend to have thought out much, 
 but only by a native glibness of tongue and a deter- 
 mination of words to the mouth, to have put into some- 
 what more intelligible language the thoughts of wiser 
 and better men than myself —whatever has been said 
 and thought by the great men of whom I have learned, 
 I hope that younger men than myself will do me the 
 kindness and honor of snatching that lamp out of my 
 hands and passing it on to others. Then, whether 
 
CHARLES KINGSLEY 3 
 
 they leave me in darkness and in the background makes 
 very little difference to me, provided the lamp of 
 truth, which is the lamp of freedom, and the lamp of 
 wisdom, and the lamp of happiness, is kept alive and 
 brightly burning. 
 
 And why is the lamp of truth the lamp of free- 
 dom, of wisdom, of happiness ? Because it is the lamp 
 of obedience to facts. It is the spirit which takes facts 
 as they are, however painful to prejudice, however pain- 
 ful to pride, however painful to selfishness; the spirit 
 which takes the facts of humanity, the facts of society, 
 the facts of science, the facts of nature, the facts of 
 spirit, as they are, faces them like men, recognizes when 
 they are— as they often are, alas!— unconquerable, and 
 submits to them manfully, but, whenever it sees a chance 
 of conquering, conquers like a man. The spirit that ac- 
 cepts facts, that is the spirit of truth and happiness; 
 and as long as men will carry on the lamp we will show 
 them facts, without allowing them to fear facts, with- 
 out seeing them under I know not what glamour of 
 prejudice and blue-lights and fireworks of divers sorts, 
 which, if a man walk through them, neither burn nor 
 help him. If he will go through the fireworks and get 
 into the clear light outside, and look at the facts him- 
 self, then that man is carrying on that sacred lamp 
 which, when it has passed from my generation, will pass 
 into the hands of you younger men, and then to men 
 still younger than you, so long as you swear to be true, 
 not merely to your country, not merely to your con- 
 sciences, not merely to your creed, but swear to be true 
 to that which involves conscience, creed, country, and 
 altogether, as old Lord Bacon said, true to ''Dei vocem 
 
4 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 revelatam in rebus"— to the voice of God revealed in 
 facts. 
 
 I wish that every one here knew me as well as I 
 know myself. If I have other such receptions as this 
 in America I shall get out of it as soon as possible, 
 for fear you should find me out. I am very easily 
 found out. They say there is a great deal of the fool 
 in every man, and I never have known a man in my 
 life that had more of it than I. I have learned in 
 fifty-five years' experience never to go into a room 
 without saying to myself, *'You may be the most fool- 
 ish and may be the worst man in this room; therefore 
 treat all you meet in it with precautionary respect." 
 I have lived long enough to feel like the old post- 
 horse, very thankful when the end comes. But in the 
 meantime, gentlemen, joking apart, one thing I have 
 to say; you have paid me a very delicate compli- 
 ment, and one that has gone home to my heart, this 
 evening, in coupling my name with the two men with 
 whom I have grown up, and with whom, through thick 
 and thin, wind and storm, I have lived and loved, and 
 the two men whom I love best on earth now— Anthony 
 Froude and Thomas Hughes. 
 
JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE 
 
 AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, OCTOBER 12, 1872 
 
 I NEED not say that I thank you most heartily for 
 the kind reception which yon give me this evening. 
 It adds one more to the many kind acts of hospitality 
 which I have received in the short time I have been in 
 this country, and I must say, after the kind words 
 which your president has said to me, that when you do 
 things of this kind you know how to do them in an 
 exceedingly gracious manner. I need not at all go 
 into subjects which the president has so generously 
 touched relating to my experience. I suppose I have 
 experienced as much of the asperities of literary life 
 as falls to the lot of most people, and I feel rather 
 proud to say that I have survived them up to the pres- 
 ent time. Here I am, and here I hope to be for a short 
 time to come. As to the reception here this evening, 
 I should like to thank you, not only for myself, but in 
 the name of our common profession. I myself was the 
 editor of a London magazine and upon the daily press, 
 and therefore deem myself one of the members of the 
 great profession which has so much to do in the prog- 
 ress of mankind. I am very glad to say that there is 
 a sort of freemasonry among journalists, and I recog- 
 nize and feel myself here among friends and brothers. 
 
 1* 5 
 
6 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 That it may be my good fortune, if any of yon should 
 ever come to London, to entertain you is certainly my 
 hope, and it will be my task, and the same I may say 
 of every member of the profession to which I belong in 
 London. We are always proud to feel that Americans 
 are our companions and brothers in arms. 
 
WILKIE COLLINS 
 
 AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, SEPTEMBER 27, 1873 
 
 MANY years ago— more years than I now quite 
 like to reckon— I was visiting Sorrento, in the 
 Bay of Naples, with my father, mother, and brothers, 
 as a boy of thirteen. At that time of my life I was 
 an insatiable reader of that order of books for which 
 heavy people have invented the name of light litera- 
 ture. In due course of time I exhausted the modest 
 resources of the library which we had brought to 
 Naples, and found myself faced with the necessity of 
 borrowing from the resources of our fellow-travelers, 
 summer residents of Sorrento like ourselves. Among 
 them was a certain countryman of yours, very tall, 
 very lean, very silent, and very melancholy. In what 
 circumstances the melancholy of this gentleman took 
 its rise I am not able to tell you. The ladies thought 
 it was a disappointment in love. The men attributed 
 it to a cause infinitely more serious than that — I mean 
 indigestion. Whether he suffered in heart or whether 
 he suffered in stomach, I took, I remember, a boy's 
 unreasonable fancy to him, passing over dozens of other 
 people apparently far more acceptable than he was. 
 I ventured to look up to the tall American— it was a 
 long way to look up— and said in a trembling voice, 
 * ' Can you lend me a book to read ? ' ' He looked down 
 
 7 
 
8 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 to me— it was a long way to look down— and said, ^*I 
 have got but two amusing books. One of them is the 
 * Sorrows of Werther' and the other is the 'Sentimental 
 Journey.' You are heartily welcome to both these 
 books. Take them home, and when you have read 
 them bring them back and dine with me and tell me 
 what you think of them. ' ' I took them home and read 
 them, and told him what I thought of them much more 
 freely than I would now. And last, not least, I had 
 an excellent dinner, crowned with cake, which was an 
 epoch in my youthful existence, and which I may say 
 lives gratefully and greasily in my memory to the 
 present day. 
 
 Now, Mr. President and gentlemen, I venture to tell 
 you this for one reason. It marks my first experience 
 of American kindness and American hospitality. In 
 many different ways this early expression of your kind- 
 ness and hospitality has mingled in my after life, now 
 in England, now on the Continent, until it has culmi- 
 nated in this magnificent reception. I am not only 
 gratified but touched by the manner in which you have 
 greeted me, and the cordiality with which the remarks 
 of your president have been received. I venture to 
 say that I see in this reception something more than a 
 recognition of my humble labors only. I think I see 
 a recognition of English literature, liberal, spontane- 
 ous, and sincere, which, I think, is an honor to you as 
 well as an honor to me. In the name of English litera- 
 ture, I beg gratefully to thank you. 
 
LORD HOUaHTON 
 
 (RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES) 
 AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, NOVEMBER 21, 1875 
 
 I AM not unaware of the special value of the present 
 compliment. I know that here the Lotos Club has 
 received Mr. Fronde, the most original of English his- 
 torians, who glanced around this room with brilliant 
 eye, like that of a frightened horse. Here, too, Canon 
 Kingsley has thrilled you with an urgent eloquence 
 like a voice of departing genius; and here, too, has 
 been received the promise of future English statesman- 
 ship in young Lord Rosebery. I feel myself, there- 
 fore, under the obligation of answering as clearly and 
 powerfully as I can a question not of rare occurrence, 
 which I am conscious that every one of my hearers is 
 putting to me in his heart, ''What do you think of 
 our country?" As to another not infrequent form of 
 interrogation, "Do you admire our Constitution?" I 
 would state with the utmost candor and the most care- 
 ful consideration that I must ask leave to reserve my 
 opinion. On one other question I have no difficulty. 
 America is eminent for the beauty of her women. At 
 my time of life I am no fair witness on that subject, 
 but I would offer the more valuable testimony of my 
 son, a young man of some talent and perception, seven- 
 teen years of age, who has gone home with that expres- 
 
 9 
 
10 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 sion on his lips and this impression on his heart. In 
 this sense, therefore, I fully admire the youth of 
 America, but I am not prepared to impersonate the 
 country herself exactly in that respect. Americans are 
 very fond of appealing to their youth. When any- 
 thing goes wrong or seems incomplete or disappoint- 
 ing they say, *'You should remember how young we 
 are." Now, I am not prepared entirely to admit that 
 pretension. In all that constitutes a nation, in the 
 aggregation of thought, in the expansion of ideas, 
 America has all the experience of the Europe from 
 which she came, added to the interest and vivacity 
 which she has gained from transportation to a novel 
 hemisphere. She has indeed that charm of middle life 
 and that combination of full, luscious beauty and ma- 
 ture intelligence which a great French novelist imper- 
 sonated in the ' ' Pemme de Quarante Ans. ' * Balzac him- 
 self may have taken his notion from the old anecdote 
 of a Frenchman giving to his son two counsels on his 
 entry into the world : "Listen to the old men, and make 
 love to the women of forty." 
 
 This is the advice I would now repeat. Love your 
 America with all the devotion she deserves, and do not 
 disregard the words and thoughts of veteran Europe. 
 As an allusion has been made to me both as a poet and 
 politician, it might not be unbecoming for me to say 
 that I have done my best to reconcile whatever imagi- 
 native faculty I may possess to the practical business 
 of the world and its political action. I was for twenty- 
 five years a member of the House of Commons, and 
 afterward of the other branch of Parliament, and I 
 believe that, taken as a whole, no man's life suffers 
 
LORD HOUGHTON 11 
 
 from a mixture of the real and the ideal. I know I 
 am addressing the Lotos Club, a society whose funda- 
 mental principle has been expressed in the melodious 
 verses of one of the latest and not least of American 
 poets, Joaquin Miller: 
 
 It seems to me that Mother Earth 
 Is weary from eternal toil 
 And bringing forth by fretted soil, 
 
 In all the agonies of birth. 
 
 Sit down ! sit down ! So it were best 
 
 That we should rest, that she should rest. 
 
 I think we then shaU aU be glad, 
 
 At least I know we are not now ; 
 Not one. And even Earth, somehow. 
 
 Seems growing old and over-sad. 
 
 Then fold your hands -, for it were best 
 
 That we should rest, that she should rest. 
 
 Somehow or other, I hardly think that my present 
 audience is quite so purely contemplative, quite so en- 
 tirely free from all worldly interests and secular mo- 
 tives as your nomenclature would imply. And you 
 are right. If you lived exclusively in a sphere of lit- 
 erature and art, you would be living solely for your- 
 selves, but now you are mixing in daily life with other 
 men, taking upon yourselves high responsibilities, and 
 leavening with your thoughts and objects the hard and 
 heavy destiny of the common multitude of mankind. 
 You are in truth an aristocracy, quite as real as, and 
 in your ultimate action more powerful than, the sena- 
 tors of Venice, the barons of England, or the grandees 
 of Spain. It is your mission to lead on this magnifi- 
 
12 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 cent country in the van of civilization of the world, 
 to give form and permanence to what would otherwise 
 have been a fleeting development of material force, to 
 give dignity to wealth and consolation to poverty, and 
 to stifle the jealousies of the elder world at any possi- 
 ble expansion of the dominion of the new by making 
 it coincident with the progressive development of man. 
 
BAYARD TAYLOE 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO LORD HOUGHTON, NOVEMBER 21, 1875 
 
 DURING the last fifteen or twenty years we have 
 had frequent opportunities of welcoming distin- 
 guished English authors— writers of fiction, like Thack- 
 eray, Dickens, and Wilkie Collins, historians and essay- 
 ists—but Lord Houghton is the first English poet whom 
 Americans have had the pleasure of receiving as a 
 guest. I do not mean to deny that title to Canon 
 Eangsley, whose prose works, however, are more promi- 
 nent. I am glad to notice that in the many hospi- 
 talities which Lord Houghton has received, the first, 
 most cordial greeting has been given to the poet. And 
 I desire specially to thank him now for the wise and en- 
 couraging words which he has spoken, both to-night 
 and on former occasions, concerning the importance of 
 literature as an element of our national civilization. 
 We greatly need such words ; but an American author 
 could hardly utter them without subjecting himself to 
 the charge of magnifying his office for the sake of 
 some personal interest. When we hear them from one 
 who is himself an exemplification of the truth that 
 poetry is a help, not a hindrance, to practical labor in 
 other fields of life— that the man of shy and delicate 
 imagination may still be the large-hearted man of so- 
 ciety—and, finally, that the sympathies which literary 
 
 13 
 
14 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 studies promote may also become the wisdom of the 
 statesman; their authority cannot be disputed. 
 
 I said that Lord Houghton is the first English poet 
 to visit America; but I quite forgot Tom Moore, who 
 spent two or three months here in 1804. It would have 
 been quite as well, perhaps, if he had not come, for 
 what he saw was apparently not edifying to him, and 
 what he wrote was certainly not edifying to us. He 
 visited Washington when Thomas Jefferson was Presi- 
 dent, and could find no other epithet for that states- 
 man than ''the rebel chief. ^' I am sure that Lord 
 Houghton's proposal that we, in the interest of his- 
 tory, should restore the statue of George III to Bowling 
 Green is not made in that spirit; for he offers, in re- 
 turn, to have the statue of Washington placed in the 
 Houses of Parliament. But let us hope that it will 
 not be seventy-one years before the next English poet 
 comes here to find out how well we know him. Let us 
 beg Lord Houghton to say to his English brethren in 
 literature that, although we may not be— as one of 
 them has said— Posterity, we are a warm, sympathetic, 
 and broadly receptive cotemporary race. 
 
 I should like to tell you, very briefly, of my personal 
 obligations to Lord Houghton as an author. I read 
 ''The Men of Old" and the "Legend of the Lac de 
 Gaube" as a boy of seventeen, when I was still under 
 the spell of Byron and found that Wordsworth was 
 a little too high for me. These and other of his poems 
 formed the bridge upon which I crossed from Byron 
 to Wordsworth. I still recall four lines of the "Legend 
 of the Lac de Gaube" which charmed me then and 
 have haunted me ever since. Whenever I have come 
 
BAYARD TAYLOR 15 
 
 upon a lonely, snow-fed lake in the high Alps, the 
 Sierra Nevada, the Rocky Mountains, the Norwegian 
 Dorr e-Fj eld, or anjnvhere else in the world, I have 
 always repeated to myself: 
 
 A mirror where the veteran rocks 
 May glass their seams and scars ; 
 
 A nether sky where breezes break 
 The sunshine into stars. 
 
EDMUND YATES 
 
 AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, MARCH 8, 1877 
 
 OF all public bodies in this city with which I have 
 been brought into friendly relations, the Lotos 
 Club is the one which, had the opportunity been of- 
 fered to me, I should most have wished to give me this 
 farewell banquet, to say to me these words of God- 
 speed. For when my intention of visiting this coun- 
 try was first announced, and when I was yet in my own ■ 
 land, the Lotos Club proffered to me its hand of wel- 
 coming friendship and on my arrival accorded me a 
 hearty reception and offered me its privileges. This 
 I know was an act of graceful hospitality generally 
 practised by this genial club to strangers whose names 
 are in any way known, but when I found that the tem- 
 porary privileges of the use of the club had, without 
 solicitation on my part, been converted into a per- 
 manent life membership, and when I see that those 
 who greeted me as a stranger are gathered around me 
 after a six months ' acquaintance to take farewell of me 
 as a friend, I think I have reason to be no little proud. 
 Gentlemen, these past six months have been to me the 
 most gratifying of my whole life. I shall never for- 
 get the heart-sinking with which I contemplated the 
 roofs and spires of New York from the Cunard steamer 
 as we slowly steamed into dock. I had voluntarily cut 
 
 16 
 
EDMUND YATES 17 
 
 away the links which for twenty years had bound me 
 to government employ, and was about to commence a 
 new career among a people to whom, as I imagined, 
 I was a stranger. The first persons to dispel that un- 
 pleasant idea were the members of this club. From 
 their first reception of me to the present moment my 
 career in America has been one of tolerably hard work 
 indeed, but of hard work which has been lightened by 
 the most boundless hospitality, the most constant cour- 
 tesy, the most delicate, yet genial appreciation. I 
 came to America in fear and trembling. I leave it 
 with feelings of affection and gratitude, and though I 
 have no doubt that my heart will again sink within me 
 when on Wednesday next I stand on the deck of the 
 Calabria and your glorious city melts into the distance, 
 the sensation will be caused by regret at parting from 
 those who have given me their friendship and whom I 
 hope speedily to see again. 
 
 This is all about myself and you, and I intended that 
 it should be. Some years ago it might have been op- 
 portune in me to express a hope that better relations 
 might be cultivated between your country and mine, 
 but I trust in God that there is no necessity for this 
 now. Only one word will I say upon this subject. In 
 a friendly article in one of your newspapers, this very 
 morning, I saw myself alluded to as an 'intelligent and 
 kindly foreigner." I am sure that I but express the 
 general opinion of my countrymen in saying that we 
 should be very glad if in speaking of us you would 
 forego that word. I am convinced that it in no way 
 conveys the warmth of feeling and kinship with which 
 the better classes of both countries regard each other. 
 
18 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 If you will lend your aid to the substitution of warmer 
 terms— if you will, in your position as authors, jour- 
 nalists, and members of society, endeavor to convince 
 the masses of this great continent that there are Eng- 
 lishmen who can open their mouths without saying 
 ''blarsted," and without unnecessarily aspirating the 
 h's, I pledge myself to state everywhere in my own 
 country that during my residence in this I have never 
 been called "old hoss," I have never heard the word 
 ' ' tarnation, ' ' and that I have never seen a man ' ' whit- 
 tling a stick.'' 
 
 And now, gentlemen, as I am approaching the hard- 
 est word in my little speech, "Farewell,"— 
 
 A word that has been, and must be : 
 A sound that makes us linger, — 
 
 I find that I cannot quite trust my voice to utter it, 
 and so gladly accept Mr. Reid's suggestion, and sub- 
 stitute the pleasanter phrase, "Au revoir." For your 
 generous recognition of me at first, and for your con- 
 tinued friendship, I return you my deepest and most 
 heartfelt thanks. 
 
JOHN GILBEET 
 
 AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, NOVEMBER 30, 1878 
 
 «/^^SAR, we who are about to die salute you/' 
 V-^ Such W£LS the gladiators' cry in the arena, stand- 
 ing face to face with death. There is a certain apposite- 
 ness in the words I have just uttered that probably may 
 correspond to my position. Understand me, I do not 
 mean to die theatrically at present, but when a man 
 has arrived at my age he can scarcely look forward to 
 very many years of professional exertion. When my 
 old friend John Brougham (Mr. Brougham, I am not 
 going to die just yet) announced to me the honor that 
 the Lotos Club proffered me, I was flattered and compli- 
 mented. But I said, ' ' John, you know I am no speech- 
 maker. ' ' He replied, "Say anything. " ' ' Anything ? ' ' 
 I said. ' ^ Anything won 't do. " " Then, ' ' said he, ' ' re- 
 peat the first speech of Sir Peter Teazle: 'When an old 
 bachelor marries a young wife, what is he to expect ? ' " 
 Well, I think I can paraphrase that and say, "When a 
 young man enters the theatrical profession, what is he 
 to expect ? ' ' Well, he may expect a good many things 
 that are never realized. However, suf&ce it to say that 
 fifty years ago I made my debut as an actor in my 
 native city of Boston. I commenced in the first-class 
 character of Jaffier in Otway's charming tragedy of 
 "Venice Preserved." The public said it was a suc- 
 
 19 
 
20 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 cess, and I thought it was. The manager evidently- 
 thought it was, too, for he let me repeat the character. 
 Well, I suppose it was a success for a young man with 
 such aspirations as I had. There might have been some 
 inspiration about it— at least there ought to have been, 
 for the lady who personated Belvidera was Mrs. Duff, 
 a lovely woman and the most exquisite tragic actress 
 that I ever saw from that period to the present. After 
 this I acted two or three parts, Mortimer, Shylock, and 
 some of those little trifling characters, with compara- 
 tive success. But shortly after, and wisely, I went into 
 the ranks to study my profession— not to commence at 
 the top and go to the bottom, but to begin at the bot- 
 tom and go to the top, if possible. As a young man I 
 sought for pastures fresh and new. I went to the 
 south and west, my ambition still being, as is that of 
 all youthful aspirants for dramatic honors, for tragedy. 
 At last I went to a theater, and, to my great disgust 
 and indignation, I was cast for an old man— at the age 
 of nineteen. However, I must do it. There was no 
 alternative, and I did it. I received applause. I 
 played a few more old men. I found at last that that 
 was my point, my forte, and I followed it up, and after 
 this long lapse of years I still continue in that depart- 
 ment. I went to England and was received with kind- 
 ness and cordiality, and returning to my own country, 
 in 1862 I was invited to join Wallack's Theatre, under 
 the management of the father of my dear friend here, 
 Lester Wallack— his father, whom I am proud to ac- 
 knowledge as a friend of fifty years and my dramatic 
 master. I need not tell you that since that time I have 
 been under the direction of his son. What my career 
 
JOHN GILBERT 21 
 
 has been up to the present time you all know. It re- 
 quires no comment from me. I am no longer a young 
 man, but I do not think I am an old man. I owe this 
 to a good constitution and moderately prudent life. I 
 may say with Shakspere 's Adam that, 
 
 In my youth I never did apply 
 Hot and rebelHous hquors in my blood, . . . 
 Therefore my age is as a lusty winter, 
 Frosty but kindly. 
 
 [The president then introduced John Brougham, who 
 said : Upon an event like this the ovation should all be 
 given to my old— my young friend, John Gilbert. He 
 is old only in a theatrical sense. He is not much older 
 —not much younger, I mean— than I am. I believe 
 absolutely with the Frenchman, that a woman is as 
 old as she looks and a man is as old as he feels. I 
 feel as well as ever I did. And I do not feel that I 
 look so much older than I feel, and let me say here, as 
 a word of warning to our younger friends, that the 
 way to enjoy your life and to prolong it is to econo- 
 mize your enjoyments— which I take credit to myself 
 by saying that I have always done. John has passed 
 his half century of life— and so have I. He has only 
 the advantage of me by about three months. In con- 
 clusion, I will only say to you who have honored my 
 friend that there are none more prompt than myself 
 and my friend John Gilbert to respond to any kindness 
 or attention wherever it may be proposed.] 
 
 2* 
 
WILLIAM WINTEE 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO JOHN GILBERT, NOVEMBER 30, 1878 
 
 I THANK you gratefully for this kind welcome, and 
 I think it is a privilege to be allowed to take part 
 in a festival so delightful as this, and to join with you 
 in paying respect to a name so justly renowned and 
 honored as that of John Gilbert. I cannot hope ade- 
 quately to respond to the personal sentiments which 
 have been so graciously expressed, nor adequately to 
 celebrate the deeds and the virtues of your distin- 
 guished guest. *'I am ill at these numbers; . . . 
 but such answer as 1 can make you shall command.'^ 
 For since first I became familiar with the stage— in 
 far-away days, in old Boston— John Gilbert has been 
 the fulfilment of one of my highest ideals of excellence 
 in the dramatic art, and it would be hard if I could 
 not now say this, if not with eloquence at least with 
 fervor. I am aware of a certain strangeness, however, 
 in the thought that words, in his presence and to his 
 honor, should be spoken by me. The freaks of time 
 and fortune are, indeed, strange. I cannot but re- 
 member that, when John Gilbert was yet in the full 
 flush of his young manhood and already crowned with 
 the laurels of success, the friend who is now speaking 
 was a boy at his sports— playing around the old Fed- 
 eral Street Theatre and beneath the walls of the 
 Franklin Street Cathedral, and hearing, upon the broad 
 
 22 
 
WILLIAM WINTER 23 
 
 causeway of Pearl Street, the rustle and patter of the 
 autumn leaves as they fell from the chestnuts around 
 the Perkins Institute and the elms that darkened the 
 somber, deserted castle of Harris's Folly. With this sense 
 of strangeness, though, comes a sense, still more striking 
 and impressive, of the turbulent, active, and brilliant 
 period through which John Gilbert has lived. Byron 
 had been dead but four years, and Scott and Words- 
 worth were still writing, when he began to act. Goethe 
 was still alive. The works of Thackeray and Dickens 
 were yet to be created. Cooper, Irving, Bryant, Hal- 
 leck, and Percival were the literary lords of that pe- 
 riod in America. The star of Willis was ascending, 
 while those of Hawthorne and Poe were yet to rise; 
 and dramas of Talfourd, Knowles, and Bulwer were 
 yet to be seen by him as fresh contributions to the lit- 
 erature of the stage. All these great names are writ- 
 ten now in the book of death. All that part of old 
 Boston to which I have referred— the scene equally of 
 Gilbert's birth and youth and first successes, and of 
 his tender retrospection— has been swept away or en- 
 tirely changed. Gone is the old Federal Street Thea- 
 tre. Gone that quaint English lane, with the cozy 
 tobacconist's shop which he used to frequent. Gone 
 the hospitable Stackpole, where, many a time, at ''the 
 latter end of a sea-coal fire," he heard the chimes at 
 midnight from the spire of the Old South Church! 
 But, though ' ' the spot where many a time he triumphed 
 is forgot," his calm and gentle genius and his hale 
 physique have endured in unabated vigor, so that he 
 who has charmed two generations of playgoers still 
 happily lives to charm the men and women of to-day. 
 
24 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 Webster, Choate, Felton, Everett, Rantoul, Shaw, Bart- 
 lett, Lunt, Hallet, Starr King, Bartol, Kirk— these and 
 many more, the old worthies of the bar, the bench, and 
 the pulpit, in Boston's better days of intellect and 
 taste — all saw him, as we see him, in the silver- 
 gray elegance and exquisite perfection with which he 
 illustrates the comedies of England. His career has 
 impinged upon the five great cities of Boston, New Or- 
 leans, Philadelphia, London, and New York. It touches 
 at one extreme the ripe fame of Munden (who died in 
 1832), and, freighted with all the rich traditions of 
 the stage, it must needs, at its other extreme, transmit, 
 even into the next century, the high mood, the scholar- 
 like weight, and the pure style of the finest strain of 
 acting that Time has bestowed upon civilized man. 
 By what qualities it has been distinguished this bril- 
 liant assemblage is full well aware. The dignity, 
 which is its grandeur; the sincerity, which is its truth; 
 the thoroughness, which is its massive substance; the 
 sterling principle, which is its force ; the virtue, which 
 is its purity; the scholarship, mind, humor, taste, ver- 
 satile aptitude of simulation and beautiful grace of 
 method, which are its powerful and delightful facul- 
 ties and attributes, have all been brought home to your 
 minds and hearts by the living and conquering genius 
 of the man himself! I have often lingered in fancy 
 upon the idea of that strange, diversified, wonderful 
 procession— here the dazzling visage of Garrick, there 
 the woeful face of Mossop; here the glorious eyes of 
 Kean, there the sparkling loveliness of Woffington, Ab- 
 ington, Jordan, and Nesbitt— which moves, through 
 the chambers of memory, across the old and storied 
 
WILLIAM WINTER 25 
 
 stage. The thoaight is endless in its suggestion and 
 fascinating in its charm. How often, in the chimney- 
 corner of life, shall we— whose privilege it has been to 
 rejoice in the works of this great comedian, and whose 
 happiness it is to cluster around him to-night, in love 
 and admiration— conjure up and muse upon his stately 
 figure as we have seen him in the garb of Sir Peter, 
 and Sir Bohert, and Jaques, and Wolsey, and Elmore! 
 The ruddy countenance, the twinkling gray eyes, the 
 silver hair, the kind smile, the hearty voice, the old- 
 time courtesy of manner— how tenderly will they be 
 remembered! how dearly are they prized! Scholar! 
 Actor! Gentleman! Long may he be spared to dig- 
 nify and adorn the stage— a soother of our cares, a 
 comfort to our hearts, an exemplar, a benefactor, a 
 friend !— the Edelweiss of his age and of our affections ! 
 
 Where, pure and pale, the starlight streams 
 
 Far down the Alpine slope. 
 Still through eternal winter gleams 
 
 The snowy flower of hope : 
 Undimmed by cloud, undrenched by tears, 
 
 So may his laurel last — • 
 While shines o'er all his future years 
 
 The rainbow of the past ! 
 
 Far, far from him the mournful hour 
 
 That brings the final call 
 And o'er his scenes of grace and power 
 
 Fate lets the curtain fall 5 
 And, oh, when sounds that knell of worth, 
 
 To his pure soul be given 
 A painless exit from the earth, 
 
 And entrance into Heaven ! 1 
 1 Copyriglit by the Macmillan Company, of New York. 
 
WILLIAM S. aiLBEET 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO WILLIAM S. GILBERT AND ARTHUR 
 SULLIVAN, NOVEMBER 9, 1879 
 
 AS my friend Sullivan and myself were driving to 
 Jl\. this club this evening, both of us being very ner- 
 vous and sensitive men, and both of us men who are 
 highly conscious of our oratorical defects and deficien- 
 cies, and having before us vividly the ordeal awaiting 
 us, we cast about for a comparison of our then condi- 
 tion. We likened ourselves to two authors driving 
 down to a theatre at which a play of theirs was to 
 be played the first time. The thought was somewhat 
 harassing, but we dismissed it, however, because we 
 remembered that there was always the even chance of 
 success, whereas in the performance in which we were 
 about to take part there was no prospect of aught but 
 humiliating failure. We were rather in the position 
 of prisoners surrendering to their bail, and we beg of 
 you to extend to us your most merciful consideration. 
 But it is expected of me, perhaps, that in replying to 
 this toast with which your chairman has so kindly cou- 
 pled my name, I shall do so in a tone of the lightest 
 possible comedy. I had almost said that I am sorry to 
 say that I can't do so; but, in truth, I am not sorry. 
 A man who has been welcomed as we have been here, by 
 the leaders in literature and art in this city, a man who 
 
 26 
 
WILLIAM S. GILBERT 27 
 
 could look upon that welcome as a string upon which 
 to hang a series of small jokes, would show that he was 
 responding to an honor to which he was not entitled. 
 For it is no light thing to come to a country which 
 we have been taught to regard as a foreign country, 
 and to find ourselves, in the best sense of the word, 
 "at home" among a people whom we are taught to 
 regard as strangers, but whom we are astonished to 
 find are our intimate friends ; and that proffered friend- 
 ship is so dear to us that I am disposed, on behalf of 
 my collaborator and myself, to stray somewhat from 
 the beaten paths of after-dinner oratory, and endeavor 
 to justify ourselves in respect to a matter in which we 
 have some reason to feel that we have been misrepre- 
 sented. I have seen in several London journals well- 
 meant but injudicious paragraphs saying that we have 
 a grievance against the New York managers because 
 they have played our pieces and have offered us no 
 share of the profits. We have no grievance whatever. 
 Our only complaint is that there is no international 
 copyright act. The author of a play in which there 
 is no copyright is very much in the position of an au- 
 thor or the descendants of an author whose copyright 
 has expired. I am not aware that our London pub- 
 lishers are in the habit of seeking the descendants of 
 Sir Walter Scott, or Lord Byron, or Captain Marryat 
 and offering them a share of the profits on their pub- 
 lications. I have yet to learn that our London man- 
 agers seek out the living representatives of Oliver Gold- 
 smith, or Richard Brinsley Sheridan, or William 
 Shakspere in order to pay them any share of the profits 
 from the production of ''She Stoops to Conquer," or 
 
28 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 the " Good-Natured Man," or the ''Merchant of Yen- 
 ice." If they do so, they do it on the principle that 
 the left hand knows not what the right hand doeth, 
 and as we have not heard of it, we presume, therefore, 
 that they have not done so. And we believe if those 
 eminent men were to request a share of the, profits they 
 would be met with the reply that the copyright on those 
 works had expired. And so, if we should suggest it to 
 the managers of this country, they would perhaps 
 reply, with at least equal justice, Gentlemen, your copy- 
 right never existed. For myself, I certainly don 't pose 
 as an object of compassion. 
 
HOEACE PORTER 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO CHARLES G. LELAND, FEBRUARY 1, 1880 
 
 I CAN hardly tell you I am taken by surprise, since 
 it is as much as a minute since your president 
 winked at me. The Scripture saith, ' ' He that winketh 
 with the eye causeth sorrow." I have never before so 
 keenly felt the force of Scripture. I can easily under- 
 stand why it might be thought advisable to call me 
 out. It was supposed, no doubt, that the distinguished 
 guest of the evening would more readily understand 
 my dialect. For where I was raised we plume our- 
 selves on the purity of our German accent, and in the 
 presence of this great master of dialect it may not be 
 amiss for me to call your attention to the fact that in 
 this great country, people in the various parts of it 
 pride themselves upon the peculiarity of their dialects. 
 There is the ''Down-East Yankee," for instance, 
 brought up in those peculiar, rigid notions of economy 
 that prevail in New England, who in his speech follows 
 out his economical teaching and endeavors to save the 
 wear on his throat by talking through his nose. There 
 are our Southern friends who spill their r's with as 
 much prodigality as Englishmen drop their h's; and 
 others on the Pacific coast who have a sort of bric-a- 
 brac language, a kind of broken china. And when we 
 come to our own capital city of New York, we notice 
 
 29 
 
30 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 the peculiarity of dialects among this mongrel race, 
 springing from the Flathead Indians of this island 
 and the flat-footed Dutchmen from abroad. I think 
 we have another dialect, even in the present day, at 
 least so far as the city officials are concerned. It 
 seems that they speak the Indian dialect of their pro- 
 genitors. You have all doubtless had occasion, if you 
 approached an official in the way of asking a favor, 
 to find that you could never make yourself properly 
 understood unless you "talked Indian" to him. 
 
 I once tried to travel through Germany on my Penn- 
 sylvania dialect. When Germans did n't understand 
 a word I said it was certainly no fault of mine, but a 
 painful misfortune that they had not been raised in 
 the State of Pennsylvania. When I was in Germany 
 they addressed me in various ways. They would spin 
 out a sentence in that elastic language attenuated to 
 the thinness of a cobweb, and if I did not show signs 
 of comprehension they would telescope the whole sen- 
 tence into one confused word and try me with that. 
 I went on for about two days, and did not understand 
 a word. I began to feel lonesome, and the more people 
 came up to me the more lonesome I felt. It reminded 
 me of my early days, when I and a few other cadets at 
 West Point obtained a furlough and came to New 
 York to have a good time. One of the party during 
 dinner drank too much ; he got through the demonstra- 
 tive stage, and at length worked up everything in the 
 form of an equation. Finally he came to the conclu- 
 sion to accompany us to the pantomime at Niblo 's. We 
 told him to "brace up and pull himself together"; he 
 could go and see what it was like, and then come away. 
 
HORACE PORTER 31 
 
 He linked his arms in ours, and we got down to the thea- 
 tre. The pantomime went on, and he watched with in- 
 tense interest the violent gesticulations of the actors, not 
 a word being spoken. He leaned over his seat, put his 
 hand to his ear, and when the curtain went down he 
 remarked : ' ' I say, I am drunker than I thought I was ; 
 I have n't understood a word that has been said in the 
 whole play.'' 
 
 That is just the way it was with me in Germany. 
 Finally it became absolutely necessary for me to know 
 whether a certain train went through to Berlin; I re- 
 hearsed my grammar, and, gathering together certain 
 fragments of that disjointed language, I called the 
 conductor and hurled at his head the following verbal 
 projectile. I knew if it struck home I should be apt 
 to hear from him. 
 
 ''Geht diser zug nach Berlin one vechsel?" He 
 turned upon me with a look I shall never forget. 
 **Mein Gott in Himmel!" he said. ''What a tam fine 
 kind of German is that which you here speak ! ' ' 
 
 Now, I only mention this to show that when one with 
 a foreign education finds such difficulty in wrestling 
 with the German vernacular, we should look with kindly 
 eyes on Hans Breitmann in his efforts to employ the 
 English language. 
 
 Now, simply thanking you, as all will, for the great 
 pleasure we have derived from your work, let me also 
 thank the Lotos Club for the enjoyment of this occa- 
 sion. When I look around upon these groaning boards 
 I think of one of Sherman's bummers down in South 
 Carolina during the war. The regiment was ordered 
 one morning to strap their ammunition on their shoul- 
 
32 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 ders and ford a river. This river had swamps six 
 miles on either side of it, and this bummer, while cross- 
 ing, turjied round to his comrade and said : ' ' Bill, I 'm 
 blowed if I don't believe we have struck this 'ere river 
 lengthways." Now, sir, when I look around upon the 
 length and breadth of the superb hospitalities you have 
 spread out before us to-night I think with each invited 
 guest here that we have struck this hospitality length- 
 wise. 
 
WHITELAW EEID 
 
 (PRESIDENT OP THE CLUB) 
 AT THE DECENNIAL DINNER, MARCH 28, 1880 
 
 FOR a long time this was the youngest club in New 
 York. That was its distinction. But this would 
 put it now in a hard case, for that distinction it has 
 lost. It has weathered the panics and survived the 
 dinners of a decade. Now, ten years, I am instructed, 
 are to a club what twenty-one are to a man ; and so our 
 guardians and tyrants, the directory, have made a 
 dinner and invited in the friends and neighbors to 
 celebrate Young Hopeful's coming of age. 
 
 The Lotos Club was originally intended as a sort of 
 common meeting- ground for the younger men in art, 
 literature, music, the drama, journalism, and other pro- 
 fessions. But it is a lamentable fact that those younger 
 men are not so young now as they were ten years ago. 
 Looking at the snowy beard of Macdonald, or the thin- 
 ner locks of Depew, or the wasting frame of the ema- 
 ciated Hammond, you might even deny that they are 
 young men at all. At any rate, the juvenility which 
 used to be thrown up to them as a reproach is no 
 longer regarded by them in that light. If our friends 
 and guests wish to pay them the rarest and most gra- 
 cious compliment they have only to begin by address- 
 ing them as *' Young gentlemen." But try that magic 
 formula, and you shall see Eichard 'Gorman and 
 John Brougham and Tait and Lathers and a score of 
 
 3 33 
 
34 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 others leaping to their feet, each eager to answer, ''Here 
 amL" 
 
 The Lotos Club, rather more perhaps than some of 
 the others, has been given to the duty of entertaining 
 the stranger that is within our gates. It was a cir- 
 cumstance rather than original malice on our part 
 that led to this custom. We did not want to get in 
 the way of anybody else, or to put ourselves forward 
 unduly. But the thing needed doing, and it was the 
 fortune, good or bad, of the club to have a way and a 
 place for doing it. First and last we have entertained 
 a good many who deserved it, and possibly one or two 
 who might have been reserved for an even crueller 
 fate. In one way at least we have discharged the func- 
 tions of a club. There has been a good deal of eating 
 and drinking here, and there have been dinners that 
 would have given Falstaff himself an indigestion. 
 
 This has been a sort of neutral ground on which all 
 manner of alien and hostile elements could mingle. 
 People have met here who could not, by any possibility, 
 have met anywhere else, and, truth to tell, they 've 
 sometimes gone away swearing they would n't meet 
 here again. Perhaps we may modestly claim that we 
 have done something toward practising the virtues of 
 hospitality, something to promote that kindly good- 
 fellowship which is the basis of club life and the basis 
 of life itself. 
 
 It has been hinted that we have got through the 
 diseases of childhood. By that test we are older even 
 than we look. All young clubs pass through a pro- 
 longed agony of impending bankruptcy. That is, some 
 of them pass through it; others get into it and stop 
 there ! Well, we did n 't stop ! Perhaps, in fact, this 
 
Whitelaw Reid 
 
WHITELAW REID 35 
 
 club ought to pose as an Infant Phenomenon. It is 
 decently housed; it lives tolerably; it buys an occa- 
 sional picture, and, once in a long time, a bottle of 
 wine; and yet it does n't owe any man a dollar, and it 
 has money in the bank ! 
 
 Why should I say more, gentlemen, save to con- 
 gratulate you on having so passed the years of your 
 minority that you are honored to-night by the atten- 
 dance of the president of almost every considerable club 
 in the metropolis. In your name I give them all your 
 heartiest welcome. 
 
 And now, gentlemen, if you will fill your glasses, 
 I am about to propose a toast in honor of our nearest 
 neighbors. They constitute one of the largest, and I 
 am sure in date of actual organization the oldest, of 
 the clubs of New York. They have a peculiar claim 
 to our sympathies, for they have been robbed and be- 
 reaved. This great remorseless country of ours— and 
 by country I mean that great region, unknown to New- 
 Yorkers, which lies all over this continent outside the 
 limits of Manhattan Island— this remorseless coun- 
 try has swooped down upon our neighbors and carried 
 away from them their president to place him in Wash- 
 ington in a position next to the highest in the Govern- 
 ment. And there are gruesome rumors getting about 
 that this country has other fell purposes in view, and 
 that it is not impossible that he may yet receive march- 
 ing orders and be told to go one station higher still. 
 Gentlemen, I give you the prosperity of our nearest 
 neighbor, the Union Club, and health, happiness, and 
 higher honors yet to its brilliant and distinguished 
 president, our friend, the ornament of New York- 
 Mr. Evarts. 
 
WILLIAM M. EYAETS 
 
 AT THE DECENNIAL DINNER, MARCH 28, 1880 
 
 I HAVE a better and more complete reason for ac- 
 cepting your invitation than for acceding to any re- 
 quest, either public or private or social, that I have 
 ever had occasion to meet. I have come to your dinner 
 because I wanted to come. I have come for the enjoy- 
 ment which I expected and for the advantage of seeing 
 in its own home and in its own festivity this club, 
 which has contributed more to the public fame and the 
 public hospitality, intellectually, of the City of New 
 York than all of the other clubs in the city put together. 
 I represent, to be sure, a famous and eminent club, but 
 I must feel that in these respects at least its principal 
 distinction is that it is the exact opposite of your club. 
 You have said, sir, that your club is now completing 
 its decade, and it must be a bold club that can mark by 
 a festivity the stage of its decadence. The Lotos Club 
 is a profound and mysterious club. I observe that on 
 your beautiful menu, and on these beautiful souvenirs 
 which bear the sphinx and the lotos flower, so artistic 
 and so permanent, you preserve the exotic notion that 
 you take your name from the lotos plant. But students 
 of history and students of mysticism know that the 
 name of your club is one of those artificial words which 
 are made up of the initials of other words, concealed, 
 
 36 
 
WILLIAM M. EVARTS 37 
 
 but of profound meaning : ' ' Leges Omnium Tegumenta 
 Ossaque Salutis." "Laws make the tissue and the 
 framework of the public safety. ' ' What are these laws 
 which you thus impress and maintain as furnishing the 
 tissue and the frame of the public safety? You have 
 intimated that at your dinners sometimes something 
 more than healths were drunk. That does not look like 
 a reign of law ! The laws of war and the laws of trade 
 are equally banished from this dominion ; but the laws 
 of civility, the laws of charity, which you use to cover a 
 multitude of sins— these are the laws which dominate 
 here. This institution is framed by the same profound 
 arts which built the pyramids and reared the obelisks. 
 It is finally to subjugate government and church and 
 society, all, to good-fellowship, and to have a good time 
 —which never occurs to priests, or kings, or statesmen. 
 
 You have said, sir, that the Union Club, your neigh- 
 bor and the oldest club in the city, over which I have 
 the honor to preside, has been in some sense robbed of 
 its true possession, of its president, by some public 
 demands. Well, I came here, as I have said previously, 
 upon a motive of personal pleasure, but I am happy 
 to say that I found concurrent with it a deep sense 
 of public duty. I came to represent the political, the 
 social, the— [hesitating] —the industrial sentiments of 
 the Union Club. 
 
 Scipio is said to have given birth to the sentiment 
 that he was never less idle than when idle, and that is 
 true of the Union Club. It is at the bottom of 
 all great reforms, intellectual, moral, and social, that 
 have marked the present age, and it was only a sense 
 of that valuable and permanent agency of the Union 
 
 [ 
 
38 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 Club that induced me to accept its presidency. What 
 I could do as an individual in any of these direc- 
 tions was trifling to what I could do as the head of 
 that great confraternity of social activity; and I am 
 happy to recognize in the ambition of this club and in 
 the emulation of its companions a recognition of the 
 great active reforming, renovating influence of the 
 Union Club. 
 
 What is it that we, who are members of these clubs, 
 can do to serve the people of the United States who are 
 not members of these clubs? One of the first things 
 that we can do is to encourage them by placing in 
 eminent public positions the presidents of these clubs. 
 Supposing, for instance, as you, sir, have also dis- 
 tantly intimated, the president of one of these clubs 
 was President of the United States, and his Cabinet 
 was composed of presidents of the other clubs. I need 
 not say, gentlemen, that that would be a political mil- 
 lennium which would make this nation both peaceful at 
 home and the master of the fortunes of all the nations 
 of the world. What nation in history, what nation of our 
 own time, has ever presented such a spectacle as that? 
 All shortcomings, all animosities, all rivalries, which 
 have disfigured the course of political controversies in 
 the past, and do disfigure them in the present, would 
 be entirely submerged by this absolute predominance 
 of club law, always noted for its vigor, but in this par- 
 ticular representation manifested in its wisdom and in 
 its benevolence. I do not know, looking over the list 
 of eminent presidents of the clubs of this city, any one 
 that on the whole I would prefer should be President 
 of the United States rather than the president of the 
 Union Club. 
 
WILLIAM M. EVARTS 39 
 
 I think it is a very great point that our politics, and 
 that men in public life, and that public activities, 
 should be brought a little more closely into relation 
 mth that social and cordial feeling which befits us as 
 men. We were men before we were citizens, and we 
 have at bottom all over this country the most devout 
 affection for our government, the most sure hope and 
 expectation of the glory of our country ; and whatever 
 parties we belong to, whatever lines of thought we may 
 have adopted, we, as men of society and genial feel- 
 ings, collected as we are in these great social organiza- 
 tions of the great city of the country, have these things 
 in common— that we desire no triumph of party, and 
 no triumph of persons, that shall carry a subjugation 
 of the people or a suppression of real patriotism. Let 
 us, then, carry these sentiments into the wider activi- 
 ties of public life. Let us recognize in all parties men 
 who love their country, men who bring to its service 
 all the faculties and all the labors that they command, 
 and, taking the fate of either fortune, prosperity or 
 adversity, are satisfied if they do their duty, whether 
 they fall or rise in doing it. Now, this club of yours, 
 as I have intimated, has one advantage over all the 
 other clubs of this city. It is brandished oftener than 
 any other club before the people, and allow me, in 
 taking my seat, to toast 'Hhe Lotos Club, the shillalah 
 among clubs.'' 
 
ALEXANDEE E. MACDONALD 
 
 AT THE DECENNIAL DINNER, MARCH 28, 1880 
 
 The first vice-president, Mr. Noah Brooks, having, in behalf of some of the 
 members, presented a loving-cup to the club, it was received by the president, 
 Mr. Whitelaw Reid, who called upon the secretary, Dr. A. E. Macdonald, to 
 respond. The response was as follows : 
 
 FOR once I cannot quarrel with the reason given for 
 calling me to my feet, for it has been privately 
 intimated to me that I have been selected to receive 
 this cup as being that member of the club who might 
 be confidently expected to appreciate it the most and 
 use it the least. Had the reason given by our presi- 
 dent—the fact of my being your secretary— been the 
 only one, I might have objected to the adding to a 
 burden which I am just laying down, albeit for once 
 I feel secure in the sympathy of at least one gentle- 
 man at the table, who knows the difficulties of a sec- 
 retary's lot— that is, to some extent, for of course the 
 diplomatic relations of the United States are by no 
 means so delicate or so complex as are those of the 
 Lotos Club. 
 
 Well, as to the cup, I like it ; there are certain points 
 about it which appeal to me. Not the eagles only ; my 
 love for them is of older growth, and it has fed and 
 flourished upon that which the poet tells us always 
 ''will make the fond remembrance fonder"— absence. 
 But the two handles principally excite my admiration. 
 There is something tangible about two handles. It is 
 
 40 
 
ALEXANDER E. MACDONALD 41 
 
 reassuring to see two handles to a cup at so early an 
 hour in the evening, when you can be sublimely con- 
 fident that they are not the fruit of optical illusion; 
 and then, whereas when there is only one handle you 
 may be tolerably certain as to the location of that 
 handle without having any very definite assurance as 
 to the precise position of the cup, when there are two 
 handles, and you are reasonably confident that you 
 have one in each hand, it is capable of demonstration, 
 by a simple mathematical and geographical problem, 
 with the help of the mariner 's compass, and the theodo- 
 lite, and the thermo-electric differential calorimeter, 
 and a few other household instruments such as we all 
 carry in our pockets nowadays, that, with due allow- 
 ance for errors of refraction, the cup will be found 
 to occupy a space not remote from the mean of the dis- 
 tance between the two handles. That being settled, 
 the rest is a mere matter of hydraulics. 
 
 And so, as I say, I like your cup, gentlemen, and I 
 hold— rather than with the member who, upon being 
 told that its capacity was two quarts, said that they 
 might as well have gotten one of a decent size while 
 they were about it; that he never did care for ponies 
 himself— with that other member who, receiving the 
 same information, reflected with honest and pardon- 
 able pride that so greatly had the club increased in 
 numbers and capacity that that cup would have to be 
 filled three hundred and forty times in order to go 
 round. 
 
 But I am reminded that I am expected to speak less 
 of the cup itself than of the occasion which prompts 
 its presentation. I am sorry to have to inflict upon 
 
42 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 you, upon what is otherwise a festive occasion, an his- 
 torical discourse filled of necessity with dry details. It 
 will be short, however, for in the endeavor to collect 
 materials I have been embarrassed by the fact that 
 other secretaries were selected without regard to the 
 one great recommendation which, as you all know, gov- 
 erned my selection— the extreme legibility of my hand- 
 writing. 
 
 The Lotos Club was born, then, ten years since, and 
 found a local habitation and a name in Irving Place- 
 that unobtrusive thoroughfare which, like the Demo- 
 cratic party, has Gramercy Park at one end and 
 Tanunany Hall at the other. There was nothing of 
 splendor in its accouchement, no silver spoon was in 
 its mouth, no largesse was thrown into its cradle. The 
 festive board round which its sponsors gathered was a 
 literal as well as festive one ; it rested upon two flour- 
 barrels, and even these were borrowed. The only prop- 
 erty, real and personal, which the club could call its 
 own consisted of two candles stuck in two bottles other- 
 wise empty. But from that moment, gentlemen, the 
 accumulation of property commenced— the candles, it 
 is true, were consumed, but the empty bottles increased 
 and multiplied. 
 
 It was a modest mansion, gentlemen, in which the 
 Lotos first blossomed; it had had its vicissitudes, its 
 ups and downs, and, if the Irishism may be pardoned 
 me, the downs had been decidedly in the ascendant. 
 It had been once or twice a restaurant, oftener a bar- 
 room, a '^ Judge and Jury" upon occasion, and erst- 
 while a faro-bank. It had been even darkly hinted 
 that other and unholier pleasures had not been un- 
 sought within its walls, and further back in the first 
 
ALEXANDER E. MACDONALD 43 
 
 years of its existence we reach the deeper depth and 
 find it in the obscure and nefarious vocation of a doc- 
 tor's office; and yet in its position there seemed to be 
 some fitting indications of the aims and objects of the 
 club, for it nestled between the Academy on the one 
 side and the gas-office on the other— music and oratory 
 surrounded it. 
 
 The regeneration which came to the premises from 
 the occupancy of the club was immediate, as is at- 
 tested not only by its archives, but those other archives 
 kept at the neighboring police station and vulgarly 
 known as the ''blotter"— by the latter not so much, 
 perhaps, by any diminution of complaints as by a dif- 
 ference in their character, and by the comparative ease 
 with which they could be met and refuted. For when 
 in the afternoon the alarmed neighbor rushed in with 
 tidings of a terrible riot at No. 2 Irving Place, the ser- 
 geant detailed to investigate found only two artist 
 members engaged in mild and reluctant criticism of 
 the masterpiece of a third. And when in the early 
 morning the indignant neighbor characterized No. 2 
 Irving Place as a disorderly house, the resulting posse 
 surprised only a quartet of musical members endeav- 
 oring to master the intricacies of an original ode to 
 the Lotos, composed and dedicated by a fifth. 
 
 But we have changed all that; the process of evolu- 
 tion which we inaugurated has continued, the fittest 
 has survived, and the house stands there to-day, monu- 
 mental, not alone as embodying two of the greatest 
 social and educational features of our city and our 
 day, but as typifying the unity of nations, the era of 
 peace and good- will amongst men— for it is divided 
 between a French flat and a German kindergarten. 
 
44 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 And we, coming three years since to tlie house under 
 whose ceilings (now somewhat blackened with the as- 
 cending fumes of tobacco and of speech-making) we 
 meet to-night, soon, by virtue of a happy system de- 
 vised by the House Conunittee, and depending upon a 
 combination of small fires and large insurances, placed 
 ourselves upon a solid and solvent footing. Here have 
 we carried out our purposes, and especially that pur- 
 pose to which the president has referred— the enter- 
 taining of the stranger. "When he has come to us ac- 
 credited in his antecedents and his aims, he has sat 
 with us ; when he has not, we have sat upon him. And 
 now, with our neighbors over the way and our other 
 neighbors, we consecrate the four corners of Twenty- 
 first Street and Fifth Avenue to the three most potent 
 engines of civilization and liberty and progress — the 
 three C's: the club, the church, the clothing-store. 
 
 And so we take your cup, gentlemen, and, remember- 
 ing what it commemorates, we drink from it to the 
 prosperity of the Lotos Club; but, remembering also 
 the goodly brotherhood which has gathered with us 
 to wish us God-speed as we enter upon our second 
 decade, we ask you, Mr. President, that, as you put 
 this virgin chalice to your verging lips, you will dedi- 
 cate the first deep draught of the good red wine not 
 to the prosperity of the Lotos alone, but to the pros- 
 perity of the clubs of New York. May the "Century" 
 prove, like its and our own next-door neighbors, stable. 
 Though "thirsty 'Lambs' run foxy dangers," may 
 they yet escape them; and may they, and we, and all 
 of us, dwell together in "Union" and in "Harmony." 
 
WHITELAW EEID 
 
 AT THE RECEPTION TO THOMAS HUGHES, OCTOBER 30, 1880 
 
 WE are fortunate in the period of our reassem- 
 bling. These are the high days of the Ameri- 
 can year. The time for brass bands is upon us, and 
 the voice of the politician is heard in the land. Some 
 of these very gentlemen about this table, mild and 
 harmless as they look, are strongly accused of having 
 been at it. In fact, there are one or two who are be- 
 lieved to be penetrated at this moment with the suspi- 
 cion that they have lately been talking quite too much 
 politics— or too little. 
 
 "Well, gentlemen, I 'm going to venture in the same 
 direction. I modestly hope to accomplish the impos- 
 sible. I am going to try to introduce politics on which 
 we can all agree, and to say some words about a poli- 
 tician whom every man of us will delight to honor. 
 
 I do not speak specially of those features of his nine 
 years' Parliamentary career, which his countrymen 
 would be most apt to pick out ; of his labors for liberal- 
 izing education, for secularizing the great universities, 
 for admitting dissenters to the University fellowships, 
 for the establishment of the Working-man's College, 
 for the disestablishment of the Irish Church, or even 
 of his long effort, in and out of Parliament, for the 
 extension to the working classes of the beneficent prin- 
 
 45 
 
46 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 ciple of cooperation. Here he was a leader who could 
 count among his followers and earnest supporters such 
 men as Canon Kingsley, Professor F. J). Maurice, Lord 
 Lytton, and the Marquis of Grey and Ripon. He led 
 them to the recognition and practical success of their 
 movement in his own country. Pie has now passed far 
 beyond them, and led a pioneer English colony to this 
 Greater Britain to seek here a fuller expansion on the 
 hillsides of our American Switzerland. 
 
 We give him due honor for all his pure and con- 
 spicuous public career. We give him hearty admira- 
 tion for his brilliant literary work— admiration so gen- 
 eral that he need not be surprised if everywhere he 
 finds himself confounded with his hero, and half the 
 time called Tom Brown instead of Mr. Hughes; or if, 
 with democratic familiarity and good will, we insist on 
 having a "Tom" in it, anyway. We recall his acting 
 as literary godfather with the British public for our 
 modest Harvard professor who had just written the 
 ' ' Biglow Papers ' ' ; and we hope he took some comfort, 
 as we did, in seeing his protege accredited Minister 
 from the United States to the Court of his Queen. 
 
 But it is to no one of these things that our thoughts 
 first turn when, in the height and very crisis of our 
 own campaign, we have the opportunity to meet this 
 English politician. We remember when the dark days 
 were upon us, when we were struggling desperately for 
 our life, and looking in vain for sympathy in too many 
 quarters where we had a right to expect it. We re- 
 member when even Gladstone failed us, misled, we 
 know, by his advices, not by his sympathies, and 
 proclaimed that Jefferson Davis had founded a nation. 
 
WHITELAW REID 47 
 
 We remember, also,— aye, we will never forget,— that 
 then, among the few sympathizers we found in the rul- 
 ing classes of Great Britain, no friendly voice rang 
 truer across the Atlantic than that of the generous, 
 high-minded Englishman we greet to-night. 
 
 I am glad that he is here now, in the stress and 
 storm of our quadrennial contest, when the blood is 
 dashing at fever heat through all the national veins. 
 I am glad that he is able to see with his own eyes that 
 even in our supreme struggle his old trust in our in- 
 stitutions is still vindicated— glad that he can see how 
 a free people of fifty millions, with liberty of speech, 
 of the press, of conscience, and the ballot, cover a con- 
 tinent in a day with the majestic power of their suf- 
 frage, and peacefully lift to place their own Chief 
 Ruler. 
 
 It has been said sometimes that with the war we 
 passed our minority, and that on coming of age we 
 lost our old anxious care for what was thought of us 
 in England. Perhaps it is true. Possibly English 
 opinion about our concerns does not affect us now much 
 more than American opinion about their concerns af- 
 fects Englishmen. But for one thing we do care more, 
 if possible, than ever; and it is that fact, I take it, 
 which this club wishes to convey to-night to its guest. 
 
 We do care more than ever now for the good will 
 and good opinion of those who helped us when we 
 needed help. We do care to have them know that 
 we have long memories and warm hearts. We wish, 
 sir, to make you feel that the Englishman who was our 
 friend in 1861 is our brother now. 
 
THOMAS HUaHES 
 
 AT THE RECEPTION IN HIS HONOR, OCTOBER 30, 1880 1 
 
 YOUR president referred to a dear and very old 
 friend of mine, with whom I spent the most de- 
 lightful and happy ten days of my life, and that is the 
 great poet, the great, the wise philosopher whom you 
 have done yourselves the honor, and have done us the 
 still greater honor, to send to represent the great Amer- 
 ican nation at the Court of St. James. I mean, of 
 course, James Russell Lowell. The chairman has told 
 you, and I am proud to say it is a fact, that thirty 
 years ago, when those first papers known as the ''Big- 
 low Papers" began to appear in the journals of your 
 country, I came across them, and ^admired them, as any 
 man who has any sense of freedom or right in him 
 must admire them; and it was the occasion of my first 
 communication with Mr. Lowell; and I am proud to 
 say that I was the first person who procured an edition 
 of those poems in the British Empire, and it is to the 
 reading of those poems at that particular period that 
 I owe one of the greatest obligations that I ever owed 
 to any man or to any writings, for they turned my 
 attention to what was going on in this country, and 
 raised the deep interest which I have taken ever since 
 in the great problems which you are fighting out for 
 yourselves and for the whole world in these United 
 
 1 In part. 
 48 
 
THOMAS HUGHES 49 
 
 States. I will not follow the chairman in his allusions 
 to the stand which I of course took, having felt the 
 magnitude and the nobility of the life which was being 
 lived and of the problems which were being worked out 
 on this continent— I say I will not follow him in the 
 course which I was certain to take when that great 
 struggle of yours came on, twenty years ago. We 
 can only thank God for the issue of that great strug- 
 gle. The chairman has spoken as though it were 
 from a purely unselfish motive that I and others, who 
 felt the deep significance of that struggle, took the 
 side we did and made the effort which we made to 
 bring around our own people to a true view of the 
 issues which were then at stake— as I said awhile 
 ago, not only for this country but for the whole 
 world. You were then deciding the future, I be- 
 lieve,— the future of the whole world. I believe that 
 if that struggle had resulted in any other way than 
 that in which it did result, if it had been possible to 
 break this great nation into two or into three pieces, the 
 cause of freedom would have been lost not only to 
 America, but in all the Old World, and not you your- 
 selves, loyal to your own country and to freedom, as 
 every one of you are— not you yourselves could have 
 felt more deeply than I at the end of that great strug- 
 gle the truth which the poet to whom I have already 
 alluded gave utterance in such noble words, when, at 
 the end of that struggle, it became a truth that— 
 
 Now 't will be known from pole to pole. 
 Without no need of proclamation, 
 
 Earth's biggest Nation 's got a sonl 
 And risen up earth's greatest Nation. 
 
ULYSSES S. GEANT 
 
 AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, NOVEMBER 20, 1880 
 
 I FEEL very much embarrassed in making any re- 
 sponse to the complimentary remarks addressed to 
 me by your president. I really don't know what in 
 the world I can say about these fine things. They were 
 not deserved, I am sure of that. But I don't want to 
 convince you that they were not deserved ! If I stand 
 here for five minutes, however, I know I shall prove 
 to you that one of your president's flattering asser- 
 tions at least is untrue. With nothing to justify him 
 in making the statement, so far as I know, he charged 
 me with being able to make a speech. This is quite 
 incorrect. I have no doubt at all that you are partly 
 convinced of this already, and certainly I have no 
 doubt that before I sit down you will be thoroughly 
 convinced of it! Now, in regard to my own future. 
 I am entirely satisfied as I am to-day. I am not the 
 man to cry out against republics and charge them with 
 being ungrateful. I am sure that I have received most 
 ample recognition and consideration at the hands of 
 the American people as a nation and as individuals. 
 I have every reason under the sun, if any person liv- 
 ing has, to be satisfied with them. I hope to live many 
 years yet of life. I am only forty-eight years old for 
 the last ten years! If I can still render my country 
 
 50 
 
ULYSSES S. GRANT 51 
 
 any service in any way, I shall certainly be happy to do 
 SO; but having been, as I have said, forty-eight years 
 old for ten past years, I am beyond the age of volun- 
 teering. If I am ever wanted in any way again, I 
 must be pressed into the service; but, not being ob- 
 stinate at all, if you have any reason to think that I 
 can be of use anywhere, show me where it is, and I 
 will be entirely amenable to reason. 
 
WHITELAW EEID 
 
 AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, DECEMBER 3, 1881 
 
 THE chief delight of travel, according to an old 
 cynic, is in the joy of getting home again. Cer- 
 tainly no skies that I saw abroad seemed fairer, no scene 
 that I saw in the last six months seemed so bright as the 
 Bay of New York, when, after a tempestuous November 
 voyage, we at last steamed into it. It is worth while 
 to go away to find out how glad you are to get back. 
 It is worth while to miss your friends for a time to find 
 how warm a welcome home they give you. It is worth 
 while to see other lands, to find out how proud you 
 ought to be of your own. I don't believe that most of 
 us have any such idea of the dignity and honor into 
 which we have been born as we are likely to have after 
 spending some months on the other side of the Atlantic, 
 and seeing how the people regard us. Certainly no 
 traveler from these shores could fail, last summer, to 
 be made to feel, anywhere in Europe, that he was a 
 citizen of no mean country. In many ways his views 
 would be rectified and clarified; in many things he 
 would have the conceit taken out of him. He could n't 
 help finding out that the Old World can still do sev- 
 eral things better than the Universal Yankee Nation. 
 But neither could he help feeling everywhere the grow- 
 ing respect, the admiration even, for the Western 
 
 52 
 
WHITELAW REID 53 
 
 Colossus that puts down its own rebellion and sets its 
 rebels at work at self-government again; that pays its 
 own debts, feeds its own people bountifully, with a 
 large portion of Europe besides, and turns the current 
 of gold from the financial centers of the Old World 
 to its own shores. They have a great respect for facts, 
 these people with long histories behind them, and the 
 traveler in Europe finds it always extremely pleasant 
 to hail from America. 
 
 Especially does an American nowadays find it ex- 
 tremely pleasant to visit what is felicitously called 
 ''Our Old Home." Perhaps they did criticize us 
 harshly in the old times; perhaps the feeling in Great 
 Britain has sometimes been that of an angry parent 
 toward a bumptious and unruly child. Now, I am sure 
 that no American goes there without being made to 
 feel at once that he is with kinsmen, and kinsmen who 
 are proud to recognize the relationship. I have some- 
 times heard it said that New-Yorkers give a welcome to 
 Englishmen that is neither appreciated nor recognized ; 
 but no man who thinks this can have been in London in 
 the season. 
 
 A friend of mine was once asked what seemed to him 
 the most noticeable thing in London. He answered, 
 curiously enough, that as noticeable a thing to his mind 
 as any was the fact that, in the midst of a population 
 of four million souls, he could walk through the very 
 heart of this thousand-year-old city nearly four miles, 
 from his house to his club, without once leaving the 
 public parks! Well, when I was asked what my first 
 impression of London was, my reply seemed, no doubt, 
 just as inconsequent. What struck me most was that 
 
54 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 I had hardly yet been able to realize that I was in a 
 foreign country. Everything about you is familiar. 
 You know the public buildings at sight, almost as 
 well as you know those of your own capital. You 
 know your way to the Poet's Corner in Westminster 
 Abbey better than you do to the grave of Alexander 
 Hamilton in sight of Broadway. You 're a great deal 
 surer of St. Paul's, when its big dome rises on you out 
 of the yellow fog, than many of the gentlemen at this 
 table are of any church spire on Manhattan Island. 
 So much of what you see for the first time has been 
 familiar to you from childhood; so much of what is 
 going on is home-like, that sometimes it is only when 
 you listen to the speech of those about you, and wonder 
 why they don't talk English a little plainer, that you 
 wake up to the fact that you are not among your own 
 people. 
 
 Another old complaint has been that we are misun- 
 derstood, through sheer carelessness, by the English. 
 There was a great deal of truth in this, no doubt, at 
 one time ; and there was a deal also of youthful impa- 
 tience—for, as a nation, we did n't get out of the boy's 
 awkward age and attain our majority till we had been 
 matured by the trials and triumph of the war. But 
 certainly no one can complain that his country is 
 ignored or negligently regarded now. Among literary, 
 artistic, political, and social leaders there is generally 
 a most cordial and hearty interest in those whom they 
 so often describe as their American cousins. The 
 American is sure to find more or less of the same feel- 
 ing in the clubs, or among artists, actors, and writers 
 like Alma Tadema, Irving, TroUope, or Charles Reade. 
 
WHITELAW REID 55 
 
 Our own men, Henry James, for example, and Julian 
 Hawthorne, seem fairly domesticated, not to say 
 adopted, in London ; and so is Moncure Conway, though 
 more aggressively American and radical than if he 
 had been born in Massachusetts instead of Virginia. 
 In the government, the brilliant Home Secretary, Sir 
 William Vernon Harcourt, rightly enough, describes 
 himself sometimes as half American. One of the most 
 accomplished among the younger peers, the Earl of 
 Kosebery, knows America and American politics better 
 than many a New-Yorker. And, not to mention scores 
 of others, the foremost of our friends when we needed 
 friendship more than we do now, was John Bright, a 
 name never to be spoken by American lips without 
 affectionate gratitude. 
 
HOEACE PORTEE 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO WHITELAW REID, DECEMBER 3, 1881 
 
 SINCE I last had the pleasure to break bread with 
 you and the gentlemen here assembled at this hos- 
 pitable board, in a moment of unrestrained reckless- 
 ness you were indiscreet enough to constitute me a 
 member of this brotherhood; and while I cannot be 
 of any service here, either in a useful or an ornamental 
 capacity, I assure you that I come here to-night with 
 all the willingness and accommodating nature of that 
 young man who was going home very late at night from 
 a scene of conviviality, perhaps not so hilarious as this, 
 but something like this, with a companion. As they 
 went along the country road they meandered around 
 in a zigzag manner till finally one of them slipped 
 down into the ditch. He called upon his friend for a 
 helping hand. His friend, who was balancing himself 
 on his heels in the middle of the road, said, ''N-n-no, 
 Charlie; I am not equal to that, but I will come and 
 lie down with you." Now, while I do not know that 
 I can be of any assistance in this club, I am specially 
 willing to-night to sit down with you. 
 
 We meet under unusual circumstances. While in 
 any remarks of mine I do not hope to exhaust the sub- 
 ject, I have no doubt I shall the listeners. You have 
 introduced to-night, and I congratulate you upon it, 
 
 56 
 
HORACE PORTER 57 
 
 a very favorable innovation upon the custom of New 
 York society by giving a dinner of welcome upon the 
 return of our friend, instead of giving a farewell din- 
 ner to him upon his departure ; for so exasperating has 
 the latter custom become in New York that many 
 persons go to such farewell dinners imbued with the 
 idea— indeed, on an express understanding— that the 
 recipient is bound to leave the country within twenty- 
 four hours. And sometimes such is the character of 
 the proceedings at these farewell meetings that it puts 
 every one there in the notion of doing the same thing. 
 Not many months ago, yet it seems it is a good while, 
 the distinguished head of this club took his departure 
 from our shores under tender circumstances. I don't 
 know how such an event would be looked upon in jour- 
 nalistic circles, but from a railroad standpoint it is 
 always deemed a wise and prudent measure to get off 
 a single and switch to a double track. The company 
 in which he went to Europe was, like the books in Cur- 
 ran 's library, not numerous, but select. The journals 
 of the day, with a degree of perspicuity and particu- 
 larity which should be consistent with modern jour- 
 nalistic enterprise, did not fail to furnish us with a 
 great many interesting details in regard to the manner 
 of his sudden taking off. If I forget not, they even 
 told us the exact color of the trousers that were worn 
 on that occasion, and I think that, in reference to that, 
 they did mention that they were of some delicate shade 
 that would satisfy the most exacting assthetic taste in 
 dress. They did not, however, tell us whether he had 
 the forethought to give those instructions to his tailor 
 which Mr. Joshua Butterby gave to his artisan on a 
 
58 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 somewhat similar occasion, when he instructed him to 
 make them wide around the waist, so as to leave a 
 margin for emotion and the wedding breakfast. 
 
 Now, if our president had taken a westerly trip it 
 would have been a matter of no surprise to us, but it 
 is a matter that requires explanation even to his most 
 intimate friends that a young man brought up in the 
 severe school of the ''New- York Tribune" should so 
 far forget the patriotic maxims of its founder as to go 
 east. I can readily understand why he, like most of 
 our prominent men, should cross the ocean; most of 
 our public men think that they will add somewhat to 
 their reputations to cross the water, particularly when 
 they recollect how it added to the reputation of George 
 Washington, even, merely to cross the Delaware. Be- 
 sides, there are many advantages which the modern 
 traveler has, which did not exist in the olden time, 
 through the plan adopted by steamship companies of 
 particular lane routes. A vessel goes to Europe by 
 one route and returns by a different channel, and so the 
 voyager gets treated to an entire change of scenery. 
 The monotony of the return voyage is alleviated; the 
 eye is not compelled to rest on the familiar objects 
 which it saw when outward bound. Of course there 
 are drawbacks. The American stomach is given to 
 such gastronomical gymnastics that a man's nourish- 
 ment is very apt to be in the condition of a financial 
 question in Congress— liable to come up at any mo- 
 ment. Before he reaches the end of his trip he is so 
 nauseated at the very sight of whitecaps that he can 
 hardly look at the caps of the French nurses in Paris 
 without feeling seasick. However, it is no part of my 
 
^'s^s:-:M-'' ■■■■ -. 
 
 Horace Porter 
 
HORACE PORTER 59 
 
 intention to allude to French, nurses. Our president, 
 no doubt, spent most of his time comparing the differ- 
 ent forms of government, both national and domestic, 
 no doubt pointing out to people there the great ad- 
 vantages of our government over the effete mon- 
 archies of Europe. He of course paid great attention 
 to the proceedings in Parliament, comparing them with 
 those in Congress. Well, I don't know which gains 
 the advantage over the other; they sit with their hats 
 on and cough, while in Congress they sit with their 
 hats off and spit. I am glad to see my friend Judge 
 Robertson participating in the festivities consequent 
 upon our friend's return; I don't know of any one 
 who always takes such an interest in the affairs of 
 any one coming to this country as the Collector of the 
 Port. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, our guest has given us to-night a 
 very striking and noble example of the sacrificing and 
 amiable nature of the gentler sex. He is here now, 
 notwithstanding the great change which has taken 
 place in his condition— he is still permitted to come 
 within the walls of this club. Women are naturally 
 opposed to a club, since the first woman's favorite son 
 was killed with one. The first woman learned that it 
 was Cain that raised a club; the modern woman has 
 discovered that it is a club that raises Cain. With 
 this noble example before our eyes, I hope that some 
 bachelors whom I see sitting around the room will, be- 
 fore the hair disappears from their heads altogether, 
 ere their bent forms are made to crouch still more, and 
 the tenderness and feeling and sentiment of their lives 
 vanish, imitate our guest, and not allow their lives to 
 
60 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 be embittered with the recollection of unkissed kisses 
 and undrunk drinks. 
 
 A distinguished politician — I should say statesman 
 —of Pennsylvania was some time ago walking up in 
 the direction of the Academy of Music the day that 
 they were having a political convention in the hall. 
 He met one of his trusty lieutenants, followed by 
 about fifty of the "boys." They were dressed some- 
 what after the manner of Falstaff's army, and they 
 had in their hands bricks, clubs, cobblestone ram- 
 mers, and everything of that description they could 
 find. The Governor said to him: "Where are you 
 going with the gang ? ' ' Said he : " Governor, I thought 
 it would be well to have some of the boys sitting 
 around in the gallery to-day. I thought that maybe 
 you would perhaps want to make a motion in the con- 
 vention, and thought it was best to have some of our 
 friends around prepared to coincide." Thus it comes 
 about that I am here this evening, and in whatever 
 way you shall show your kindly greetings to your presi- 
 dent I am prepared most heartily to coincide. 
 
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES 
 
 AT AN INFORMAL REUNION, APRIL 14, 1883 
 
 THE best thing I can do, in answer to this wholly 
 unexpected reception, is to speak to you from my 
 heart such words as come to my lips. I have been 
 staggered, I have been stunned, by my reception in 
 New York. I did not, I had no right to expect such 
 a reception among those who were strangers to me. 
 Many of those whom I have met I knew by reputation 
 (of course many of my profession I knew) ; as I say, 
 many I knew by reputation, but almost all were stran- 
 gers, and yet their faces look like the faces of friends 
 wherever I turn. 
 
 I had no idea, not for a moment a thought, of rising 
 to-night, and you really do not know what a helpless 
 creature you have before you. The wildest imagina- 
 tion can hardly conceive of the impression of utter 
 imbecility that comes over me when I rise without my 
 accustomed shield, without which I never trust myself 
 on my native heather. The ancient Briton— this sounds 
 dreadfully like a made-up speech, but I assure you that 
 it is not. There is the truthful Dr. Fordyce Barker, 
 whose countenance speaks for itself. It could not hold 
 a lie— his whiskers would turn red on the spot. He will 
 say that I am perfectly truthful. I never trust myself 
 upon an occasion of this sort without, like the ancient 
 
 61 
 
62 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 Briton I referred to— without bringing a shield to hold 
 up before me ; for generally about this time I slip my 
 hand in my pocket and draw out something that looks 
 terribly like a little copy of verses. 
 
 In thinking of what I should say, I bethink me 
 of a few reminiscences of the Saturday Club of Bos- 
 ton, to which for the last twenty-five years I have 
 belonged. It has been in its time a very beautiful 
 and instructive assemblage of men, when at one end 
 of the table sat always Longfellow, with his sweet, 
 benignant, classic countenance, not coruscating so 
 much as beautifully receptive. It was a mild, kind, 
 natural light, for he was a man lovely to look upon 
 and listen to; but as compared with the other end of 
 the table he was moonlight to the flashing of the me- 
 teor, for there was the round, hearty, athletic form of 
 Agassiz, wdtli that splendid laugh, and of all the gifts 
 to a man at the table perhaps a good laugh, aided by 
 a tolerable corporation, is the most effective in the 
 long run, and Agassiz 's laugh used to ring from the 
 other end of the table. For twenty years we had 
 this. Then we had Mr. Emerson, with his mild, quiet, 
 critical, observing look, almost always in his place. 
 Then we would have our great mathematician, Peirce, 
 sitting there. A thought used to go round and round 
 in his interior so that after you asked him half a 
 dozen questions the answer to the first would finally 
 come out! Then we had Lowell, always full of light, 
 of ambition, of satirical wit, and full of knowledge 
 and information also. Then we had my beautiful 
 friend Motley, one of the finest-looking creatures that 
 ever was in the world, and who interested everybody. 
 
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES 63 
 
 Then rarely, but once in a while, sat Hawthorne among 
 us. I used to get near him if I could. Mr. Tom Ap- 
 plet on— some of you know the name almost as well as 
 you know the name of— Tr avers, is n't it? That is 
 the man you have here in New York, I believe. Well, 
 Tom Appleton said to me once, "Hawthorne is like a 
 boned pirate." Well, without thinking of that at the 
 time, I remember, after sitting by Hawthorne, to have 
 said of him that in order to get anything out of him 
 I had to harpoon him like a whale to get a question 
 from his blubber. 
 
 So much for the Saturday Club. It was one of the 
 greatest privileges of my life to meet with its mem- 
 bers. It met once a month. It was not a costly club, 
 but we dined at Parker's and had enough to keep 
 us in heart and tolerably good spirits. But I will 
 tell you what that club was to me, in the feeling 
 that doubtless this club is the same to all of you. 
 It was a gamut of human intelligence. There I could 
 go and touch the note I wanted and find its chord. I 
 will tell you also that there was a rule for salvation. 
 If this was a club in Chicago and not in New York I 
 should lay it down as a lesson, but I came here to be 
 taught and not to teach. The salvation of that club 
 has been this— that, in the first place, there was no such 
 thing known there as full dress, and in the next place 
 there were no laws and no speech-making. In all my 
 experience of the Saturday Club, throughout a quarter 
 of a century, I do not remember anything of a formal 
 or stuck-up character except on two occasions. The 
 first was when Longfellow wrote a few verses to Agas- 
 siz. Charming, sweet little verses they were! Oh, it 
 
64 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 was like a young maiden going to confirmation ! And 
 the second time I was there when my friend Motley 
 was leaving on one of his missions, and I did read a 
 few verses to him. I do not remember any other time 
 in which any man had the audacity to get up on his 
 legs and insult that association of harmless but well- 
 meaning people. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, I have said all that I ought, and a 
 great deal more. I can only add that at the period of 
 life at which I have arrived it is naturally a very grati- 
 fying thing to feel that the sunset looks bright. I ex- 
 pect nothing more like this reception that I have had 
 in New York so long as I live. It never will be re- 
 peated. It never could be repeated. It is an unpar- 
 alleled thing, not merely in my experience, but in my 
 anticipations and my imagination, and it is unneces- 
 sary for me to say here or anywhere that I go home 
 with my heart full, not merely of New York associa- 
 tions, but of American associations and feelings, be- 
 cause I am here in a representative country and I know 
 that if there are kind hearts here I shall find them 
 everywhere. I go home with feelings that it is quite 
 idle for me to try to put into language or to attempt 
 to adorn by any efforts at rhetoric. 
 
WILLIAM M. EYAETS 
 
 AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, FEBRUARY 21, 1885 
 [Mr. Evarts had just been elected United States Senator for New York] 
 
 I HAVE never been able to understand the Lotos 
 Club. You seem to have the advantage of me alto- 
 gether ; for you have learned a great many things about 
 me— if we may believe your president— and before I get 
 through perhaps you will learn some other things ; but 
 about you what can I learn? What is there to be 
 known, that can be written and set down, either as an 
 encouragement or as a warning? I know that you 
 have no debt ; and that shows, of course, that you have 
 no credit. I know that you have no wealth; and I 
 know that poverty, in this world, is the best incentive 
 to genius and growth. But these traits have marked 
 many men and many associations; and I have looked 
 to find the charms that have made you the most popu- 
 lar, the most prosperous, the most charming, the most 
 useful, the most graceful, and the most powerful asso- 
 ciation in this city. It rests in this, I am sure, and no 
 one will gainsay me in the proposition— it rests in the 
 fact that you have no principles ! In your march there 
 are no impedimenta to encumber your progress ; for the 
 particular occasion that should make it the most bril- 
 liant and most instructive, you are under no embarrass- 
 ment in respect to any cohesion or any consistency. You 
 5 65 
 
66 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 are therefore as unconscious in your perfume and in 
 your beauty as the rose ; if you fade to-morrow, from the 
 same stem another flower will grow. Nor is this ab- 
 sence of principles to be set down at all as an immoral 
 thing. One of the great maxims in morality which I 
 learned as early as I could learn and understand it in 
 a learned tongue— "Obsta principiis" (''Opposed to 
 all principles")— is the maxim of your club. And 
 fortunately for me, by a wise confinement of this re- 
 pugnance to abstractions it is that I am permitted to 
 be a guest at your feast, although you cannot pretend 
 that I am a man without principles. 
 
 Chauncey Depew— whom I refer to by that name 
 because he is better appreciated by that name than by 
 any other— and I had a conference yesterday with ref- 
 erence to an entertainment that was expected to be 
 very brilliant, and before a very choice and fastidious 
 company, as to what was the best time that the speeches 
 (as he and I were to be the only speakers) should 
 be made, and we concluded that the best time to make 
 the speeches would be as they stood around the supper- 
 table, and had prepared themselves, as a fruitful soil, 
 for the seed that we were to sow; and I put it upon 
 this proposition: That although it was laid down in 
 Scripture that ''out of the fulness of the heart the 
 mouth speaketh," yet that better perhaps than even 
 that, out of the fulness of the mouth the heart speaketh. 
 And that we found last night, for if ever there was a 
 good speech made before a select audience, it was made 
 last night by Chauncey Depew ; and if there ever was 
 a better one made, it was made by myself ! 
 
 Well, there are a great many things to be done in 
 
WILLIAM M. EVARTS 67 
 
 the course of the next six years ; and my first duty, as 
 I feel, to the State as senator is to enjoy myself as 
 well as I can. It would be unworthy of a great State 
 like this to have a senator open to observation by all 
 his rivals and to the notice of the press and of the peo- 
 ple, if I did not enjoy myself. It is well known that I 
 possess certain faculties and appetites for enjoyment, 
 and it would be a reproach which the State would not 
 willingly bear if my enjoyment were quenched from 
 the infirmities and faults of the State itself! And, 
 then, I have this great advantage— that as nothing can 
 add to the relative importance of this State comparable 
 with the other States of the Union, I shall have no occa- 
 sion and shall make no attempt to illustrate and glorify 
 it. Other senators may wish to spread to their admir- 
 ing countrymen the greatness, the strength, and the 
 virtue of their respective States ; I should be but gild- 
 ing the refined gold and painting this large tiger lily 
 —the State of New York— and I shall not attempt to 
 do that. But, in reference to the obscure and modest 
 portion of our countrymen, it will be my duty to raise 
 and ennoble, to illustrate and glorify them. 
 
HENEY M. STANLEY 
 
 AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, NOVEMBER 27, 1886 
 
 ONE might start a great many principles and ideas 
 which would require to be illustrated and drawn 
 out in order to present a picture of my feelings at the 
 present moment. I am conscious that in my immediate 
 vicinity there are people who were great when I was 
 little. I remember very well, when I was unknown to 
 anybody, how I was sent to report a lecture delivered 
 by my friend right opposite, George Alfred Townsend, 
 and I remember the manner in which he said, ' ' Galileo 
 said, ' The world moves round, ' and the world does move 
 round," upon the platform of the Mercantile Hall in 
 St. Louis— one of the grandest things out! The next 
 great occasion when I had to come before the public 
 was that of Mark Twain's lecture on the Sandwich 
 Islands, which I was sent to report. And when I look 
 to my left here I see Colonel Anderson, whose very 
 face gives me an idea that Bennett has got some tele- 
 graphic despatch and is just about to send me to some 
 terrible region on some desperate commission. And of 
 course you are aware that it was owing to the proprie- 
 tor and editor of a newspaper that I dropped the pacific 
 garb of a journalist and donned the costume of an 
 African traveler. It was not for me, one of the least 
 in the newspaper corps, to question the newspaper pro- 
 
HENRY M. STANLEY 69 
 
 prietor's motives. He was an able editor, very rich, 
 desperately despotic. He commanded a great army of 
 roving writers, people of fame in the news-gathering 
 world; men who had been everywhere and had seen 
 everything, from the bottom of the Atlantic to the top 
 of the very highest mountain; men who were as ready 
 to give their advice to national cabinets as they were 
 ready to give it to the smallest police courts in the 
 United States. I belonged to this class of roving writ- 
 ers, and can truly say that I did my best to be con- 
 spicuously great in it by an untiring devotion to my 
 duties, an untiring indef atigability, as though the ordi- 
 nary rotation of the universe depended upon my single 
 endeavors. 
 
 If, as some of you suspect, the enterprise of the able 
 editor was only inspired with a view to obtain the larg- 
 est circulation, my unyielding and guiding motive, if 
 I remember rightly, was to win his favor by doing with 
 all my might that duty to which, according to the Eng- 
 lish State Church catechism, it had pleased God to 
 call me. 
 
 He first despatched me to Abyssinia— straight from 
 Missouri to Abyssinia! What a stride, gentlemen! 
 People who live west of the Missouri River have 
 scarcely, I think, much knowledge of Abyssinia, and 
 there are gentlemen here who can vouch for me in that. 
 But it seemed to Mr. Bennett a very ordinary thing, 
 and it seemed to his agent in London a very ordinary 
 thing indeed. So I, of course, followed suit. I took 
 it as a very ordinary thing also, and I went to Abys- 
 sinia, and somehow or another good luck followed me, 
 and my telegrams reporting the fall of Magdala hap- 
 
70 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 pened to be a week ahead of the British Government's. 
 The people said I had done right well, though the 
 London papers said I was an impostor. The sec- 
 ond thing I was aware of was that I was ordered to 
 Crete to run the blockade, and describe the Cretan re- 
 bellion from the Cretan side and from the Turkish side ; 
 and then I was sent to Spain to report from the Re- 
 publican side and from the Carlist side, perfectly dis- 
 passionately. 
 
 And then, all of a sudden, I was sent for to come to 
 Paris. Then Mr. Bennett, in that despotic way of his, 
 said: ^'I want you to go and find Livingstone." As 
 I tell you, I was a mere newspaper reporter. I dared 
 not confess my soul as my own. Mr. Bennett merely 
 said, ' ' Go, ' ' and I went. He gave me a glass of cham- 
 pagne, and I thought that was superb. I confessed my 
 duty to him, and I went. And, as good luck would 
 have it, I found Livingstone. 
 
 I returned, as a good citizen ought, and as a good 
 reporter ought, and as a good newspaper correspondent 
 ought, to tell the tale, and, arriving at Aden, I tele- 
 graphed a request that I might be permitted to visit civ- 
 ilization before I went to China. I came to civilization ; 
 and what do you think was the result ? Why, only to 
 find that all the world disbelieved my story. Dear me ! 
 If I were proud of anything, sir, it was that what I 
 said wa^ a fact; that whatever I said I would do, I 
 would endeavor to do with all my might, or, as many 
 a good man had done before, as my predecessors had 
 done, lay my bones behind. That 's all. I was re- 
 quested, in an offhand manner— just as any member 
 of the Lotos Club here present would say— "Would 
 
HENRY M. STANLEY 71 
 
 you mind giving us a little resume of your geographical 
 work?" I said: ''Not in the least, my dear sir; I 
 have n't the slightest objection." And do you know 
 that to make it perfectly geographical and not in the 
 least sensational I took particular pains and I wrote 
 a paper out, and when it was printed it was just about 
 an inch long. It contained about a hundred polysyl- 
 labic African w^ords. And yet, ' ' for a ' that and a ' that, ' ' 
 the pundits of the Geographical Society, the Brighton 
 Association, said that they had n't come to listen to any 
 sensational stories, but that they had come to listen 
 to facts. Well, now, an old gentleman, very reverend, 
 full of years and honors, learned in Cufic inscriptions 
 and cuneiform characters, wrote to the ''Times," stat- 
 ing that it was not Stanley who had discovered Living- 
 stone, but that it was Livingstone who had discovered 
 Stanley. 
 
 [Mr. Stanley then alluded to the unbelief in his dis- 
 coveries prevailing at that time in New York, and 
 continued :] 
 
 If it had not been for that unbelief I don't believe 
 I should ever have visited Africa again. I should have 
 become, or I should have endeavored to become, with 
 Mr. Reid's permission, a conservative member of the 
 Lotos Club. I should have settled down and become 
 as steady and as stolid as some of these patriots that 
 you have around here. I should have said nothing 
 offensive. I should have done some "treating." I 
 should have offered a few a cigar, and on Saturday 
 night, perhaps, I should have opened a bottle of cham- 
 pagne and distributed it among my friends. But that 
 was not to be. 
 
72 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 I left New York for Spain, and then the Ashantee 
 War broke out, and once more my good luck followed 
 me, and I got the treaty of peace ahead of everybody 
 else ; and as I was coming to England from the Ashan- 
 tee War a telegraphic despatch was put into my hands 
 at the island of St. Vincent saying that Livingstone 
 was dead ! I said : "What does this mean to me? The 
 New-Yorkers don't believe in me. How shall I prove 
 that what I have said is true ? By George ! I will go 
 and complete Livingstone's work. I will prove that 
 the discovery of Livingstone was a mere flea-bite. I 
 will prove to them that I am a good man and true." 
 That 's all that I wanted. I accompanied Living- 
 stone's remains to Westminster Abbey. I saw buried 
 the remains of the man whom I had left sixteen months 
 before enjoying full life and abundant hope. The 
 "Daily Telegraph's" proprietor cabled over to Ben- 
 nett: "Will you join us in sending Stanley over to 
 complete Livingstone's explorations?" Bennett re- 
 ceived the telegram in New York, read it, pondered a 
 moment, snatched a blank, and wrote, "Yes. Bennett." 
 
 That was my commission, and I set out to Africa, in- 
 tending to complete Livingstone's explorations, also to 
 settle the Nile problem as to where the head waters of 
 the Nile were, as to whether Lake Victoria consisted of 
 one lake, one body of water, or a number of shallow 
 lakes; to throw some light on Sir Samuel Baker's Al- 
 bert Nyanza, and also to discover the outlet of Lake 
 Tanganyika, and then to find out what strange, mys- 
 terious river this was which had lured Livingstone on 
 to his death— whether it was the Nile, the Niger, or the 
 Congo. Edwin Arnold, the author of "The Light of 
 
HENRY M. STANLEY 73 
 
 Asia/' said, "Do you think you can do all this?" 
 "Don't ask me such a conundrum as that. Put down 
 the funds and tell me to go. That 's all." And he 
 induced Lawson, the proprietor, to consent. The funds 
 were had, and I went. 
 
 First of all, we settled the problem of the Victoria 
 —that it was one body of water ; that instead of being 
 a cluster of shallow lakes or marshes, it was one body 
 of water, 21,500 square miles in extent. "While en- 
 deavoring to throw light upon Sir Samuel Baker's Al- 
 bert Nyanza we discovered a new lake, a much superior 
 lake to Albert Nyanza— the Dead Locust Lake— and 
 at the same time Gordon Pasha sent his lieutenant to 
 discover and circumnavigate the Albert Nyanza, and 
 he found it to be only a miserable one hundred and 
 forty miles, because Baker, in a fit of enthusiasm, had 
 stood on the brow of a high plateau and, looking down 
 on the dark-blue waters of Albert Nyanza, cried ro- 
 mantically :" I see it extending indefinitely toward the 
 southwest!" "Indefinitely" is not a geographical ex- 
 pression, gentlemen. 
 
 We found that there was no outlet to the Tangan- 
 jdka, although it was a sweet-water lake. After set- 
 tling that problem, day after day, as we glided down 
 the strange river that had lured Livingstone to his 
 death, we were in as much doubt as Livingstone had 
 been when he wrote his last letter and said: "I will 
 never be made black man 's meat for anything less than 
 the classic Nile." After traveling four hundred miles 
 we came to the Stanley Falls, and beyond them we saw 
 the river deflect from its Nileward course toward the 
 northwest. Then it turned west, and then visions of 
 
74 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 towers and towns and strange tribes and strange na- 
 tions broke upon our imagination, and we wondered 
 what we were going to see, when the river suddenly 
 took a decided turn toward the southwest, and our 
 dreams were put an end to. We saw then that it was 
 aiming directly for the Congo, and when we had pro- 
 pitiated some natives whom we encountered by show- 
 ing them some crimson beads and polished wire that 
 had been polished for the occasion, we said : ^ ' This for 
 your answer. What river is this?" "Why, it is the 
 river, of course." That was not an answer, and it 
 required some persuasion before the chief, bit by bit, 
 digging into his brain, managed to roll out sonorously 
 the words: "It is the Ko-to-yah Congo"— "It is the 
 river of Congoland." 
 
 Alas for our classic dreams! Alas for Crophi and 
 Mophi, the fabled fountains of Herodotus! Alas for 
 the banks of the river where Moses was found by the 
 daughter of Pharaoh! This is the parvenu Congo! 
 Then we glided on and on, past strange nations and 
 cannibals— not past those nations which have their 
 heads under their arms— for eleven hundred miles, 
 until we arrived at a circular extension of the river, 
 and my last remaining companion called it Stanley 
 Pool, and then, five months after that, our journey 
 ended. 
 
 After that I had a very good mind to come back to 
 America and say, like the Queen of Uganda, "There, 
 what did I tell you?" But you know the fates would 
 not permit me to come over in 1878. The very day I 
 landed in Europe the King of Italy gave me an express 
 train to convey me to France, and the very moment I 
 descended from it at Marseilles there were three am- 
 
HENRY M. STANLEY 75 
 
 bassadors from the King of the Belgians asking me 
 to go back to Africa. 
 
 ''What ! Back to Africa? Never ! I have come for 
 civilization. I have come for enjoyment. I have come 
 for love, for life, for pleasure. Not I. Go and ask 
 some of those people you know who have never been 
 to Africa before. I have had enough of it." ''Well, 
 perhaps by and by—" "Ah, I don't know just what 
 will happen by and by, but just now never, never! 
 Not for Rothschild's wealth!" 
 
 I was received by the Paris Geographical Society, 
 and it was then I began to feel, "Well, after all, I 
 have done something, have n't I?" I felt superb. 
 But you know I have always considered myself a re- 
 publican. I have those bullet-riddled flags and those 
 arrow-torn flags, the Stars and Stripes, that I car- 
 ried in Africa for the discovery of Livingstone, and 
 that crossed Africa, and I venerate those old flags. 
 I have them in London now, jealously guarded in 
 the secret recesses of my cabinet. I allow only my 
 very best friends to look at them, and if any of you 
 gentlemen ever happen in at my quarters I will show 
 them to you. 
 
 After I had written my book "Through the Dark 
 Continent" I began to lecture, using these words: "I 
 have passed through a land watered by the largest 
 river of the African continent, and that land knows 
 no owner. A word to the wise is sufficient. You have 
 cloths and hardware, and glassware and gunpowder, 
 and those millions of natives have ivory and gums and 
 rubber and dyestuffs, and in barter there is good 
 profit!" 
 
 The King of the Belgians commissioned me to go to 
 
76 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 that country. My expedition when we started from 
 the coast numbered three hundred colored people and 
 fourteen Europeans. We returned with three thou- 
 sand trained black men and three hundred Europeans. 
 The first sum allowed me was $50,000 a year, but it has 
 ended at something like $700,000 a year. Thus you see 
 the progress of civilization. We found the Congo hav- 
 ing only canoes. To-day there are eight steamers. It 
 was said at first that King Leopold was a dreamer. 
 He dreamed he could unite the barbarians of Africa 
 into a confederacy and call it a free state; but on 
 February 25, 1885, the powers of Europe, and Amer- 
 ica also, ratified an act recognizing the territories ac- 
 quired by us to be the free and independent State of 
 the Congo. 
 
 Perhaps when the members of the Lotos Club have 
 reflected a little more upon the value of what Living- 
 stone and Leopold have been doing, they will also agree 
 that these men have done their duty in this world and 
 in the age in which they live, and that their labor has 
 not been in vain on account of the great sacrifices they 
 have made to the benighted millions of dark Africa. 
 
WHITBLAW REID 
 
 AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, APRIL 27, 1889 
 
 [Mr. Reid had retired at this time from the presidency of the Club, having been 
 appointed as Minister to France.] 
 
 IT is a great pleasure to be your guest to-night. It 
 would be a greater pleasure to me if I could feel 
 that in any degree I deserved the generous words your 
 president has used concerning me, or the flattering cor- 
 diality with which you have received them. 
 
 And yet it is no new experience. "When I had 
 scarcely been inside your club-house half a dozen times 
 you made me your president, and for fourteen terms in 
 all you have annually renewed that honor. Through 
 the whole period of my membership, in fair weather or 
 in foul, through good report and through evil report 
 —and I have had my full share of both in this town— 
 the Lotos Club has always been a home where friends 
 surrounded and constant good will pursued me. 
 
 You have been good enough to mention with ap- 
 proval the nomination to a foreign post with which the 
 President has honored me. The kindness with which 
 that nomination has been received here, where all are 
 friends, and the similar kindness shown alike by friends 
 and foes in the press and in the community, have 
 touched me deeply. It is now twenty-one years since 
 I began work in New York. During that whole time 
 
 77 
 
78 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 the journal with which I was connected has been wag- 
 ing a constant and unequal warfare— sometimes quite 
 single-handed, and generally pretty lonely— and there 
 have been ugly blows given and taken. To find at the 
 end of it, the entire press of the city, with exceptions 
 too slight to be noted, uniting in approval of the ap- 
 pointment and in most generous treatment of myself— 
 this, Mr. President, is a distinction indeed, and one 
 which I value more highly than the office itself. And 
 now, on the eve of my departure, the greetings of this 
 club, the presence of this distinguished company of 
 representative men, the good will of all, which you have 
 so felicitously expressed, will be to me always a price- 
 less remembrance. More, perhaps, than many men, I 
 know how to value it. For I know well this great city 
 in which I have worked so long ; I know her merchants, 
 her professional men and her politicians, her men of 
 letters and her men of leisure, her artists, her artisans, 
 and her laboring men. I know her clubs and I know 
 her churches. I am a citizen of no mean city, and to 
 bear, even in a small degree, the approval of such a 
 community is to wear a decoration that should gratify 
 any man's ambition. 
 
 It is an untried field that lies before me, and one 
 not to be entered without some misgivings. I am to 
 succeed an accomplished gentleman familiar by early 
 associations and long residence with the beautiful capi- 
 tal and the great people of France. If I fail, as may 
 well happen, in many ways to equal the distinguished 
 service he has rendered, perhaps New-Yorkers will for- 
 give some of the shortcomings at the legation, in view 
 of the fact that they find there one who is at least no 
 
WHITELAW REID 79 
 
 stranger to them, and whom they have often forgiven 
 before. 
 
 There has been no time, Mr. President, during my 
 long term of office here when I should not have been 
 summarily turned out if party lines had been drawn 
 upon me. Among the many sins of the Democratic 
 party, gentlemen, this also may be counted, that for 
 fourteen years Democratic votes have kept me in the 
 presidency of this club. It is a pleasure to recall the 
 fact at the moment when I am ceasing to be inde- 
 pendent and am assuming obligations due alike to all 
 parties and to all sections. Even my dearest foe, the 
 Mugwump, is an American citizen, and so I have be- 
 come his servant. 
 
 It is a great privilege to represent the Eepublic 
 abroad. But there are two other privileges involved 
 which are not to be despised, either: the privilege of 
 being made to feel at home by receiving the visits of 
 your traveling countrymen, and the priceless privilege 
 of being able to resign and come home when you wish. 
 
 Please don't consider me, however, as naming the 
 date. You remember the story Judge Noah Davis tells 
 about his old friend Judge Grover of the Court of Ap- 
 peals. He had a neighbor. Farmer Jones, who, to his 
 amazement, was nominated for the Assembly. Judge 
 Grover doubted Jones's fitness, but thought he would 
 try to secure the main point, and so wrote, saying, ''I 
 do beg of you, if you come to Albany, to pledge me 
 that you will remain honest." Promptly, by return 
 mail, came back Farmer Jones's reply. He would do 
 anything he could to oblige Judge Grover, but if he 
 took this office he must take it absolutely without 
 
80 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 pledges! Gentlemen aspirants, please to understand 
 that if I do speak of the right of resignation, I am not 
 making any pledge! It would argue astonishing mis- 
 conceptions of the office and of one's self to assume 
 that any American could fail to value the place first 
 made illustrious by Benjamin Franklin, and honored 
 since by a long line of distinguished men — among 
 whose names not the least brilliant are the latest, those 
 of Bigelow, "Washburne, Noyes, Morton, and McLane. 
 Incredible would be the dullness of the man who did 
 not prize the distinction of representing his country at 
 the most brilliant capital of Europe, to that marvelous 
 people who have so often swayed the destinies of the 
 Old World, and have left so enduring and beneficent a 
 record in the history of the New World— our one his- 
 toric ally, faithful through a century of unbroken 
 friendship, and doubly endeared to us now by kindred 
 government and common aspirations. 
 
 The land of sunshine and of song, — 
 
 Her name your hearts divine, — 
 To her this banquet's vows belong 
 
 Whose breasts have poured its wine : 
 
 Our trusty friend, our true ally, 
 Through varied change and chance 5 
 
 So fill your flashing goblets high — 
 I give you, " Vive la France ! " 
 
 Once more the land of arms and arts, 
 
 Of glory, grace, romance. 
 Her love lies deep in all our hearts. 
 
 God bless her, '' Vive la France ! " 
 
Chester S. Lord 
 
SIR EDWIN ARNOLD 
 
 AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, OCTOBER 31, 1891 
 
 IN rising to return my sincere thanks for the high 
 honor done to me by this magnificent banquet, by 
 its lavish opulence of welcome, by its goodly company, 
 by the English so far too flattering which has been 
 employed by the president, and by the generous 
 warmth with which you have received my name, I 
 should be wholly unable to sustain the heavy burden 
 of my gratitude but for a consideration of which I 
 will presently speak. To-night must always be for me 
 indeed a memorable occasion. Many a time and oft 
 during the seven lustrums composing my life I have 
 had personal reason to rejoice at the splendid mistake 
 committed by Christopher Columbus in discovering 
 your famous and powerful country. When his cara- 
 vels put forth from our side of the Atlantic he had no 
 expectation whatever, contrary to the general belief 
 and statement, of discovering a new world. He was at 
 that time thinking of and searching for a very ancient 
 land, the Empire of Xipangu, or Japan, at that era 
 much and mysteriously talked about by Marco Polo 
 and other travelers, but by a splendid blunder he 
 stumbled upon America. I have good reason to greet 
 his name in memory, apart from certain other not un- 
 important results of his error, owing, as I do, to him 
 6 81 
 
82 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 the prodigious debt of a dear American wife, now with 
 God, of children half American and half English, of 
 countless friends, of a large part of such literary repu- 
 tation as I possess, and, to crown all, for this memor- 
 able evening, which of itself would be enough to re- 
 ward me for more than I have done, and to encourage 
 me in a much more arduous task than even that which 
 I have undertaken. 
 
 I am to-night the proud and happy guest of a club 
 celebrated all over the world for its brilliant fellow- 
 ship, its broad enlightenment, and its large and gra- 
 cious hospitalities. I see around me here those who 
 worthily reflect by their weight, their learning, their 
 social, civil, literary, artistic, and professional achieve- 
 ments and accomplishments, the best intellect of this 
 vast and noble land; and I have been pleasantly made 
 aware that other well-known Americans, although ab- 
 sent in person, are present in spirit to-night at this 
 board. Comprehending these things as I do, and by 
 the significance which underlies them, it is a special 
 regret that I do not command such a gift of easy speech 
 as seems indigenous to this country, for truly it ap- 
 pears to me that almost every cultured American gen- 
 tleman, and many that are not cultured, are born pow- 
 erful and persuasive orators. How, lacking this, can 
 I hope to give any adequate utterance to the gratitude, 
 the respect, the deep amity, the ardent good will with 
 which my heart is laden? An Arab proverb says, 
 * ' The camel knows himself when he goes under a moun- 
 tain," and if I have sometimes flattered myself that 
 much duty and long habitude with the world and its 
 leaders had made me in some slight degree master of 
 
SIR EDWIN ARNOLD 83 
 
 my native tongue, the tumult of pride and pleasure 
 which fills my breast at this hour makes me under- 
 stand that I must not trust to-night to my unpractised 
 powers, and must rely almost entirely on your bound- 
 less kindness and assured indulgence. 
 
 Indeed, gentlemen, I think I should become at once 
 inarticulate and take refuge in the safe retreat of 
 silence but for that consideration of which I spoke in 
 the beginning. One can never tell what excellent 
 things a man might have said who holds his tongue, 
 and I remember with what agreement I heard Mr. 
 Lowell at the Savage Club, in London, remark that all 
 of his best speeches were made in the carriage going 
 home at night. But I have not the conceit to believe 
 that your splendid welcome of this evening is intended 
 solely for me, or for my writings. In truth, although 
 I say this in a certain confidence, and do not wish the 
 observation to go far beyond this banquet chamber, I 
 have no high opinion of myself. The true artist can 
 never lose sight of the abyss which separates his ideal 
 from that which he has realized, the thing he sought 
 and strove to do from the actual poem or picture he 
 has accomplished, but I am confidently and joyously 
 aware that in my comparatively unimportant person, 
 gentlemen, you salute to-night with the large-heart- 
 edness characteristic of your land, and of the Lotos 
 Club in particular, the heart of that other and older 
 England which also loves you well, and through me 
 to-night warmly and sincerely greets you. 
 
 Moreover, the lowliest ambassador derives a measure 
 of dignity from the commission of a mighty sovereign, 
 and the conviction that supports me this evening is 
 
84 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 that in my unworthy self the men of letters of the cis- 
 atlantic lands are here joining hands, and that if I 
 may in humility speak for my literary countrymen, 
 they are also here, and now warmly salute those of your 
 race,— not the less warmly because America has lately 
 decreed a signal deed of justice toward English authors 
 in her copyright act. Some years ago I wrote two 
 little verses in a preface of a book dedicated to my 
 numerous friends in America, which ran like this: 
 
 Thou new Great Britain, famous, free, and bright, 
 West of thy West sleepeth my ancient East ; 
 
 Our sunsets make thy noons, daytime and night 
 Meet in sweet morning promise on thy breast. 
 
 Fulfil the promise, lady of wide lands. 
 
 Where with thine own an Enghsh singer ranks ; 
 
 I, who found favor from thy sovereign hands, 
 Kiss them, and at thy feet lay this for thanks. 
 
 Your legislature has since rendered my statement 
 absolutely true, and has given full citizenship in this 
 country to every English author. Personally, I was 
 never a fanatic on the matter. I have always had a 
 tenderness for those buccaneers of the ocean of books 
 who, in nefarious bottoms, carried my poetical goods 
 far and wide, without any charge for freight. Laurels, 
 in my opinion, for they can be won, are meant to be 
 worn with thankfulness and modesty, not to be eaten 
 like salad or boiled like cabbage for the pot ; and when 
 some of my comrades have said impatiently about their 
 more thoughtful works that writers must live, I have, 
 perhaps, vexed them by replying that an author who 
 
SIR EDWIN ARNOLD 85 
 
 aspires to fame and an independent gratitude bestowed 
 for the true creative service to mankind should be con- 
 tent, I hold, with those lofty and inestimable rewards, 
 and not demand bread and butter also from the high 
 Muses, as if they were German waitresses in a coffee- 
 house. 
 
 Other ways of earning daily bread should be fol- 
 lowed. If profit comes, of course it is to men, poets 
 and authors, welcome enough, and justice is ever the 
 best of all excellent things; but the one priceless re- 
 ward for a true poet or sincere thinker lives surely in 
 the service his work has done to his generation and in 
 the precious friendships which even I have found en- 
 rich his existence and embellish his path in life. But 
 this excursion on the literary rights now equitably 
 established leads me to touch upon the noble commu- 
 nity of language which our two countries possess. 
 
 You, too, besides your own ample glories, have a 
 large part by kinship and common speech in the work 
 which England has done and is doing in Asia by giv- 
 ing peace and development to India ; in Africa by fos- 
 tering commerce and preserving order; in Egypt by 
 opening the dark continent, as well as peopling Aus- 
 tralia and many a distant colony with her industrious 
 children. Half of all this I consider is America's, as 
 she may also claim a large and substantial part in the 
 spread of the Anglo-Saxon race through this vast new 
 world, under that lovely and honored banner about 
 which I must think our old poet was dreaming when he 
 sung: 
 
 Her lightness and brightness do shine in such splendor 
 That none but the stars are thought fit to attend her. 
 
 6* 
 
86 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 Beyond all, I say we share together that glorious lan- 
 guage of Shakespeare, which it will be our common duty 
 and, I think, our manifest destiny to establish as the 
 general tongue of the globe. This seems to be inevit- 
 able, not without a certain philological regret, since if 
 I were to choose an old tongue I think I should prefer, 
 for its music and its majesty, the beautiful Castilian. 
 Nevertheless, the whole world must eventually talk 
 our speech, which is already so prevalent that to cir- 
 cumnavigate the globe none other is necessary, and 
 even in the by-streets of Japan, the bazaars of India 
 and China, and the villages of Malaya one half of the 
 shops write up the names and goods in English. Is not 
 this alone well-nigh enough to link us in pride and 
 peace? The English poet Cowper has nobly written: 
 
 Time was when it was praise and boast enough, 
 In every chme, travel where'er we might, 
 That we were born her children ; fame enough 
 To fiU the mission of a common man. 
 That Chatham's language was his native tongue. 
 
 Let us all try to keep in speech and in writing as close 
 as we can to the pure English that Shakespeare and 
 Milton, and in these later times Longfellow, Emerson, 
 and Hawthorne, have fixed. It will not be easy. Con- 
 versing recently with Lord Tennyson, and expressing 
 similar opinions, he said to me : ' ' It is bad for us that 
 English will always be a spoken speech, since that 
 means that it will always be changing, and so the time 
 will come when you and I will be as hard to read as 
 Chaucer is to-day. ' ' 
 
 You remember, gentlemen, the opinion your bril- 
 
SIR EDWIN ARNOLD 87 
 
 liant humorist Artemus Ward let fall of that ancient 
 singer. "Mr. Chaucer," he observed casually, **is an 
 admirable poet, but as a spellist a very decided fail- 
 ure." To the treasure-house of that noble tongue the 
 United States has splendidly contributed. It would 
 be far poorer to-day without the tender verses of Long- 
 fellow, the serene and philosophic pages of Emerson, 
 the convincing wit and clear criticism of my illustrious 
 departed friend James Russell LoweU, the Catullus- 
 like perfection of the lyrics of Edgar Allan Poe, and 
 the glorious, large-tempered dithyrambs of Walt Whit- 
 man. 
 
 These stately and sacred laurel groves grow here in 
 a garden forever extending, ever carrying further for- 
 ward for the sake of humanity the irresistible flag of 
 our Saxon supremacy, and lead one to falter in an 
 attempt to eulogize America and the idea of her po- 
 tency and her promise. The most elaborate panegyric 
 would seem but a weak impertinence which would re- 
 mind you, perhaps, too vividly of Sidney Smith, who, 
 when he saw his grandchild pat the back of a large 
 turtle, asked her why she did so. The little maid 
 replied, "Grandpapa, I do it to please the turtle." 
 "My child," he answered, ''you might as well stroke 
 the dome of St. Paul's to please the Dean and Chap- 
 ter." I myself once heard, in our zoological gardens 
 in London, another little girl ask her mama whether 
 it would hurt the elephant if she offered him a choco- 
 late drop. In that guarded and respectful spirit it is 
 that I venture to tell you here to-night how truly in 
 England the peace and prosperity of your Republic are 
 desired, and that there is nothing except good will felt 
 
88 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 by the mass of our people toward you, and nothing but 
 the greatest satisfaction in your wealth and progress. 
 
 Between these two majestic sisters of the Saxon blood 
 the hatchet of war is, pleaise God, buried. No cause of 
 quarrel, I think and hope, can ever be otherwise than 
 truly out of proportion to the vaster causes of affection 
 and accord. We have no longer to prove to each other or 
 to the world that Englishmen and Americans are high- 
 spirited and fearless; that Englishmen and Americans 
 alike will do justice and will have justice, and will put 
 up with nothing else from each other and from the 
 nations at large. Our proofs are made on both sides, 
 and indelibly written on the pages of history. Not 
 that I wish to speak platitudes about war. It has been 
 necessary to human progress ; it has bred and preserved 
 noble virtues ; it has been inevitable, and may be again, 
 but it belongs to a low civilization. Other countries 
 have, perhaps, not yet reached that point of intimate 
 contact and rational advance, but for us two, at least, 
 the time seems to have come when violent decisions, and 
 even talk of them, should be as much abolished between 
 us as cannibalism. 
 
 When in Washington I ventured to propose to Presi- 
 dent Harrison that we should some day, the sooner the 
 better, choose five men of public worth in the United 
 States and ^ye in England, give them gold coats, if 
 you please, and a handsome salary, and establish them 
 as a standing and supreme tribunal of arbitration, re- 
 ferring to them the little family fallings-out of Amer- 
 ica and England whenever something goes wrong be- 
 tween us about a sealskin in Bering Strait, a lobster- 
 pot, an ambassador's letter, a border tariff, or an Irish 
 
SIR EDWIN ARNOLD 89 
 
 vote. He showed himself very well disposed toward 
 my suggestion. 
 
 Mr. President, in sincerely hoping that you take me 
 to be a better poet than orator, I thank you all from 
 the bottom of my heart for your reception to-night, 
 and personally pray for the tranquillity and prosperity 
 of this free and magnificent Republic. Under the cir- 
 cumstances, one word may perhaps be permitted before 
 a company so intellectual and representative as to my 
 purpose in visiting your States. I had the inclination 
 to try this literary experiment, whether a poet might 
 not with a certain degree of success himself read the 
 poem which he had composed and best understands as 
 the promulgator of his own ideas. The boldness of 
 such an enterprise really covers a sincere compliment 
 to America, for that which was possible and even popu- 
 lar in ancient Greece could be nowhere again possible 
 if not in America, which has many characteristics and 
 where the audiences are so patient, generous, and en- 
 lightened. We shall see. 
 
 Heartily, gratefully, and with a mind from which 
 the memory of this glorious evening will never be ef- 
 faced, I thank you for the very friendly and favorable 
 omens of this banquet. 
 
ABEAM S. HEWITT 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO WHITELAW REID, UPON HIS RETIRE- 
 MENT FROM OFFICE AS MINISTER TO FRANCE, 
 APRIL 30, 1892 
 
 YOUR president said he was reluctant at this ex- 
 tremely late hour to protract the proceedings by 
 the sound of voices other than those which have al- 
 ready been heard. I share with him most profoundly in 
 this reluctance, and I thought, and think now, that it 
 is one of the privileges of old age to be allowed to rest 
 in quiet contemplation, and in the pleasure of hearing 
 others talk for its instruction. Sir, I feel the poverty of 
 thought, and more particularly of words, which comes 
 to those who have fought the battle of life and been 
 retired. Still, it is easy to perform the duty which we 
 all come here to-night so willingly to discharge, in say- 
 ing to Mr. Reid how lonesome we have been in his ab- 
 sence, and how the sense of loneliness no amount of 
 talk, political or otherwise, has been able to relieve. 
 
 Mr. Reid and I have been friends for many years, 
 and although we have had our political differences, they 
 have never invaded for one moment the sacred domain 
 of friendship. When I have made the great mistakes 
 of my public career, I say now that no one came to me 
 more frankly or more freely in private and besought 
 me to see the error of my ways than Mr. Reid. And 
 
 90 
 
ABRAM S. HEWITT 91 
 
 I will say now that if I had followed his advice on 
 more than one occasion it would have been better for 
 me, and perhaps for the country. 
 
 When Mr. Eeid was selected to fill the distinguished 
 office which he has just resigned I think no one re- 
 joiced more than I did, and no one believed more than 
 I did that the administration had put the right man in 
 the right place. 
 
 In the early history of our country Jefferson and 
 Adams and other of our Presidents thought that for- 
 eign ministers were not of much use ; nevertheless, they 
 always sent men abroad to fill those offices to get rid 
 of troublesome politicians at home. There are many 
 examples in our country, the best-known of which is 
 John Randolph— who was sent to Russia to die, to the 
 great gratification of some of his former friends. But 
 there was another reason. When the diplomatic bill 
 was attacked on the ground that the salaries were too 
 great and that our country ought to discontinue its for- 
 eign ministers, I had charge of the bill, and I pointed 
 out to the House— and I never heard any objection 
 made afterward, although I see it has occurred on one 
 occasion quite recently— that it was necessary to educate 
 our ministers whom we sent to foreign countries, and I 
 must say that the Republican administration, which has 
 succeeded the exceedingly able and patriotic Democratic 
 administration, has made a great discovery, namely, 
 they have selected men who had already been trained 
 in a greater school than any foreign community or any 
 government under which the ordinary rules of diplo- 
 macy exist : they have selected men trained in an edi- 
 torial capacity. They have picked out the men who 
 
92 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 know every trick and every motive which influences 
 human action. 
 
 I think that the very acme of human intelligence was 
 exhibited by the President when he chose to represent 
 us, under very peculiar difficulties in the court of 
 France, a man who was born and bred in Ohio, and 
 who had been graduated in the city of New York in 
 the midst of our local politics. I knew perfectly well 
 that whatever he did would be well done, and that all 
 he did as Minister to France would redound to the 
 credit of his country. 
 
 Now, you are familiar with what Mr. Keid has done, 
 and we are also grateful to him for what he has done, 
 because he has opened an enormous trade for this 
 country in France, and I do not think it necessary 
 to speak at any length upon his work there. I find 
 that his views have been enlarged in some particulars 
 since he left us, and that he is absolutely prepared to 
 consider how the reciprocal trade between France and 
 the United States might be increased ; and he even sug- 
 gested that the proposition made by France, of the 
 universal exchange of products between the two na- 
 tions, might be, and would be, for the advantage of this 
 country rather than that of France. 
 
 Now, for the editor of the '' Tribune" to have ar- 
 rived at the conclusion that foreign trade can be ad- 
 vantageous to anybody, and that it is not a crime 
 that ought to be suppressed, is in my mind evidence of 
 the great value that is derived from sending editors 
 abroad as the representatives of our expanding nation. 
 
 I found in the address which he made, yesterday or 
 the day before, before the Republican State Conven- 
 
ABRAM S. HEWITT 93 
 
 tion, that he has arrived at some admirable conclusions, 
 which he stated to his fellow-delegates. I think they 
 really are of practical value, not only to the Republi- 
 cans, but to the Democrats. They were the result of 
 experience. He advised his party to get together. 
 
 Now, I do not know any man of my acquaintance 
 now living— perhaps I may know some who are dead— 
 who have got together as many good things as Mr. Reid 
 has. Before he went abroad he got a newspaper to- 
 gether, and connected with that newspaper he got a 
 group of editors and reporters without a superior as a 
 corps— perhaps without an equal— in any like estab- 
 lishment in the world. He got a fine building, and, 
 if I may be permitted in his presence to say it, he got 
 a charming wife and a most admirable family and a 
 beau-ideal of a father-in-law. 
 
 Now, do you wonder when a man looks at things of 
 that sort which he has got together, that he advises 
 other people to get together ? 
 
 Now, with his profound knowledge of international 
 relations, and with the reputation which he has ac- 
 quired, not only in France, but in America, there is 
 no telling to what heights he may attain. If it should 
 happen that the people of this country should, in a 
 spasm of extraordinary intelligence, recognize the enor- 
 mous advantage which it would be to them to secure 
 in the highest executive office of the land the services 
 of so trained a diplomat, so wise a statesman as Mr. 
 Reid, there is at least one Democrat in this broad land 
 who would not say him nay, and who would feel that 
 virtue had received its just reward. 
 
WILLIAM H. Mcelroy 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO WHITELAW REID, APRIL 30, 1892 
 
 AS a New-Yorker whose bump of local pride is well 
 J\. developed, I naturally hail with enthusiasm my 
 fellow- citizen who is your guest of honor, since he has 
 lent distinction to the metropolis and to our common- 
 wealth. In a public place abroad, of great dignity and 
 responsibility, he has been demonstrating of late years 
 what he had previously demonstrated at home, that 
 there is no better way of getting first-class work done 
 in a first-class manner than by inducing a newspaper 
 man to do it. This assertion is made in spite of my 
 having written some pieces for the newspapers my- 
 ■ self. ''No pleasure is comparable," says Bacon, "with 
 the standing upon the vantage-ground of truth." 
 Were it not for this, I should hardly venture in this 
 company, which contains so many foremost represen- 
 tatives of the other professions, to lay stress upon the 
 fact that the strong and brilliant diplomatic career 
 which just now is inspiring so many eulogies is the 
 career of one who is primarily a journalist and only 
 incidentally a diplomatist. 
 
 It might not be in good, in truly good, taste further 
 to dwell upon this fascinating consideration— fascinat- 
 ing to a newspaper man. I shall only ask you to bear in 
 
 94 
 
WILLIAM H. Mcelroy 95 
 
 mind, if you please, not necessarily for publication, but 
 as a ^arantee of your discriminating appreciation, 
 that the two most successful ministers to France from 
 the United States have both been press men— to wit, 
 our esteemed back number, Benjamin Franklin, and 
 our esteemed contemporary, Whitelaw Reid. It would 
 not be strange in the circumstances if an impression- 
 able young journalist, given to magnifying his profes- 
 sion, should be led to exclaim, with one eye on Paris 
 and the other on the record of our late legislature, 
 **Let me make the newspapers of a nation, and I care 
 not who concocts its laws ! ' ' 
 
 Something has been said about the grand Exposi- 
 tion which is to be held in Chicago next year. It 
 makes some of us think of an interesting little in- 
 cident, not wholly unconnected with your guest of 
 honor, of the earlier Philadelphia Exposition. One 
 morning a young fellow from one of the Territories, 
 who was doing the Art Department, halted before an 
 imposing figure in bronze. He took a fancy to it, and 
 was anxious to know whom it represented. Accord- 
 ingly, he went to one of the officials, who kindly ex- 
 plained, ''That 's Rienzi, the last of the Tribunes." 
 Instead of thanking his benefactor, the young fellow 
 laughed him to scorn, saying: "No, yer don't! My 
 pop 's taken the 'Tribune' ever since she started, and 
 I happen to know that the last of the Tribunes ain't 
 no Ry-en-zee, but a man named Whitelaw Reid. ' ' 
 
ABRAM S. HEWITT 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO THE MAYOR OF THE CITY, 
 WILLIAM L. STRONG, JANUARY 12, 1895 
 
 I COULD have wished that it had comported with 
 your sense of propriety and with the nnbonnded 
 courtesy which prevails in this club that I might have 
 been left in that retirement to which I was consigned 
 six years ago by a large majority. 
 
 I suppose that this club must base its custom upon 
 what evidently is so familiar to Colonel Strong— pro- 
 pria quce maribus. Certainly it is to me a new sensa- 
 tion to hear these extremely courteous remarks from 
 the president to the mayor. I was not fortunate 
 enough myself to be the recipient of the intended honor 
 which the club proposed to me when I became mayor. 
 Neither was I acquainted with the cheerfulness of the 
 office, nor made the recipient of that delightful custom 
 of the club which ''welcomes the coming and speeds 
 the parting guest. ' ' But I have experienced the hospi- 
 tality of this club on many occasions, and it is the 
 only public body in this city that has the power to 
 compel me to leave my house at night, or to enjoy 
 the delightful society and the charming entertainment 
 which you always offer to your guests. One cannot 
 fail to sympathize with his Honor in the cheerful view 
 which he takes of his present situation. I doubt 
 
 96 
 
ABRAM S. HEWITT 97 
 
 whether Mark Tapley, at the most interesting period of 
 his career, felt quite as well satisfied with his sur- 
 roundings as the mayor appears to be with his. But 
 in three years there will be plenty of time to change 
 his mind ; and as soon as the Power of Removal Bill is 
 passed he will be able to turn out all the adherents of 
 Tammany Hall, and put in officers who in his opinion 
 will be able to discharge the duties of their several posi- 
 tions with perhaps more fidelity and more ability than 
 those who are now in office. 
 
 From my own experience I doubt whether the results 
 will be as satisfactory as possibly he and the rest of 
 the community anticipate. Men who are trained in 
 politics and who have had a long experience in office 
 are apt to be very efficient indeed in the performance 
 of their duty, provided they have adequate supervision. 
 And although I w^as unable to secure passage of the 
 Power of Removal Bill, which I thought ought to have 
 been passed for the mayor at that time, and which I 
 think ought to be passed now, yet I am bound to say 
 that I never experienced the slightest difficulty, while I 
 was mayor, in having the heads of departments per- 
 form any duty to which I called their attention. Not a 
 single incumbent of office was removed during the 
 mayor's term. I am perfectly certain that the present 
 mayor has only to mark out his policy with intelli- 
 gence and to act with firmness in order to have every 
 one of his requests promptly attended to. 
 
 The truth is that we are in a transitory condition in 
 regard to municipal government. "We don't know how 
 to administer the affairs of three millions of people, 
 as we shall have when the cities of New York and 
 
98 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 Brooklyn are united. I wish to say just here that 
 some of these gentlemen may suppose that I am an 
 advocate of consolidation. Allow me to say that, as we 
 do not yet know how to govern New York, I have very 
 little hope that we shall lessen our difficulties by en- 
 larging the number of our people. But consolidation 
 is bound to come, and in the meantime this problem of 
 municipal government must be studied. 
 
 There are difficulties which cannot be eradicated 
 either by the force of law or by any resolution on the 
 part of the mayor that they shall cease to exist. Great 
 cities are the characteristic of modern civilization. The 
 population of the world, just as the business of the 
 world, is drifting into great centers of activity. The 
 old principles, or the old practices, so to speak, upon 
 which cities have been governed have ceased to retain 
 their potency. We have got to enlarge the theory of 
 municipal government to the practice in order to meet 
 these new demands with which we are not yet familiar. 
 Most of the complaints which are made, and most of the 
 suffering which we endure, are the result of the growth 
 of these great centers of population. They are not 
 due, to any great extent, to any particular party or to 
 any small number of men. They are rather due to the 
 introduction of new elements with which we have not 
 yet learned to deal. Let us study the questions in an 
 intelligent way. Let us try to develop the civic spirit, 
 and when we get a good man in the mayor's chair let 
 us try to strengthen him in the performance of his 
 duty. 
 
ROBEET a. INaERSOLL 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO ANTON SEIDL, FEBRUARY 2, 1895 
 
 I WAS enjoying myself with music and song; why 
 I should be troubled, why I should be called upon 
 to trouble you, is a question I can hardly answer. 
 Still, as the president has remarked, the American peo- 
 ple like to hear speeches. Why, I don't know. It has 
 always been a matter of amazement that anybody 
 wanted to hear me. Talking is so universal, with few 
 exceptions— the deaf and dumb— everybody seems to 
 be in the business. Why they should be so anxious to 
 hear a rival I never could understand. But, gentle- 
 men, we are all pupils of nature ; we are taught by the 
 countless things that touch us on every side, by field | 
 and flower and star and cloud and river and sea, where 
 the waves break into whitecaps, and by the prairie, 
 and by the mountain that lifts its granite forehead to 
 the sun,— all things in nature touch us, educate us, 
 sharpen us, cause the heart to bud, to burst it may be, 
 into blossom to produce fruit. In common with the 
 rest of the world, I have been educated a little that 
 way— by the things I have seen, and by the things I 
 have heard, and by the people I have met. But there 
 are a few things that stand out in my recollection as 
 having touched me more deeply than others, a few men 
 to whom I feel indebted for the little I know, for the 
 
 LofC. 99 
 
100 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 little I happen to be. Those men, those things, are 
 forever present in my mind. But I want to tell you 
 to-night that the first man that ever let up a curtain 
 in my mind, that ever opened a blind, that ever allowed 
 a little sunshine to straggle in, was Robert Burns. I 
 went to get my shoes mended, and I had to go with 
 them. And I had to wait till they were done. I was 
 like the fellow standing by the stream, naked, washing 
 his shirt. A lady and gentleman were riding by in a 
 carriage, and upon seeing him the man indignantly 
 shouted, ''"Why don't you put on another shirt when 
 you are washing one?" The fellow said, "I suppose 
 you think I 've got a hundred shirts ! ' ' 
 
 When I went into the shop of the old Scotch shoe- 
 maker he was reading a book, and when he took my 
 shoes in hand I took his book, which was "Robert 
 Burns. " In a few days I had a copy ; and indeed, gen- 
 tlemen, from that time if Burns had been destroyed 
 I could have restored more than half of it. It was in 
 my mind day and night. Burns, you know, is a little 
 valley, not very wide, but full of sunshine; a little 
 stream runs down, making music over the rocks, and 
 children play upon the banks; narrow roads overrun 
 with vines, covered with blossoms ; happy children, the 
 hum of bees, and little birds pour out their hearts and 
 enrich the air. That is Burns. 
 
 Then, you must know that I was raised respectably. 
 Certain books were not thought to be good for a young 
 person ; only such books as would start you in the nar- 
 row road for the New Jerusalem. 
 
 One night I stopped at a little hotel in Illinois many 
 years ago, when we were not quite civilized, when the 
 footsteps of the red man were still in the prairies. 
 
ROBERT a. INOERSOLL 101 
 
 WMle I was waiting for supper an old man was reading 
 from a book, and among others who were listening was 
 myself. I was filled with wonder. I had never heard 
 anything like it. I was ashamed to ask him what he was 
 reading; I supposed that an intelligent boy ought to 
 know. So I waited, and when the little bell rang for 
 supper I hung back and they went out. I picked up the 
 book; it was Sam Johnson's edition of Shakespeare. 
 The next day I bought a copy for four dollars. My 
 God ! more than the national debt. You talk about the 
 present straits of the Treasury. Four days, four 
 nights, four months, four years I read those books, two 
 volumes, and I commenced with the introduction! I 
 have n't read that introduction for nearly fifty years, 
 certainly forty-five, but I remember it still. Other writ- 
 ers are like a garden diligently planted and watered, 
 but Shakespeare is a forest where the oaks and elms 
 toss their branches to the storm, where the pine towers, 
 where the vine bursts into blossom at its foot. That 
 book opened to me a new world, another nature. While 
 Burns was the valley, here was a range of mountains 
 with thousands of such valleys; while Burns was as 
 sweet a star as ever rose into the horizon, here was a 
 heaven filled with constellations. That book has been 
 a source of perpetual joy to me from that day to this ; 
 and whenever I read Shakespeare— if it ever happens 
 —and fail to find some new beauty, some new presenta- 
 tion of some wonderful truth, or to find another word 
 that bursts into blossom, I shall make up my mind that 
 my mental faculties are failing, that it is not the fault 
 of the book. Those, then, are two things that helped 
 to educate me a little. 
 
 Afterward I saw a few paintings by Rembrandt, and 
 
102 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 all at once I was overwhelmed with the genius of the 
 man that could convey so much thought in form and 
 color. Then I saw a few landscapes by Corot, and 
 I began to think I knew something about art. Dur- 
 ing all my life, of course, like other people, I had 
 heard what they call music, and I had my favorite 
 pieces, most of those favorite pieces being favorites on 
 account of association; and nine tenths of the music 
 that is beautiful to the world is beautiful because of 
 the association— not because the music is good, but be- 
 cause of association. We cannot write a very poetic 
 thing about a pump or about water- works ; we are not 
 old enough. We can write a poetic thing about a well 
 and a sweep and an old moss-covered bucket, and you 
 can write a poem about a spring, because a spring 
 seems a gift of nature, something that costs no trouble 
 and no work, something that will sing of nature under 
 the quiet stars in June. So it is poetic on account of 
 association. The stage-coach is more poetic than the 
 car, but the time will come when the cars will be po- 
 etic, because human feelings, love 's remembrances, will 
 twine around them, and consequently they will become 
 beautiful. There is a piece of music, "The Last Rose 
 of Summer, ' ' with the music a little weak in the back ; 
 then there is ''Home, Sweet Home," and associations 
 make all this music beautiful. So in the ' ' Marseillaise ' ' 
 is the French Revolution, that whirlwind and flame 
 of war, of heroism the highest possible, of generos- 
 ity, self-denial, cruelty— all of which the human heart 
 and brain are capable; so that that music now sounds 
 as though its notes were made of stars, and it is beau- 
 tiful mostly by association. 
 
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL 103 
 
 Now, I always felt that there must be some greater 
 music somewhere. You know this little music that 
 comes back with recurring emphasis every two inches 
 or every three and a half inches ; I thought there ought 
 to be music somewhere with a great sweep from hori- 
 zon to horizon, and that in the meantime could fill the 
 great dome of sound with winged notes like the eagle ; if 
 there was not such music, somebody sometime would 
 make it, and I was waiting for it. One day I heard it ; 
 and I said, What music is that? Who wrote that? 
 I felt it everywhere. I was cold. I was almost hyster- 
 ical. It answered to my brain, to my heart; not only 
 to association, but to all there was of hope and aspira- 
 tion, all my future; and they said, this is the music 
 of Wagner. I never knew one note from another — of 
 course, I would know it from a promissory note— and 
 was utterly and absolutely ignorant of music until I 
 heard Wagner interpreted by the greatest leader, in 
 my judgment, in the world— Anton Seidl. He not 
 only understands Wagner in the brain, but he feels him 
 in the heart, and there is in his blood the same kind 
 of wild and splendid independence that was in the 
 brain of Wagner. 
 
 I want to say to-night, because there are so many 
 heresies, Mr. President, creeping into this world— I 
 want to say, and say it with all my might, that Rob- 
 ert Burns was not Scotch. He w£is far wider than 
 Scotland ; he had in him the universal tide, and wher- 
 ever it touches the shore of a human being it finds ac- 
 cess. Not Scotch, gentlemen, but a man— a man ! I can 
 swear to it, or rather affirm, that Shakespeare was not 
 English,— another man, kindred of all, of all races and 
 
104 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 peoples, and who understood the universal brain and 
 heart of the human race, and who had imagination 
 enough to put himself in the place of all. And so I 
 want to say to-night, because I want to be consistent, 
 Richard "Wagner was not a German, and his music is 
 not German. And why? Germany would not have it. 
 Germany denied that it was music. The great Ger- 
 man critics said it was nothing in the world but 
 noise. The best interpreter of Wagner in the world 
 is not German, and no man has to be German to un- 
 derstand Richard Wagner. In the heart of nearly 
 every man is this seolian harp, and when the breath of 
 true genius touches it, it answers in music of its own. 
 Wagner has touched the harp in every human heart 
 that has got a harp ; every one who knows what music 
 is or has the depth and height of feeling necessary to 
 appreciate it, appreciates Richard Wagner. How to 
 understand that music, to hear it as interpreted by this 
 great leader, is an education. It develops the brain, 
 it gives to the imagination wings ; the little earth grows 
 large, the people grow important, and, not only that, it 
 civilizes the heart ; and the man who understands that 
 music can love better and with greater intensity than 
 he ever did before. The man who understands and 
 appreciates that music becomes in the highest sense 
 spiritual— and I don't mean by spiritual, worshiping 
 some phantom, or dwelling upon what is going to hap- 
 pen to some of us— I mean spiritual in the highest 
 sense, when a perfume arises from the heart in grati- 
 tude, and when you feel that you know what there is 
 of beauty, of sublimity, of heroism and honor and love 
 in the human heart. This is what I mean by being 
 
ROBERT a. INGERSOLL 105 
 
 spiritual. I don't mean denying yourselves here and 
 living on a crust with the expectation of eternal joy- 
 that is not what I mean. By spiritual I mean a man 
 who has an ideal, a great ideal, and who is splendid 
 enough to live up to that ideal ; that is what I mean by 
 spiritual. And the man who has heard the music of 
 Wagner, that music of love and death, the greatest 
 music, in my judgment, that ever issued from the hu- 
 man brain,— the man who has heard that and under- 
 stands it has been civilized. 
 
 Another man to whom I feel under obligation, whose 
 name I do not know— I know Burns, Shakespeare, Rem- 
 brandt, and Wagner, but there are some others whose 
 names I do not know— there is he, for one, who chis- 
 eled the ''Venus de Milo." This man helped to civil- 
 ize the world; and there is nothing under the sun as 
 pathetic as the perfect. Whoever creates the perfect 
 has thought and labored and suffered; and no perfect 
 thing has ever been done except through suffering and 
 except through the highest and holiest thought, and 
 among this class of men is Wagner. Let me tell you 
 something more. You know I am a great believer. 
 There is no man in the world who believes more in 
 human nature than I do. No man believes more in the 
 nobility and splendor of humanity than I do ; no man 
 feels more grateful than I to the self-denying and 
 heroic, splendid souls who have made this world fit for 
 men and women to live in. But I believe that the 
 human mind has reached its top in three depart- 
 ments. I don't believe the human race, no matter if 
 it lives millions of years more upon this wheeling 
 world, will ever produce anything greater, sublimer 
 
106 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 than the marbles of the Greeks. I do not believe it. 
 I believe they reached absolutely the perfection of form 
 and the expression of force and passion in stone. The 
 Greeks made marble as sensitive as flesh and as pas- 
 sionate as blood. I don 't believe that any human being 
 of any coming race, no matter how many suns may rise 
 and set, or how many religions may rise and fall, or 
 how many languages be born and decay, will ever excel 
 the dramas of Shakespeare. Nor do I believe that the 
 time will ever come when any man with such instru- 
 ments of music as we now have, and having nothing 
 but the common air that we now breathe, will ever 
 produce greater pictures in sound, greater music than 
 Wagner. Never! Never! And I don't believe that 
 he will ever have a better interpreter than Anton Seidl. 
 Seidl is a poet in sound, a sculptor in sound. He is 
 what you might call an orchestral orator, and as such 
 he expresses the deepest feelings, the highest aspira- 
 tions, and the intensest and truest love of which the 
 brain and heart of man are capable. 
 
 Now, I am glad, I am delighted, that the people here 
 in this city and in various other cities of our great 
 country are becoming civilized enough to appreciate 
 these harmonies; I am glad they are civilized at last 
 enough to know that the home of music is tone, not 
 tune; that the home of music is in harmonies where 
 you braid them like rainbows ; I am glad they are great 
 enough and civilized enough to appreciate the music 
 of "Wagner, the greatest music in this world. Wagner 
 sustains the same relation to other composers that 
 Shakespeare does to other dramatists, and any other 
 dramatist compared with Shakespeare is like one tree 
 
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL 107 
 
 compared with an immeasurable forest, or rather like 
 one leaf compared with a forest ; and all the other com- 
 posers of the world are embraced in the music of Wag- 
 ner. No man has written anything more tender than 
 he, nobody anything sublimer than he. Whether it is 
 in the song of the deep, or the warble of the mated bird, 
 no man has excelled Wagner; he has expressed all 
 that the human heart is capable of appreciating. And 
 now, gentlemen, having troubled you long enough, and 
 saying, ''Long live Anton Seidl!" I bid you good 
 night. 
 
WILLIAM HENEY WHITE 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO ANTON SEIDL, FEBRUARY 2, 1895 
 
 I WAS touched, as we all were, by the eloquence of 
 Colonel IngersoU in his beautiful tribute to our guest 
 and to the sweet art of music. His assertion that real 
 music— I mean the music that touches our better selves 
 —is dear to us— rather through associations than from 
 culture of ear or mind— appealed to my own thought. 
 The song our mother sang to us in our childhood is 
 ever sweetest in our ear, and is as dear as is the mem- 
 ory of the sweet singer herself. For all time it ranks 
 highest in the secure keeping among our heart's best 
 treasures. The great Wagner never wrote, and our 
 guest, Herr Seidl, will never interpret, a melody that 
 will equal the song that mother sang to us in the far 
 away, never-forgotten days of childhood. The truth 
 has gone on through all time that men are moved not 
 so much by great music as they are by the music of 
 home, with all its clustering and tender associations. 
 And Robert Burns, whom Colonel IngersoU has so 
 justly held up to us as the tuneful poet of the people, 
 sang ever of home and home loves: of the hopes and 
 aspirations of the common people. There was nothing 
 in Burns that so endears him to our memory to-day as 
 the sweet soul that made him a man like ourselves, one 
 who enriched with a kindly, tender thought the plain 
 
 108 
 
William Henry White 
 
)Sh\^ ^'^vJt^iH. AVVDiiSi'M 
 
WILLIAM HENRY WHITE 109 
 
 doings of every-day common life ; who, digging deeper 
 in our souls, drew forth the latent beauty of our real 
 and purer selves. The golden thread which runs 
 through us all is the tender touch of a humanity that 
 is ever blessed and brightened by the influence of a 
 mother's sacred love. It is the one chord to which 
 every human heart responds; it is the inspiration 
 through which the great poet, artist, or leader of 
 human thought reaches the highest pinnacle of an ac- 
 complished fame. Somewhere in every human en- 
 deavor, in every worthy achievement can be traced the 
 sweet story of a mother's love and sacrifice and her 
 child's appreciation; so that no song is so perfect as 
 that one made in her honor or under the inspiring 
 thought of her love. 
 
 Let me go back in one brief step over the interven- 
 ing years, and tell the story of the recruiting of one 
 of the first military companies that left Philadelphia 
 at the opening of the Civil War to illustrate the influ- 
 ence of a song of sentiment upon our minds. When 
 President Lincoln called upon the country for the 
 seventy-five thousand men with whom he opened that 
 long and bitter struggle, fifty men of a then existing 
 military company reported at their armory after a 
 public call for recruits. They found the room crowded 
 with men eager to enlist with them. No great states- 
 man addressed these men; no hero of a past war told 
 the story of a soldier's sacrifices or pictured his glory. 
 But a comrade mounted a chair and sang in a rich and 
 manly voice '^ Annie Laurie," then a song full of mem- 
 ories of the Crimean war, and then gave the nation's 
 hymn, ' ' The Star-Spangled Banner. ' ' With that voice 
 
no SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 ringing in their ears, and with hearts attuned to the 
 nation's call for help, one hundred and fifty names 
 were added to the muster roll from which the company 
 was selected which finally reached "Washington among 
 the earliest of its defenders. 
 
 Permit me to say to our guest that this club is the 
 home of all the arts. Here we respect the man of high 
 public office— the men representing the several pro- 
 fessions — the writer and the worker along the several 
 literary lines. Our walls indicate the tastes of the 
 club in the pictorial art, which so happily brings 
 within our doors the charms of the wild woodland and 
 peaceful landscape to rest and delight us by the memo- 
 ries they recall. But there is an art beyond all other 
 arts, whose kindly representative we honor ourselves in 
 meeting to-night— music— which tells the whole story 
 of human life and aspiration. When men try to draw 
 the picture of a heaven to which they point their fellow- 
 men and paint it in its most beautiful and attractive 
 form, they do not say that its walls are covered with 
 rare paintings, nor draped with marvelous tapestries 
 of the sunset clouds, nor that men there recite beau- 
 tiful poems of love and adoration. But rather do 
 they tell us that in that blessed abode of rest the harp, 
 in celestial hands, shall make the angelic music that 
 shall fill our hearts with sublime ecstasy and adoring 
 thoughts for the all-wise, divine Creator. 
 
ALMON GOODWIN 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO ANTON SEIDL, FEBRUARY 2, 1895 
 
 YOUE president came to me in his unofficial ca- 
 pacity a short time since and told me that I was 
 a pilgrim and stranger here. I was not aware that pil- 
 grims and strangers were in the habit of making 
 speeches; in fact, I was under the impression that the 
 Lotos was the home of artists and what an American 
 
 senator once called ''them d d literary feUers," and 
 
 I did n't suppose there was any place among them for 
 a poor lawyer like myself. I am sorry that I have n't 
 any reminiscences to give to you such as have touched 
 your hearts in the eloquent words of Colonel IngersoU. 
 
 I was born up in that far-away State of Maine. I re- 
 member the Mexican War, and from my little town one 
 of the young men went forth to the war and served a 
 year or two. When he came back all the people 
 wanted to know and hear about General Taylor, Gen- 
 eral Worth, and all those great men about whom peo- 
 ple were talking. He gazed upon them thoughtfully 
 for a few moments, and then said, ' ' They are all folks. ' ' 
 And in looking around upon this club to-night I con- 
 cluded that notwithstanding the fact that there are so 
 many distinguished gentlemen here present, you are 
 all folks, and that I may feel at ease. 
 
 While I have been sitting here I have been thinking 
 111 
 
112 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 about the indestructibility of an idea. All things else 
 pass away : seasons, and suns and moons, for all I know, 
 and certainly all things mundane, yet an idea seems 
 indestructible. Some one lately wrote a learned book, 
 to show that the lotos motif underlies all ancient art 
 and civilization. He maintains that the lotos was the 
 sacred flower of the Egyptians. They attached a pe- 
 culiar importance to it, so that everything in their art, 
 in their religious ceremonial, and in all the outward 
 forms of their civilization seemed in some way to spring 
 from the lotos. This motif passed over to Greece, and 
 the art of Athens was but the blossoming and unfold- 
 ing of this wonderful flower under new skies, and this 
 lotos idea was not lost until the end of *Hhe glory that 
 was Greece.'' 
 
 But, gentlemen, it was not lost ; it only disappeared, 
 like the fountain Arethusa, to pursue its course be- 
 neath the ocean until it burst forth in new splendor 
 here in the Lotos Club. You welcomed the old idea 
 and gave it a wider expansion. You hold that all the 
 great things of the world are near akin, that you can- 
 not really develop man unless you develop art, and 
 that if art is the embodiment of the lotos motif, the 
 lotos should stand for all that is beautiful and best in 
 the new world. So you have allowed nothing great to 
 be achieved in literature or in art without the appre- 
 ciation and approval of the Lotos Club. To-night you 
 are showing your appreciation of great achievement in 
 music by this dinner to Anton Seidl. 
 
 Gentlemen, you have sought in every direction to 
 establish the lotos idea, and to make every one feel that 
 success in this world lacks something unless it has your 
 
ALMON GOODWIN 113 
 
 approval. And indeed it does. Mr. Seidl may now 
 rest secure, for upon his career you have set the seal 
 of that approval. You have not confined your efforts 
 to the realm of art, which is certainly one of the most 
 important parts of human civilization, of development, 
 of culture. You have taken in everything. And now 
 no system of policy in state or nation can properly be 
 inaugurated— certainly no department of government 
 in the city of New York can enter upon the success- 
 ful management of its affairs— without your assistance 
 and approval. It all comes back to what I said in the 
 beginning. This club is only the illustration of the in- 
 destructibility of an idea. Recalling these things, I 
 drink to the lotos, the queen of flowers, and to the 
 Lotos Club, the king of clubs! 
 
FEANK R. LAWRENCE 
 
 (PRESIDENT OF THE CLUB) 
 UPON ITS TWENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY, MARCH 30, 1895 
 
 TO-NIGHT we celebrate ourselves. To-night, for 
 once, we take note of time; we commemorate the 
 survival for a quarter of a century of an organi- 
 zation which at its beginning seemed held together 
 only in the most careless companionship, but which 
 has proved to be cemented by bonds as strong as 
 steel. 
 
 This club bears a slight resemblance to a celebrated 
 church, knowing "neither politics nor religion." If 
 asked as to our principles, truth would compel us to 
 reply as Artemus Ward is said to have replied to a 
 similar question, "I hain't got no principles. I 'm in 
 the show business. ' ' Yet, while our principles may be 
 a little shadowy and indefinite, the club has purposes 
 which are not unworthy. Its home is no mere place 
 for the indulgence of creature comfort; it does not 
 exist merely for eating and drinking. When that shall 
 come to pass, this spot will have lost all its charm. 
 From the beginning its aim has been, so far as it might, 
 to promote the interests of literature, the drama, music, 
 journalism, and art. We have tried to be the first, or 
 at least among the first, to extend the hand of fellow- 
 
 114 
 
FRANK R. LAWRENCE 115 
 
 ship to the visiting man of letters, of science, or of 
 art; to recognize genius, however it has found ex- 
 pression; to welcome its possessor with a hearty wel- 
 come, and to speed him on his way with such 
 homage or encouragement as was in our power to 
 bestow. 
 
 We believe that this purpose has been worthy and 
 useful. Your devotion to pictorial art is shown to- 
 night upon these walls, and it seems appropriate 
 to tell you that our annual Lotos Club fund for 
 the encouragement of American art has now for 
 the first time been devoted to the purchase of paint- 
 ings by American artists— pictures painted in this 
 country— which in a short time we shall add to our 
 gallery. 
 
 To-night the mind goes back to many former even- 
 ings. The memory is filled with thoughts of happy 
 hours with which the history of the club is radiant. 
 If we might call back the past, and re-create former 
 days, we would summon here again the gentle form of 
 Charles Kingsley, the sweet spirit of Oliver Wendell 
 Holmes, the mighty shade of General Grant, the souls 
 of many great and noble men, each in his turn our 
 comrade for a night, and cherished in our recollec- 
 tion ever after. 
 
 Here, at the feet of genius and in the shadow of 
 greatness, we workaday fellows have often sat, and as 
 we have listened to the voice of eloquence or of music 
 have felt ourselves refreshed and lifted up and brought 
 within clear view of distant mountain tops of thought 
 at ordinary times beyond our vision. 
 
 Thinking of such golden hours, there come to the 
 
116 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 mind the words of Francis Beaumont, in his ode to 
 Ben Jonson : 
 
 What things have we seen 
 Done at the Mermaid ; heard words that have been 
 So nimble and so full of subtle flame 
 As if that every one from whence they came 
 Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest. 
 
 But Beaumont spoke of a group of intellectual 
 giants, and by no stretch of the imagination can we 
 compare our merrymakings to their Olympian feasts. 
 
 Yet, recalling how Oliver Wendell Holmes came in 
 one night and told us of the Saturday-night meetings 
 of Longfellow, Hawthorne, Emerson, Lowell, and Whit- 
 tier, it does seem that if the old revelers at the Mermaid 
 tavern have ever found successors, it may have been in 
 those, the brightest cluster of names in American lit- 
 erature. 
 
 We remember at this time with sadness the gaps 
 which time has made among our own members. The 
 list of those '^who were, but are not" is long and grow- 
 ing longer. There were Brougham, and Wilkie Col- 
 lins, and George Fawcett Rowe, and Patrick Gilmore, 
 and William Florence, and many another whom you 
 remember well— men who were true and talented and 
 kindly, and who at this above other times we hold in 
 most affectionate remembrance. 
 
 When we met to celebrate the twentieth anniversary 
 of this club your president expressed the wish that the 
 twenty-fifth anniversary might be celebrated in a home 
 of our own. The wish of five years ago is now happily 
 realized, partly through the persistence of a landlord 
 
FRANK R. LAWRENCE 117 
 
 who insisted upon pulling the old home down about 
 our ears, whether we would or no, and partly because 
 we decided to have a landlord no more. But I beg 
 you to remember that the realization of our desire has 
 been attended with some responsibilities ; and, while it 
 is not intended to ask your attention to practical sub- 
 jects now, I may remind you that we have lately ex- 
 tended the limit of membership in the club, and may 
 ask that with your cooperation and aid that limit may 
 be filled and completed by the accession of congenial 
 friends during the coming year, so that we may more 
 largely and adequately carry out the purposes for 
 which the club exists. 
 
 It is not my purpose to launch into a serious speech. 
 The Lotos Club is twenty-five years of age ; but let no 
 man say that it has reached years of discretion. Perish 
 the thought! Let us go on in our Bohemian way, as 
 unconventional men, eating dinners and singing songs, 
 quaffing proper libations, and letting no occasion pass 
 us by to ' ' vex with mirth the drowsy ear of night. ' ' 
 
 Often, when jaded with the cares of the day, this 
 place seems as a beautiful oasis in the Sahara of life— 
 a spot where to a tired imagination and a thirsting 
 spirit there appear waving palms and running vines, 
 green lawns and rippling waters, though just without 
 all the world may be desolate. 
 
 Here come we for good companionship; and as the 
 years go by and the shadows lengthen may the mellow- 
 ing influences which here abide make us less critical 
 and more tolerant, more ready to help one another upon 
 the journey where the milestones ever grow closer to- 
 gether. 
 
118 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 Let us hope that the Lotos Club, which has now en- 
 dured for a quarter of a century, may continue for 
 another, and yet another, and for many years beyond ; 
 that the ways may be followed in the club which ex- 
 perience has shown to be wise and good, and that at 
 all future times all future members may find this place 
 what we have found it— the home of real good-fellow- 
 ship, without formality. 
 
 Gentlemen, I ask you all to rise and join with me 
 in drinking to the prosperity, the long life, and the 
 usefulness of the Lotos Club. Owing to the capacity 
 of some of our guests, it is exceedingly doubtful whether 
 the loving-cup can be made to go around ; nevertheless, 
 we will try. 
 
JOSEPH C. HENDRIX 
 
 AT THE TWENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY DINNER, 
 MARCH 30, 1895 
 
 AS an envoy extraordinary from the oldest club of 
 XjL the city of Brooklyn I have come to the court of 
 the Lotos to-night to lay my palm branch at the feet 
 of the Mogul who presides over its deliberations; and 
 in order to introduce some evidence as a guarantee of 
 good faith— if not necessarily for publication— I desire 
 to inform you that Brooklyn is a city contiguous to 
 New York, that we have 990,000 population over there, 
 and that we are all very hard at work trying to make 
 it a million. 
 
 It is a great gratification to come to a club that 
 knows how to make of club life a perfect success. An 
 Irishman said to his wife when he was married to her, 
 *'If you have children, one at a time, you can name 
 thim, but if they come irregularly I propose to have the 
 privilege of naming thim." The first was a pair of 
 girl twins. ''Very good," said the Irishman, "Oi'U 
 kape me word; Oi'U name thim. Oi'U call thim after 
 their mother; one shall be called Kate, and the other 
 Dupli-Kate." The second time his wife presented 
 her husband with a pair of boys. ''Very good," said 
 Pat, ''Oi named the first after their mother, and I 
 shall name the second after their father, and, as he is 
 
 X19 
 
120 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 a member of Tammany Hall, Oi shall call the one Peter 
 and the other Re-Peter." A short time after she pre- 
 sented him with another pair of boys. A serious hue 
 came over his face as he contemplated the situation, 
 and he said: "I desire to inform you now, me wife, 
 that I shall once more kape me obligation; I shall call 
 this one Max and the other one Cli-Max, and inform 
 you that this bounteousness must stop." 
 
 The effect of the Lotos Club is to inspire us to be 
 frank. You create a spirit of envy in the adminis- 
 tration of every other club. How is it possible for 
 you to do that? How do you conceive these bril- 
 liant ideas? How is it that you happen to have an- 
 niversaries so often? I have the great pleasure of 
 encountering Lotos Club members under varied and 
 appropriate circumstances. The vice-president of this 
 club I discovered not long ago inspecting certain new 
 gas-works across the city. He was evidently prepar- 
 ing, sir, to succeed you some time later on. I never 
 look upon the countenance of that gentleman but that 
 I am reminded of the incident of the man who went to 
 Sioux City, Iowa, from Chicago. He had organized a 
 gas company, he had organized a water company, he 
 had organized a trolley company, and he had the de- 
 posits of the various companies placed in his bank, and 
 the bank failed. A committee of indignant citizens 
 called upon him and informed him that there was a 
 suspicion that somewhere or other about his person he 
 had concealed the money that had been deposited by 
 the corporations. They said, ''You have a fine ofi&ce, 
 an elegant home, and lots of fine furniture." "Yes," 
 said he, ' ' but it is all my wife 's. ' ' He continued, ' ' In 
 
JOSEPH C. HENDRIX 121 
 
 fact, gentlemen, I have nothing in the world but this 
 poor body with which I came into the world. If I could 
 make you happy I would cut that up and divide it 
 among you." One deaf old gentleman in the party 
 said : ' ' What does the gentleman say ? " ' ' He says that 
 if he could make us happy he would divide his body 
 among us." "Very well," said the deaf old fellow, 
 ' ' put me down for his gall. ' ' 
 
 Mr. President, brevity to-night, sir, in this presence 
 is the ''soul of wit." The city of Brooklyn is that 
 city which is described in one of the sub-mottoes of 
 the Lotos, wherein a certain country is referred to 
 where it is always afternoon. The only difference is 
 that over there it is always Sunday afternoon. You 
 have heard of the famous Brooklyn Handicap. I assure 
 you that there is the thing that is ideal and there is the 
 thing that is real. The charm of Brooklyn is the home 
 and the baby-carriage; and while we attend to our 
 domestic duties and our functions as citizens, you 
 here in New York, as plutocrats and gold-bugs and 
 Wall-street sharks, disport yourselves and hold twenty- 
 fifth anniversaries. We salute you and endure you as 
 neighbors; and when we come to consolidate with you 
 we shall show you what it is to have Brooklyn politics 
 vying for the control of the Great Metropolis. 
 
SIE HENEY lEVINa 
 
 AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, NOVEMBER 16, 1895 
 
 I REMEMBER wlien I first set foot upon American 
 soil, the soil of this your loved country, which has 
 added a new interest to my life,— I remember the Lotos 
 Club was the first— the members of the club were the 
 first — to bid me welcome and to extend to me that 
 strong hand, that strong grip of friendship and good- 
 fellowship which has never, never relaxed. 
 
 In those days I remember your other home was where 
 we call down-town. That was also a very comfortable 
 and a very happy home. I remember its honored presi- 
 dent on that occasion was a very valued and esteemed 
 friend of mine, Whitelaw Reid. Its vice-president was 
 also my very stanch and dear friend Horace Porter. 
 
 I remember well on that occasion, in your old home, 
 how your president, in extending to me the cordial 
 greeting of your club with the graceful humor of which 
 he is so excellent a master— I remember well how he 
 playfully warned me that I was not to mistake the en- 
 thusiasm of the members of the Lotos Club upon that 
 occasion for the enthusiasm of the audience that I was 
 to encounter at the theater on almost the following 
 night, bestowing upon me a very friendly benediction 
 when he said: ^*What the result, Mr. Irving, may be 
 when we read the papers upon Tuesday morning fol- 
 lowing, alas ! the mind of man knoweth not. ' ' 
 
 X22 
 
SIR HENRY IRVING 123 
 
 Well, gentlemen, the scale turned, I rejoice to say, 
 in my favor, and the generous and friendly approba- 
 tion of the New York public made it kick the beam. 
 The same kindly pressure has ever kept it, with all my 
 shortcomings, in that most enviable position. 
 
 When I think, gentlemen, of the kindness that has 
 been showered upon me through the length and breadth 
 of this great nation, of the sympathetic attention and 
 the generous toleration always and everywhere ex- 
 tended to me, I should be a dullard and a less grateful 
 man than I am if I did not look back with ever re- 
 newed delight on the first happy day when I sighted 
 your shores and felt in my heart the warm glow of the 
 fervent and cordial welcome which I have received 
 from you. 
 
 To the kind things, Mr. President Lawrence, which 
 you have said, I shall make no attempt to respond; 
 nor to you, gentlemen of the Lotos Club, for the man- 
 ner in which you have received the most gracious and 
 kindly words which have fallen from your president. 
 It is to me a source of the greatest encouragement to 
 receive such favor as you have shown me, which must 
 ever be to me a stimulus to better and to worthier 
 endeavor. 
 
 I count myself in nothing so happy as in a soul 
 which remembers good friends; and it is my dearest 
 hope that I may ever retain the esteem— I may say the 
 friendship, and I would, if I respectfully might, the 
 affection— which has found expression in a form that 
 not only confers distinction upon myself as an actor, 
 but upon the profession to which I have the honor to 
 belong, and the art which you love so weU. 
 
WILLIAM HENRY WHITE 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO SIR HENRY IRVING, NOVEMBER 16, 1895 
 
 WHAT can be said in addition to our president's 
 gracious and glowing welcome to the guest of 
 the evening passes my understanding. There is noth- 
 ing left for me to say to Sir Henry Irving that will 
 welcome him more heartily to our house and endear 
 him more to our hearts than the simple welcome I 
 quote: ''Sir, you are very welcome to our house, but 
 it must appear in other form than words." It was 
 fitly chosen that in the Lotos Club the guest of to- 
 night found the epitome of his first American audi- 
 ence, for the Lotos Club could give an audience such 
 as no other place could then furnish to him. Here 
 gathered about our board are men representative of 
 all professions and of the business life of a great city ; 
 here the arts sit together in harmony. 
 
 We leave at the threshold of the club the cares that 
 annoy and fret us during the day, and find within its 
 home an atmosphere rich in friendship, ripe in com- 
 radeship. Therefore, where else could a man who has 
 done so much to illustrate and advance the art which 
 he so worthily adorns find a more fitting audience? 
 Here we are but boys, after all; and here, too, where 
 the sister arts teach us what is sweet, charming, and 
 
 124 
 
WILLIAM HENRY WHITE 125 
 
 gracious in life, we still are as children who are 
 pleased and delighted by the pageantry and pictures 
 of the drama. AVho is a more gracious painter of the 
 stage picturings of human wisdom, loves, and follies 
 than our guest? With him may we not retrace again, 
 in memory, that pathway, fiower-bordered, on which 
 we walked hand in hand with the girl who enriched 
 our youth with the golden promise of her love. Later 
 we see, in his work, that girl ripened into the steadfast 
 charms of wifehood, making our coarser aims purer, 
 and filling us with higher ideals and nobler ambitions 
 in the race of life. Who has more ably drawn the 
 riper hours of life, the best efforts of our manhood, 
 the stronger work which should mark our maturer 
 years, than our guest, when he draws for our admiring 
 appreciation his ideal of a graceful, vigorous age— 
 age that, manfully meeting 'Hhe slings and arrows of 
 outrageous fortune, ' ' bears its part in human interests 
 up to the falling of that final curtain which shuts out 
 ''this last of earth"? 
 
 We are indeed grateful for, and indebted to, such a 
 master of the dramatic art who can lead us unerringly 
 through successive stages of common daily experiences 
 only to adorn each phase of life, touching them only 
 to better and to deepen their impression upon our 
 grateful memory. France, Germany, and Italy have 
 sent to us their highest exponents of the lyric and 
 dramatic arts, and so have taught a younger and a 
 cruder nation all that is best and improving to us in 
 their several schools. America willingly learned much 
 sitting at the feet of such masters, who left distinct 
 impress of their visits in our advanced ideals and ap- 
 
126 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 preciation of the true principles of art. Acknowledg- 
 ing the great art value to us of the visits of these other 
 teachers, I feel that we cannot more fitly convey the 
 club's sentiments to our distinguished guest, England's 
 greatest living exponent of the dramatic art, than to 
 apply to him and in his honor the lines written by 
 Dryden long ago to mark the unapproachable emi- 
 nence of England's great poet, John Milton: 
 
 Three poets, in three distant ages born, 
 Greece, Italy, and England did adorn. 
 The first in loftiness of thought surpass'd ; 
 The next, in majesty j in both the last. 
 The force of Nature could no further go -, 
 To make a third, she joined the former two. 
 
PARKE GODWm 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO JEAN AND EDOUARD DE RESZKE, 
 DECEMBER 21, 1895 
 
 YOUR president has called upon me almost without 
 notice, but this is a service in which I am always 
 ready to engage. You know that men who have reached 
 my years live in their reminiscences, and mine go back, 
 in respect to the opera and to music, almost to their 
 earliest days in the city of New York. 
 
 I cannot quite go back to the days of that peerless 
 and unfortunate creature Malibran, but I have in my 
 house now toys and relics given by her to my late wife, 
 who was a child when Malibran first appeared in New 
 York, and that was as far back as 1826. All the other 
 great vocalists that have been here I think I have heard. 
 I remember the first opera company down in Palma's 
 Opera House in Chambers Street. I was an intimate 
 friend of that dear and generous creature Jenny Lind. 
 Christine Nilsson has been a guest at my house, and is 
 up to this day one of my cherished friends. In fact, I 
 think I have heard all the great vocalists who have 
 appeared at the Academy of Music or the Metropolitan 
 Opera House. 
 
 I have seen the growth of music in this city. I re- 
 member that the companies that came here originally 
 simply stopped here on their way through to Havana 
 
 127 
 
128 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 or New Orleans, for New York was not attractive to 
 them in those days. I remember well— and I hope 
 that the name I am going to mention will never be for- 
 gotten in our musical lives— when Theodore Thomas 
 began his concerts and introduced for the first time 
 classical music to the taste of the New York public. I 
 refer to these events of the past to show the immense 
 progress that has been made within one single lifetime 
 in our appreciation and knowledge of music. And I 
 venture to say that we have here in New York at the 
 present time the best opera company that there is now 
 on the face of the globe. Not even in Paris, Vienna, 
 Berlin, or London is there such an opera company as 
 we possess. 
 
 I refer briefly to the past for another reason, and 
 that is because it gives me an opportunity to say with 
 some emphasis — yes, with some authority— that we have 
 with us now in the gentleman at my left (Jean de 
 Reszke) the greatest artist in his way, not only that has 
 ever appeared on our stage, but I believe upon any 
 stage in the world. His greatness consists in the uni- 
 formity of his excellence. There may be tenors some- 
 where who can strike a note higher or a note lower; 
 there may be tenors who can put into a few passages 
 a more furious passion, but as to all the qualities that 
 constitute the great musical artist, M. Jean de Reszke 
 has them in more perfect harmony than any man whom 
 I have ever heard, or of whom I have read. 
 
 I know of what I speak, for I have sat for three sea- 
 sons, I believe every night, and heard that delicious 
 voice and remarked that beautiful action— and M. de 
 Reszke commands in both. He is a great actor and a 
 
PARKE GODWIN 129 
 
 vocalist at once. You never feel any deficiency in his 
 performances, and you are never offended by any ex- 
 cess. The artistic quality is so perfect and so uniform 
 that you hardly know how perfect it is until you have 
 begun to reflect on it. 
 
 As for his brother Edouard, also your guest to- 
 night, I always feel as I sit there in my seat that if 
 Edouard once makes his appearance upon the stage 
 the opera is saved for that night. He gives you such 
 complete satisfaction that you know all the rest of the 
 evening is secure. I venture to say, and I believe, 
 that if the orchestra should give up and the chorus 
 should desert, M. Edouard de Reszke alone on the stage 
 would carry through the performance. 
 
 I will not detain you longer. I am very happy to 
 be here on this occasion, and I join with this charming 
 and distinguished club heartily in its tribute of re- 
 spect to two of the greatest artists in their line now 
 existing. Those of you who live to old age, who sur- 
 vive me, will tell it, I think, to your children, as I do 
 sometimes to mine, when I say proudly that I have 
 known some of the greatest musical artists that ever 
 lived: *'In our days we heard Jean and Edouard de 
 Reszke.'' That will be enough. 
 
CHARLES A. DANA 
 
 AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, JANUARY 16, 1896 
 
 THE heart that would not be deeply affected by 
 such a welcome as this must be indeed of harder 
 material than any with which I am acquainted. I con- 
 sider this a most unusual, and I may, even without 
 excessive modesty, say, an undeserved compliment. 
 But in one respect I feel that it is not entirely out of 
 place. I do not take it to myself as an individual so 
 much as I receive it as an evidence of the most con- 
 clusive nature that the real American spirit lives in 
 this club, and that among its members, of whatever 
 profession they may be and to whatever party they may 
 be temporarily or permanently attached, there is one 
 predominant, supreme, and unfading idea, and that is 
 the idea that is embodied in the Stars and Stripes! 
 It is the idea of maintaining here in America a home 
 for freedom regulated by law, a home where liberty 
 shall be native and to the manner born, a home where 
 liberty shall be defended as long as a man remains or 
 a drop of blood flows in the veins of an American. 
 
 This is the great end of the labors, efforts, suffer- 
 ings, and struggles of humanity during thousands of 
 years— that a free government shall be established; 
 that the rights of humanity shall be respected; that 
 every citizen shall have a fair and equal chance; that 
 
 130 
 
CHARLES A. DANA 131 
 
 property, education, religion, law shall be maintained; 
 that there shall be none superior to another, but every 
 man shall worship God according to his own heart and 
 his own conscience, in peace, undisturbed, and pro- 
 tected by the asgis of a mighty nation that knows no 
 rival and fears no foe. 
 
 Gentlemen, we seem to stand at a most interesting 
 crisis in the history of mankind ; for whatever concerns 
 the American nation, concerns mankind more than it 
 does the individual American. Here is the host of 
 humanity, here the great struggle is to be worked out 
 into higher and higher forms of civilization ; and if we 
 fail, where is the man who hopes for a better future 
 in which to find consolation? No, we must maintain 
 the contest ; we must defy all antagonists, if necessary, 
 and stand together. The sum and substance of it all 
 is that we must stand by the Star Spangled Banner 
 until after sundown. 
 
 The Lotos Club happens to contain among its mem- 
 bers a good many journalists, and we are in the habit 
 of declaring and of believing that the profession of 
 the press is one of the most useful that can be found 
 in a civilized community. And I am glad, unspeak- 
 ably glad, to find that here in the Lotos Club the 
 higher ideal of journalism is esteemed and understood; 
 and I trust that so it will be forever, and that what- 
 ever men who are not altogether worthy and not alto- 
 gether fortunate may do to bring disgrace upon the 
 profession, that here the standard will always be ele- 
 vated, and the motto of truth, rather than show, will 
 be maintained to the last. 
 
HOEACE POETER 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO CHARLES A. DANA, JANUARY 16, 1896 
 
 THE audience to-night is certainly above par, even 
 if an occasional speaker may not reach high- 
 water mark. It 's a great thing to have the audience 
 all right. A young man came to me not many months 
 ago and said in a modest way that he was going to train 
 himself to be an orator. He asked if he could get 
 any points. He inquired of me what were the pre- 
 requisites. I said : ' ' I can tell you. The first requisite 
 is to get somebody to listen to you. ' ' 
 
 It has long been patent to us all that every illustrious 
 man in this country, all the great of earth, find it neces- 
 sary to the full rounding of their careers to be dined 
 by the Lotos Club. No great public man has ever been 
 safe from having his life end in failure and regret 
 without joining us at these banquets. Why, even the 
 brilliant and distinguished journalist whom we come 
 here to honor to-night, without placing his legs under 
 these tables would find even his well-earned fame going 
 down in the mildewed gloom of an eternal night. 
 
 My intimate acquaintance with Mr. Dana began 
 many years ago; it was when this nation was shaken 
 to its nervous center by a gigantic civil war. It was 
 in the heroic age of the Republic, when he came out to 
 the Army of the Cumberland in the Chickamauga cam- 
 
 132 
 
HORACE PORTER 133 
 
 paign, sent there, as Assistant Secretary of "War, to re- 
 port, as he had reported at Vicksburg and in other cam- 
 paigns, the daily scenes that were occurring in those 
 stirring times. It was a happy thought of the authori- 
 ties in Washington to have those scenes reported to 
 them promptly as they occurred, and it was a still hap- 
 pier thought to select one to perform that important 
 task who had the accomplishments, the courage, and 
 the marvelous command of the English language of 
 Charles A. Dana. 
 
 We were making history very rapidly in those days, 
 and he was promptly recording it. I can remember 
 him, as if it were yesterday, mounted on a spirited 
 horse, his corduroy trousers tucked into his boots, a 
 slouch hat on his head, with the limbs of an athlete, 
 looking as if he were ready for any duty which he 
 might be called upon to do, whether it was pitching 
 pennies or manslaughter in the first degree. 
 
 So we went down to the appalling battle of Chicka- 
 mauga. There he shared all the hardships of the sol- 
 dier, and equaled him in his courage. I say ''the 
 appalling battle," for it is not generally known that 
 at Chickamauga the losses suffered were greater than 
 in any battle of the Civil War. They talk of deci- 
 mating troops. It seemed as nothing then. At Chick- 
 amauga many of the regiments lost sixty per cent., and 
 the average loss of the whole army in that fight was over 
 twenty-five per cent. And so we went through that con- 
 test, and as iron is welded in the heat of the fire, so our 
 personal friendships are often best welded in the heat 
 of battle. Then, coming back from that, we went through 
 the old Dry Valley together. [Turning to Mr. Dana : 
 
134 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 * * Do you remember the old Dry Valley ? ' '] [Mr. Dana : 
 ** Indeed I do."] Down there every stream the size of 
 a slate-pencil was called a river, and when we encamped 
 we had to draw all the water we wanted, for fear a stray 
 cow would come along and drink the river dry. Occa- 
 sionally we got hold of a chicken. You know you can 
 always tell the age of a chicken by the teeth— not the 
 teeth of the chicken, but your own teeth— and some of 
 those chickens were so tough that they created the sus- 
 picion in our minds that they had been hatched from 
 boiled eggs. Then we were besieged together in Chatta- 
 nooga, where we were fed off the crumbs, and where 
 we had to throw a tent over a man, he was so thin, in 
 order that he might cast a good-sized shadow. And 
 then again we met in the great campaign of the Wil- 
 derness ; and there, through all those scenes, there was 
 a record made hourly and daily to the department; And 
 I venture to say that in all the annals of history, as 
 we look over those letters and telegrams, there is no 
 such correspondence in terseness, perspicuity, force, 
 and absolute accuracy as that of your distinguished 
 guest, who is celebrated in peace, as he has been in war, 
 until he has now reached the very proud distinction 
 of being called the dean of American journalism, the 
 Nestor of the American press. 
 
 I have n't sufficient acquaintance with journalism to 
 speak to you entertainingly on that subject. My ex- 
 perience was gained from the conduct of a paper in 
 Washington, which was the administration's organ. 
 This paper was conducted on what I believe were fair 
 business principles. The proprietor employed an edi- 
 tor to write all the slanderous articles, and he stood 
 
HORACE PORTER 135 
 
 the libel suits. Nothing could be fairer than that. 
 But it went through fierce throes. One time it suf- 
 fered like that paper in Nevada which Joe Jefferson 
 says was suspended and then started again. A notice 
 explaining the situation read: "This paper was sus- 
 pended for want of funds. It is now republished for 
 the same reason. ' ' 
 
 Now, the proprietor of this organ had a law-suit on 
 hand one day, and I said to him : " I see you have been 
 sued for libel again." He said: ''Yes; it 's by that 
 old preacher down there in Alexandria. There was 
 nothing in the article for him to kick about. There 
 was only a little elaboration of the headlines. I think 
 the headlines simply read, 'A Wolf in Sheep's Cloth- 
 ing—A "Whited Sepulcher, ' or something like that, and 
 the old fool got mad and sued for libel." 
 
 We all criticize the newspaper, but we all take it. 
 We could not digest our breakfast in the morning with- 
 out it. We should not know what to do in our busi- 
 ness until we had that morning been instructed by it. 
 "Who can measure the power of printer's ink?" said 
 Lord Rosslyn. We should guard the power of the press 
 as the dragon guarded the Hesperian fruit. Retain its 
 freedom, and we are safe; but if that be endangered, 
 our liberties will be in constant peril. 
 
 I am very glad to come here to-night to wish long 
 life, health, and prosperity to our honored guest; and 
 I hope that Mr. Dana will always be able to say what 
 Oliver Wendell Holmes used to say when asked whether 
 he was over seventy years old : " No ; I am over seventy 
 years young." 
 
CHAELES A. DANA 
 
 IN REPLY TO HORACE PORTER, JANUARY 16, 1896 
 
 GENERAL PORTER'S vivid description of that 
 dreadful battle of CMckamauga has brought back 
 to my memory a scene that I had not recollected. I 
 was on the right of General Rosecrans, the command- 
 ing officer. I was asleep on the ground, having been 
 up all the night before, and was awakened by the ter- 
 rific roar of musketry and cannon. It seemed as though 
 hell was all loose ! I arose and got on my horse, and then 
 I saw all our lines between us and the enemy break 
 and disappear, and the men flee into the woods. Rose- 
 crans went off, I don 't know where ; and the first sight 
 that had any consolation in it was an officer, with his 
 sword drawn, halting the fugitive soldiers of our army. 
 He would halt them and form them into line, and when 
 he would get twelve or twenty men together a cannon- 
 ball would come into the group, right over our heads, 
 and they would fall. As soon as he would get another 
 lot together, they would be swept down in the same 
 manner. That man, gentlemen, was General Horace 
 Porter. He remained there doing that duty until I 
 found it necessary to leave, because the enemy were 
 getting too near; and I followed General Rosecrans. 
 But whether Porter stayed long or little, wherever he 
 was, his courage was unwavering, and he was bound 
 to do his duty. 
 
 136 
 
ELIHU ROOT 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO CHARLES A. DANA, JANUARY 16, 1896 
 
 I HAVE been thinking, as I sat here to-night, as I 
 observed the splendid patriotism which character- 
 izes this club —this club which represents no special 
 mission, aims to accomplish no specific purpose, but 
 which represents all the grace, the joyousness, the ac- 
 tive intellect, and the warm-heartedness of life— of the 
 observation of a recent writer, that of all the men who 
 have written the English language, the two who per- 
 haps have exercised more than any others greater in- 
 fluence over the imagination and the morality of men 
 have been two who set before themselves no specific 
 purpose or mission or reform or moral accomplishment 
 whatsoever, but merely sought to picture human life 
 as it was— "William Shakespeare and Walter Scott. 
 That is, I take it, the characteristic of this club, and 
 that is the characteristic of the great journal which has 
 been so long conducted by your guest this evening; 
 and in that characteristic you find with him a ready 
 and a fitting sympathy. 
 
 It is no ordinary thing to accomplish the two ex- 
 traordinary results which Mr. Dana has accomplished. 
 He is a survival of the days of the great journalists— 
 one conspicuous figure left to us from the time when 
 James Gordon Bennett, and Henry J. Raymond, and 
 
 137 
 
138 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 Horace Greeley, and James Watson Webb, and Charles 
 A. Dana made the press of New York famous through- 
 out the country and throughout the world. He is, we 
 may say, a survival of the saurian age of journalism, 
 from the time of the pterodactyl and the ichthyosaurus 
 of the press. He stands alone, conspicuous in the bright 
 light of history and contemporary criticism ; and at the 
 same time he stands in the foreground of progress, of 
 hopeful accomplishment, and of anticipation for the 
 future among all the journalists of to-day. 
 
 In the years that followed the war, when the great 
 body of patriotic Americans, all pressing forward on 
 parallel lines toward the intensely desired object of 
 reunion and freedom and reconstruction, had ceased 
 their active efforts because their ends had been at- 
 tained—when the momentum of that great patriotic 
 movement had died away and our people broke up 
 into little bodies, or squads and coteries, seeking dif- 
 ferent and minor objects and entering into conflict 
 and contest with each other, the great newspaper which 
 Mr. Dana controls set itself at once in opposition 
 to many an old friend, to many a body of his coun- 
 trymen who had regarded him with affection and 
 treated him as a comrade ; and the trenchant pen which 
 he wielded smote sorely many a man in his prejudices 
 and his errors, and many a bitter feeling has grown 
 up, as it always must where a faithful public censor 
 does his duty. But I cannot help thinking that when, 
 in the last few years, all the people of our common 
 country have seen that same powerful intellect turning 
 aside from personal feeling, from factional irritation, 
 from all minor considerations, have heard it sound 
 
ELIHU ROOT 139 
 
 again as it sounded a third of a century ago— when 
 hairs now white were brow^n, when men now active in 
 the field were still unborn— when they have heard him 
 sound again the clarion note of one America for Ameri- 
 cans and ever for Americans, the high refrain of pa- 
 triotism—that all the American world thinks kindly 
 and gratefully of our great assistant to our great "War 
 Secretary, the great Assistant Secretary of War. 
 
CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 
 
 AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, FEBRUARY 22, 1896 
 
 MOST of US like to talk about ourselves; very few 
 like to listen to us. And yet, I appreciate this 
 compliment the more from the fact that I am not 
 President of the United States, nor a governor, nor 
 an ex- governor, nor a judge, nor a diplomat, but sim- 
 ply a quiet, retiring member who has been selected as 
 the occasion for a dinner. And yet, one knowing this 
 club as I do would be unequal to himself, to the occa- 
 sion, and to the atmosphere if he did not keenly feel 
 beyond the power of words the compliment which you 
 pay. 
 
 When President Harrison offered me the Secretary- 
 ship of State to succeed Mr. Blaine, a member of the 
 Cabinet said to me: ^*Depew, you ought to take this 
 place, even if you had to surrender all the trusts, all 
 the places of profit, and all the power which are the 
 accumulations of a lifetime, even if there was a cer- 
 tainty that President Harrison would n't be reelected 
 and you could hold the place only for a few months, 
 and you could make no fame or reputation as a for- 
 eign minister, because you would get your name on 
 the list of Secretaries of State." The advantage of 
 having a dinner tendered to you by the Lotos Club is 
 that you sacrifice nothing, you get a good dinner, you 
 
 140 
 
Chauncey M, Depew 
 
CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 141 
 
 meet the best of fellows in the world, and you get your 
 name on that list. 
 
 The Lotos Club stands unique among all organiza- 
 tions for club life in the United States. It has no 
 creed, it has no dogma, it has no politics; it stands 
 simply for the hospitality of good-fellowship and the 
 catholicity of brains. It makes no difference what 
 may be the race or religion, the language or the color 
 of the man or woman who can fill that bill, he is liable 
 to receive an invitation to dine with the Lotos Club. 
 And if, as I look over the twenty-three years of my 
 membership, I could recall, or anybody could recall 
 and write, the famous men who have been here and the 
 nights which they have made famous, the speeches 
 which they made and the speeches which were made at 
 them, and afterward the gatherings, above or below, 
 where the artist, or the general, or the actor, or the 
 author revealed himself, that story would add another 
 volume, and the most brilliant, to the ''Noctes Am- 
 brosianaB. ' ' 
 
 From the stage we have had here Irving and Barrett 
 and Booth. From the novelists we have had Wilkie 
 Collins and many others; from the historians there 
 have been James Anthony Froude and others ; from the 
 poets, Oliver Wendell Holmes and Sir Edwin Arnold; 
 from journalists, Charles A. Dana, Whitelaw Reid, and 
 Murat Halstead; from the army we have had General 
 Grant; from every department of life we have had a 
 great many. Here has been Canon Kingsley, and here 
 has been Conan Doyle, and here has been Mark Twain, 
 and here has been George Augustus Sala, and here 
 have been those men who in the past twenty-five years 
 
142 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 have made the history of the most marvelous quarter 
 of a century in the history of the world. 
 
 When Gilbert and Sullivan came here the whole 
 country was wild about English light opera. The 
 lyric never received such attention. Gilbert and Sulli- 
 van 's audiences not only occupied the stage, but they 
 invaded the choirs. They carried absolutely hopeless 
 dissipation into the country churches. ''Pinafore" 
 was hammered at us on the piano before breakfast; it 
 was banged at us by the bands on the street; it tor- 
 tured us on the hand-organ on every corner; it was 
 hummed at church, and by some fiend or other every- 
 where. It spared neither sex nor condition of life. Yet, 
 gentlemen, there is n't a man in this audience to-night 
 who could whistle a bar of ''Pinafore," because we 
 have advanced beyond "Pinafore," beyond Offenbach, 
 so that there is a universality of appreciation in this 
 city and in America of the best efforts of the greatest 
 composers of the world, which was absolutely unknown 
 twenty years ago. And so the world keeps growing 
 better — the American world— more broad, more cul- 
 tured, more cosmopolitan all the time. 
 
 I remember, soon after Kingsley was here, a visit to 
 one of the places in England, on the coast, made fa- 
 mous in one of his novels— a grand old Norman castle. 
 The dame, a woman of great hospitality, entertained 
 us, and the conversation ran upon the beauty of the 
 situation and the salubrity of the place. The old 
 dame said: "Yes, yes, that is all true; but there is this 
 against it, that when we lie awake here at night and 
 hear the waves beat against the walls of this castle we 
 feel that there is nothing in the world but the Atlantic 
 
CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 143 
 
 Ocean between us and those dreadful American sav- 
 ages. ' ' 
 
 But as we have advanced so that we can look at the 
 bad and differentiate without trouble or passion, we 
 have in a measure lost enthusiasm. And I lament this 
 loss of enthusiasm. It is the property of civilization 
 and the property of culture to suppress enthusiasm as 
 bad form. A man may feel, but he must n't shout. 
 It 's bad form to shout. I remember seeing the Sev- 
 enth Regiment go down Broadway when it was march- 
 ing at the first call of President Lincoln for the pro- 
 tection of the Capitol at Washington. I remember the 
 tens of thousands who crowded the sidewalks and the 
 side streets, and who filled the windows and balconies, 
 every one of whom was in full sympathy with and 
 apprehended what was to be done. They were all of 
 them unfamiliar with war and its horrors, and were 
 having the first taste of it. In every little crowd there 
 was a mother or a sister or a brother or a father who 
 had some one in that regiment, and at the sight of a 
 little flag, a little wave of the handkerchief, or the 
 slightest recognition of the regiment, there would be a 
 tremendous burst of feeling that made one feel in the 
 throbbing and in the pulsations of his heart that it was 
 scarcely possible to longer live or breathe. To have 
 known one such moment and survived it is worth ten 
 years of ordinary life. 
 
 I remember, as a boy, the wild hurrah which met the 
 name of Henry Clay. I remember— most of you re- 
 member—being carried away upon the waves of tumul- 
 tuous emotion Avhich swept against the imperturbable 
 figure of General Grant. And yet we are in the midst 
 
144 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 of a presidential year, and there is no enthusiasm. 
 The Democrats have n't any, and the Eepublicans have 
 little. It is a time when politicians become statesmen 
 and statesmen become exaggerated in the ordinary ap- 
 prehension ; and yet when people ought to be frescoing 
 some great idol they are analyzing him. When they 
 ought to be getting up on their hind legs and yelling 
 themselves hoarse for some leader they are doubting 
 his intention, and are turning upon him the wonderful 
 cathode ray. 
 
 Now, what is the matter? Has the passion died 
 out? Has enthusiasm disappeared from the American 
 people ? Is there no possibility of arousing it by man 
 or by call so that it will have sufficient sustaining 
 power to outlast a campaign? This world-wide sym- 
 pathy which comes from the morning paper, bringing 
 us in touch by electric communication with all the 
 world, somehow or other diminishes before night the 
 enthusiasm with which we start out in the morning. 
 It knocks us endwise before the sun goes down by 
 denying in the evening paper the things that raised 
 our hair in the morning. 
 
 I remember that Governor Seymour, one of the most 
 kind, one of the most courtly, and one of the most 
 genial and charming gentlemen who ever appeared in 
 public life— I remember that he was Governor of the 
 State, while I, as a sort of boy, was Secretary of State. 
 He was renominated as governor, and I, belonging to 
 the opposite political party, was all the time on his 
 track, speaking after him every night. In my wild 
 enthusiasm I decorated him in a way that would make 
 me blush so that I would be flayed alive by the mere 
 
CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 145 
 
 proposition to-day. When I met him after he was de- 
 feated I thought he would n't speak to me. But every 
 one in politics knows better. For politics is a kaleido- 
 scope ; sometimes you are at one end and sometimes at 
 the other. He came up to me with great cordiality and 
 said: ''Mr. Depew, you have made a fine canvass." 
 
 I think you could have put me at that time in one 
 of these pint bottles. 
 
 "You have got on remarkably at your age," he con- 
 tinued, ''but there is nothing in it. For thirty years 
 I have watched the men go down Broadway, and around 
 the marble pillar up State street to the Capitol, who 
 at the moment occupied the attention of the State and 
 seemed destined to immortality ; and they have all been 
 driven out of politics by being abandoned or neglected 
 by their party, and have lost touch with the profes- 
 sions or of their locality, and have died in poverty. ' ' 
 
 Once he said to me: "I remember, as a boy, that in 
 the War of 1812 there were three men who did some- 
 thing on the frontier, and it so impressed the State 
 that the government of the State sent a commission up, 
 and their remains had to come down by slow proces- 
 sions, and it was a magnificent and phenomenal funeral 
 pageant from the frontier. They were met by the legis- 
 lature and all that there was of the sovereignty of the 
 Empire State. In order to emphasize their fame they 
 were buried in the grounds of the Capitol. But to-day 
 there is no man living who can tell who they were, 
 what they did, or where they are buried. ' * I told that 
 story to the superintendent when they started build- 
 ing the new Capitol. He dug all over the ground and 
 found their bones, but, unfortunately, upon them they 
 
 10 
 
146 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 failed to inscribe their names or to tell what they 
 did. 
 
 I was born in the country, where it was possible to 
 enthuse, and I believe in enthusiasm as I believe in 
 thunder and lightning for clearing the atmosphere. I 
 believe we want occasionally a sort of Peter the Hermit 
 excitement, which would arouse the people to do some- 
 thing or other by which they would escape from this 
 commercial spirit which is the cause of it all, where 
 there would be that patriotism which sinks selfishness. 
 
 When I visited Galena to deliver the address in Gen- 
 eral Grant's State, I went to the house where Grant 
 worked when he was in the leather-maker's business. 
 It was an old wooden house. As a seller of leather 
 General Grant was worth only six hundred dollars, 
 and it is doubtful if he was worth that. But when 
 he was General of the Army of the United States and 
 spending three million dollars a day he was worth the 
 life of the Republic. 
 
 I saw the remains of that pile of logs, totally with- 
 out comfort, in which Lincoln originated ; and he, fail- 
 ing in everything in the practical affairs of life as far 
 as distinction was concerned, in the magnificent enthu- 
 siasm by which nations test themselves and become 
 great, he could put his name to a document which did 
 what statesmen had despaired of, that had destroyed 
 congresses, that had ruined reputations, that had been 
 the nightmare of a century— and become immortal by 
 freeing four millions of human beings. 
 
 There is something about the enthusiasm of a great 
 people, in its majesty and its superb development, 
 which takes the man of the hour and lifts him, because 
 
CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 147 
 
 of the very enthusiasm behind him, into something 
 grander and better and greater than he would ever be 
 by himself, because he represents the power and the 
 majesty of the multitudes behind. 
 
 Now, I notice another thing which has happened in 
 all these years, and that is that now it is utterly im- 
 possible for press or people to treat crises or individ- 
 uals seriously. All we care for as a people is to get 
 some fun out of it. It does n't make any difference how 
 solemn the statesman— the more solemn he is, the more 
 fun we get out of him. It does n 't make any difference 
 how grave the crisis, whether in politics, in the church, 
 or in the state, we get some fun out of it. And we 
 are using that process— it is the only process which 
 we have discovered— to bring down the heroes of the 
 past so that we can get a horizontal view of them. I 
 was buying an apple two or three days ago from a 
 street vender, and just then a military figure walked 
 by in a linen duster and carrying a grip-sack. I said 
 to the apple-vender: ^' There 's ex-President Hayes!" 
 "Never mind him, Mr. Depew; the apple which you 
 have selected is not as good as this; this has no flaws 
 in it." 
 
 We take our greatest idols and bring them down 
 sometimes to get a horizontal view, and sometimes to 
 hit a statesman of the hour. Down in Washington the 
 Populist senator, full of the majesty of his position, 
 submits his grave face to the barber's heart, and as 
 he looks at the old darky, he says to him: ''Uncle, 
 you must have met with a great many of the men of 
 the past. My predecessors in the Senate, many of 
 them, have occupied the same chair which I now fill." 
 
148 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 ''Yas, boss, that 's so; a good many of 'em. You 
 somewhat resemble Daniel Webster yourself, boss." 
 
 The Populist senator raises himself up, and, throw- 
 ing the cloth off from around his neck, says: ''What 
 part of my head is it, uncle? Is it my brow, or 
 what?" 
 
 "No, boss; 't ain't nuffin like that. It 's your bref." 
 
 And yet fun has its uses. General Garfield made 
 this remark to me just after he was elected : ' ' Chaun- 
 cey Depew, let me beg of you never to perpetrate a 
 joke, never be guilty of criticism, never tell a story. 
 The public of America does not regard a man as serious 
 who does any of these things, and that I am here to- 
 day is because I have so excluded from my mind the 
 necessity of telling a story that I cannot appreciate a 
 joke when I hear one." Yet, gentlemen, I would rather 
 do something which contributes to the gaiety of nations 
 than be the solemn President of the United States. 
 
 My friends, you have given me this celebration on 
 Washington's birthday. Why Washington's birthday? 
 The highly complimentary and deliciously phrased sen- 
 timents of your president do not satisfy my inner con- 
 science. I have been studying Washington, delivering 
 orations on Washington, and trying to climb up to 
 some place where I could see Washington with a tele- 
 scope, and I don't know any quality of Washington's 
 that is mine except this, that in a measure both of us 
 have had some connection with the transportation busi- 
 ness. You may not recognize that because you are not 
 in the transportation business; but I do, because the 
 delightful old gossip and charming old Parson Weems 
 says in his story of Washington that in Washington's 
 
CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 149 
 
 early life he was connected with the then infantile 
 transportation system which has grown to have a con- 
 trolling power. He says that "Washington took a 
 hack at the cherry-tree." The beauty of that is its 
 age; but it does not precede Washington's tree. 
 
 Gentlemen, for the first time in the history of our 
 State, Washington and Lincoln both have a holiday in 
 February. If we can look seriously on Washington's 
 birthday, and, on an occasion like this, at both of them, 
 what a magnificent contrast, and yet what perfect unity 
 they present! Washington, the aristocrat; Washing- 
 ton, the slaveholder; Washington, the proprietor of a 
 vast domain of magnificent acres; and Lincoln, born 
 in the midst of the humblest conditions. Washington 
 was by birth, by association, by education, by lineage, 
 and by possessions the conservative man of his time 
 and the conservator of property. He could, of course, 
 when the occasion demanded and when he believed the 
 rights and liberties of the country were at stake— he 
 could pledge his life, his honor, his fortune for the sal- 
 vation of the rights and the liberties of his country; 
 and when it came to the freedom of the Republic, and 
 when it came to putting new institutions into process, 
 he planted in them such conservations and preserva- 
 tions for property and for personal liberty against 
 revolution as exist in no other system in the world. 
 
 Lincoln was born in a log cabin of one room with an 
 earthen floor, among the poor whites of the South, 
 where the conditions were such that they paralyzed 
 hope, ambition, and work; but, being just where he 
 was, if he had been born under such conditions in a 
 foreign land, even with his ambitions, his indomitable 
 
 10* 
 
150 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 energy, his magnificent brain power, and his superb 
 faculty of reaching and appealing to the people, he 
 would have seen that above him was the crust of social 
 and political conditions which would permit no man 
 of his class to rise except that crust were broken into 
 pieces and ground to powder by social revolution. 
 And for this purpose Lincoln would have been a so- 
 cialist or an anarchist. And yet, under the institu- 
 tions which aristocracy founded, this man of the people, 
 born under such conditions, reached the same place 
 from that cabin that George Washington reached from 
 his palatial mansion and his baronial acres on the 
 Potomac. And Abraham Lincoln gave to the preser- 
 vation of his country the same magnificent energy, the 
 same superb patriotism, the same genius that George 
 Washington did for the foundation of the same insti- 
 tutions. One at the social property extreme, the other 
 at the social poverty extreme— these two men, more 
 than any others in the world, illustrate the magnificent 
 opportunities, the superb inspiration, and the undying 
 hopefulness of American liberty! What one, coming 
 from the top, did for the foundation of the Republic, 
 the other, coming from the bottom, did for the con- 
 struction of the States and the salvation of the Repub- 
 lic. Their story, their lives, their opposition, and their 
 union illustrate that in America there is no place, no 
 time for anarchists, no place, no time for socialism, but 
 always a place and everywhere a time for energy, for 
 pluck, for ambition, and for brains. 
 
 Gentlemen, I greet you here to-night in the good- 
 fellowship of this hour; I greet you here to-night in 
 the glorious associations and patriotic memories of 
 
CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 151 
 
 this day. I greet you here to-night in that union and 
 communion within these walls where a man is reck- 
 oned not for what he has, but for what he is. I am 
 delighted to greet you to-night, and it is my wish that 
 you may all have long life, health, and happiness, that 
 you may enjoy many of these ambrosial nights in the 
 future, and that the Lotos Club may be immortal. 
 
SETH LOW 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW, FEBRUARY 22, 1896 
 
 I HAVE had the pleasure of being present in the 
 Lotos Club at dinners given on previous occasions, 
 generally to distinguished foreigners. I am glad to be 
 present to-night at a dinner given to one who is as 
 easily distinguished as an American. I know that Mr. 
 Depew can be all things to all men. I don 't mean that 
 in the period when he was stumping the State with 
 Governor Seymour he was the originator of the state- 
 ment that you have heard from a politician of a cer- 
 tain time and place who said to his audience: ''Gen- 
 tlemen, those are my sentiments, but if they don't suit 
 you they can be changed.'' 
 
 On the contrary, I understand that in England Mr. 
 Depew is continually mistaken for Gladstone ; that when 
 he was in Germany and Yon Moltke was alive, Depew 
 and Von Moltke were interchangeable names ; and that 
 in France he could hardly be told from Thiers. But 
 there is one capital in Europe in which Mr. Depew has 
 always been himself, and that is at Constantinople. 
 He has never conducted himself there, believe me, in 
 such a way as to be mistaken for Abdul Aziz. In other 
 words, in spite of all temptations to belong to other 
 nations, he is an American. 
 
 152 
 
SETH LOW 153 
 
 Of course no reference to Depew would be complete 
 or tolerably satisfactory that did not refer to his good 
 humor— good humor in every sense of the word; good 
 humor which he permits the American people to enjoy 
 with him. Because he does, we thank him. 
 
 "Well, to know a man thoroughly, gentlemen, some- 
 times it is necessary to go through college with him. 
 I owe it to one of his classmates, Wayne MacVeagh, 
 that I have been permitted to analyze, as he expresses 
 it, our idol. I have it upon the authority of Wayne 
 MacVeagh that he used to invite Mr. Depew down into 
 Pennsylvania ''to save the nation, Mr. Smith." At 
 least it w^as true of the Pennsylvania end that no one 
 could withstand the logic of his anecdotes or the humor 
 of his eloquence. 
 
 But that is not all. The universality of Mr. Depew 's 
 humor is as notable as its genuineness. On the Bowery 
 I understand that it earned for him the name of 
 ''Peach"; and in England— if I mistake not, I have it 
 from his own lips— he was assured by two Englishmen 
 separately, within a week of the time when he had got 
 off one of his best jokes, that they thought they saw the 
 point. 
 
 This is no small encomium. It was, you remember, 
 an Oxford professor who showed his American friends 
 through the neighborhood of Oxford, until they came 
 to a sign-post that gave directions for travel in this way 
 and in that. At the bottom of the post were these 
 words: "If you can't read, ask the blacksmith across 
 the way." Well, the Americans not unnaturally 
 laughed at the legend, and their English guide asked 
 what they were laughing at. 
 
154 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 They said: ''Don't you see anything funny on that 
 board?'' 
 
 "Why, no," said the professor. 
 
 They said: "Look again." 
 
 So he looked again, and then he began to laugh, too. 
 
 "Now do you see?" said they. 
 
 ' ' Oh, yes, ' ' he said ; ' ' the blacksmith might be out. ' ' 
 
 As this is the anniversary of Washington's birthday, 
 I want to say just a single word of Washington and 
 his time that is suggested by the contrast between those 
 times and these. As I look back upon the achieve- 
 ments of Washington and his fellow patriots, they seem 
 to be in no sense, in no way, more remarkable than 
 in this, that they based an entirely new departure upon 
 the experiences that men had in all ages and in all 
 places. If you read the pages of the "Federalist" you 
 will see how they drew their arguments from the 
 experiences of Greece, of Rome, of Switzerland, of 
 England, and of France. Everywhere they went back 
 into history for principles upon which they were to 
 build the new nation ; but they did not slavishly imitate 
 the precedents which they studied. They took the 
 principles, and wdth those principles they breathed the 
 breath of life into a new thing. That was the result, 
 I have sometimes thought, of this circumstance: that 
 they were still living in an age of the world when most 
 of the daily experiences of life were what they had 
 been for many centuries. The methods of communi- 
 cation were substantially the same : they had. the boat, 
 the sailing ship, the horse, and they walked on foot. 
 They had not become accustomed to change as you and 
 I have. Therefore, they had a reverence for experi- 
 
SETH LOW 155 
 
 ence that it is very hard for us to have to-day. On 
 the other hand, in the midst of these old and custom- 
 ary experiences of life they found themselves in a new 
 country, where the appeal to their inventiveness and 
 to their ingenuity and sense and power of adaptation 
 was constant. And out of these two circumstances I 
 think— their faith in the experience of men and their 
 readiness to adapt old experience to new problems— we 
 got the Constitution, which has been described as the 
 most wonderful thing that ever was struck out of the 
 mind of man at one moment. Now, in our time we 
 have became accustomed to change. Take such a thing 
 as the X-ray. How^ easily we accept it! It does n't 
 seem to us to-day any more singular that wood should 
 be glass to some sort of rays than that glass should be 
 glass to those rays to which we are accustomed. In 
 other ages the man who invented such things would 
 have been burned at the stake for witchcraft. In other 
 words, progressiveness is a thing which the American 
 people have in full abundance. But what I think we 
 ought to be very careful to hold on to is that old rever- 
 ence for experience upon which the founders of this 
 Republic so strongly built. That is the salutation, gen- 
 tlemen, that I wanted to make to you, drawn from the 
 circumstance that this dinner has been given on Wash- 
 ington 's birthday— to ask you to do what you can to 
 imbue the minds of the Americans you know with that 
 reverence for experience which never can be disre- 
 garded without the most disastrous results. 
 
EOSWELL P. FLOWER 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW, 
 FEBRUARY 22, 1896 
 
 WHEN I was a boy in the country, the year before 
 Mr. Depew joined this club, he was on the ticket 
 for lieutenant-governor with Francis Kernan. This 
 was in 1872. He made good speeches then, and he has 
 been making them ever since. He told a story then 
 that I remember well, for I listened to every word he 
 said. He was running against John A. Dix at that 
 time, and he said in that audience that he had known 
 John A. Dix for a great many years, that he knew his 
 history well, that he came over on the Mayflower, that 
 he asked to be elected justice of the peace the moment 
 he landed, and that he had been in office ever since. 
 A man in that audience who thought he knew cried 
 out, "You lie!" Depew stopped for about a minute; 
 then he said : ' ' I have been three weeks on the stump, 
 speaking in larger places than Watertown, and I never 
 heard that fact disputed before. ' ' 
 
 At that time Depew had the Democrats with him, 
 and I know that he has a good many of them with him 
 now. I remember some few years ago, after Depew 
 had got something— or rather when he was looking for 
 something, I forget which it was— he said to me con- 
 fidentially : ' ' Governor, I never went wrong but twice 
 
 156 
 
ROSWELL P. FLOWER 157 
 
 in my life. Once, when I was a boy, I used to have little 
 bits of pantaloons— little bits of things, you know— that 
 it did n't make any difference which side was in front 
 or which side was behind. Well, one day my mother 
 put them on wrong side first, and I found myself run- 
 ning away from school instead of going there. But I 
 will never do it again. I am going to whoop 'er up 
 every time for the straight ticket." 
 
 I wish that Chauncey Depew could be made Presi- 
 dent of the United States. I wish he had been nomi- 
 nated in 1884. The people of this country, in my judg- 
 ment, want more business in the executive chair. They 
 want a man not wedded to a tariff so high that you 
 can't get over it, or so low that everything can get 
 over it. He would give you the right kind of a tariff. 
 Our platforms were just alike in 1884 and just alike 
 in 1888. Only the men who got in power revised the 
 tariff on different lines. They divided it on the line 
 on which the old Dakota farmer built his blizzard 
 fences : he built them four feet high and six feet thick, 
 so that when the tornado came and the blank thing 
 went over it was two feet higher than it was before. 
 
JOSEPH JEFFERSON 
 
 AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, APRIL 4, 1896 
 
 WHILE I may have had some floating idea in 
 my mind that my professional services had 
 been recognized, I had no idea that I was such a good 
 man nntil your president made his remarks. In the 
 ** School for Scandal," if I remember rightly, the law- 
 yer says, after having done an honorable action: 
 "Ladies and gentlemen: I hope you will not mention 
 this matter." And Sir Peter says: "Why, man, are 
 you ashamed of having done an honorable action?" 
 "No," said the lawyer, "but I live by the badness of 
 my character, and if it were once known that I had 
 done an honorable thing it might ruin my reputation. ' ' 
 
 Now, you have heard the compliments that have been 
 hurled at me to-night, and have seen all these beautiful 
 little souvenirs that have appeared before me. I hope 
 that as you are members of this club you won't let it 
 go any further, for if I don't do some dreadful deed 
 shortly my friends will begin to suspect me. 
 
 It is natural that I should be very much moved at 
 a reception like this given to me in the city of New 
 York. You will possibly be surprised when I tell you 
 that my first theatrical appearance in New York took 
 place nearly sixty years ago. In looking over Ireland's 
 history of the stage I find that "one Master Joseph 
 
 158 
 
JOSEPH JEFFERSON 159 
 
 Jefferson," who I presume was myself, in the year 1837 
 appeared for the benefit of one- Master Titns ; that the 
 said Joseph Jefferson was then seven or eight years 
 of age, and the beneficiary about ten. We were an- 
 nounced, I find, to appear in a terrific broadsword com- 
 bat. You will find it all as I tell you. I would n't 
 dare to mention such a thing if it could not be proved 
 by the records. It is hardly to be believed that the in- 
 habitants at that time would have permitted such an 
 exhibition. I was dressed as a Spanish pirate, possibly 
 a privateer, in honor of the beneficiary ; and naturally, 
 he being dressed as an American sailor, I was to be 
 overcome by him. I had no political opinions in this 
 matter, it was purely professional; but as I lay upon 
 the stage the American sailor placed his foot upon 
 my breast, waved the Star Spangled Banner aloft, and 
 the curtain came down with great applause. You would 
 scarcely believe it, but I remember it perfectly, and I 
 believe the beneficiary, if he happens to be alive, would 
 remember it too, for it is traditional that I came near 
 cutting off the toe of little Titus in the conflict. 
 
 It may seem a little vulgar to talk shop; but no. 
 Oliver Wendell Holmes told me once that a man ought 
 always to talk shop. He said he did n't like to take 
 medicine, but he always liked to talk about it, and that 
 he himself always talked shop, and he begged me on 
 that occasion to talk shop. And that is the reason, pos- 
 sibly, why I have taken the liberty to talk shop to you, 
 because it is the only thing that I know. 
 
 After this terrific combat that I speak of there came 
 several other experiences which I remember. 
 
 My father was something of an itinerant, and we 
 
160 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 wandered toward the West, where we found ourselves 
 sometimes walking from one town to another— not for 
 exercise, I assure you. We found ourselves in the 
 town of Springfield, Illinois, and stranded. There 
 were no telegraphs, and no railroads by which we could 
 get home. There we were, about to open, and, unfortu- 
 nately, a religious revival was taking place in the town. 
 A prohibitory license fee was placed upon our perform- 
 ance, and we were helpless. A lawyer came forward 
 and offered his services to see if he could n't have the 
 license fee remitted. He put the case before the coun- 
 cil, charging nothing for his services, and by his wit 
 and humor the license fee was removed and we were al- 
 lowed to go on. That lawyer afterward became a very 
 interesting figure in this country, and held a very im- 
 portant position. He now lies buried outside Spring- 
 field, under a monument recording the life and virtues 
 of Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 And so time went on, and I found myself then, I 
 think, in the city of New Orleans, and it was on the 
 day of some patriotic occasion, either the battle of New 
 Orleans or the birthday of Washington, and the man- 
 ager, half patriotic and half commercial, arranged that 
 on that occasion the ^'Star Spangled Banner" should be 
 sung by the company. I was of the company, and was 
 deputed to open the program. I was a boy at that 
 time and had a pretty good voice, and used to lead the 
 choruses in the operas as they came along. I was 
 deputed to sing the first verse. I never felt so nervous 
 in my life— not even to-night. I had studied it and 
 studied it until I knew it backward, and I 'm afraid 
 that 's the way I sang it. 
 
 I came forward in that audience, a mass of human 
 
JOSEPH JEFFERSON 161 
 
 faces, and I was blind with nervousness. I could see 
 nothing but this great wall of human faces before me. 
 My mother was waiting in a wing, with great hopes 
 of her son. I went forward to commence the first 
 verse, and I began: ''0 say, can you see—" and there 
 I stuck. I tried it again: ''0 say, can you see—" I 
 stuck again. I don't know whether they could see, 
 but I certainly could not. I hope none of you will 
 ever be hissed from the stage, but on that occasion I 
 was literally hissed off the stage. The stage manager, 
 who was a German, yelled, ' ' Go on, Yoe ! " ' ^ But ' ' Yoe ' ' 
 could n't go on, and so "Yoe" went off. I staggered 
 to the wing, threw myself in my mother's arms, and 
 we cried it out together. I am fairly patriotic and 
 love my country, but on this occasion I cursed our 
 national anthem from the bottom of my heart. 
 
 Again, as time goes on, I find myself here among you, 
 bidding farewell, with my friend, our fellow-member, 
 the dear and beloved Billy Florence, whom you all re- 
 member. We were to appear for the last time in Eng- 
 lish comedy, and he came to me and said : ' ' Don 't you 
 think, as we shall naturally be expected to make a 
 speech to-night, that we should prepare something ? " I 
 told him that I thought it was a very wise precaution. 
 So we prepared a little extemporaneous wit. I was to 
 make some remark, and he was to reply to it as if he 
 had never heard of it before ; I was to reply to what he 
 said, etcetera. "We believed in this preparation, and we 
 had everything ready. The actors were at the wings 
 ready to listen to what we had to say. Well, the cur- 
 tain came down, and the audience did n't call us out 
 at all! 
 
 You see how important preparation is on such an 
 
162 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 occasion. So my life has gone on step by step until the 
 present moment, when I find myself surrounded by 
 many whom I know and many who must know me. I 
 find myself here, honored by one of New York's great 
 clubs; and I need not tell you that as I appeared in 
 this city over sixty years ago, when, as you are aware, 
 my appearance was not of a startlingly dramatic na- 
 ture, it is quite likely that some of your fathers and 
 grandfathers, possibly your great-grandfathers or their 
 friends, may have witnessed me when I was a child 
 upon the stage. To be here now, after sixty years, 
 gentlemen, in health and strength, honored by this club 
 and able to address you,— to address, possibly, the de- 
 scendants of those ancestors,— is a privilege for which 
 I am, and for which I ought to be, most earnestly and 
 sincerely grateful. 
 
PAEKE aODWIN 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO JOSEPH JEFFERSON, APRIL 4, 1896 
 
 THERE was once a Frenchman who wrote a book 
 of maxims, and one of them was that we always 
 have a secret feeling of contempt for the man who 
 makes us laugh. That is only part true. I have 
 no doubt that a conceited Frenchman who could not 
 himself make anybody laugh would have a feeling of 
 contempt for those who do. I have no doubt that a 
 pursy bigot who is so full of self-righteousness that he 
 can entertain no other notion but one of himself would 
 be opposed to laughing lest the laugh be turned against 
 himself. I have no doubt that a lean, haggard fanatic 
 who believes that millions upon millions of years ago it 
 was decreed that everybody should be miserable, and 
 ought to be, would consider a laugh a great sin and 
 entirely unorthodox. I have no doubt that a certain 
 type of politician, say a senator of the United States, 
 who is generally a bag of wind or a bag of gold, and 
 who might be devoted to what the economists call the 
 unearned increment, might be opposed to a laugh, be- 
 cause he knows that laughing is catching and that, if he 
 should begin, the whole world would be cachinnating 
 at his bombastic pomposity. 
 
 But for the majority the reverse is the truth. We 
 have no contempt for those who amuse us ; on the con- 
 
 163 
 
164 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 trary, we admire and love them. We even go further 
 than that; we perhaps go to the other extreme, and 
 absolutely forgive them their shortcomings simply be- 
 cause they do make us laugh. There was Nick Bot- 
 tom, who was not a paragon of human morality; 
 yet, is n't he a source of everlasting delight? There 
 was Sir Toby Belch; I should n't recommend him 
 as an exemplar of modern virtues; he had his pecca- 
 dilloes ; yet I hope he will be loved forever. Take per- 
 haps the biggest fool that ever appeared upon the sur- 
 face of the earth, Don Quixote. We all love him; we 
 think he was a fine old gentleman, a noble-hearted man. 
 Take the case of Sii^ John Falstaff. Sir John was not 
 a saint, although he did say that he had lost his voice 
 in early youth by singing anthems, and Shakespeare 
 called him the worst liar that ever lived. We might 
 say he was a monstrous form of unveracity. He 
 took purses on the highway; he picked pockets; he 
 robbed the gallows by the wayside. The Prince of 
 Wales once said of him that he was "a great, blubber- 
 ing mass of adipose ; a great mass of iniquity. ' ' Yet, 
 if the question were put to you I do not think there 
 is anybody you would be less willing to spare than 
 poor old John. Take the case of Bip Van Winkle. 
 Rip was not, on the whole, a good Christian. He 
 might have been a good Dutchman. He had the habit 
 sometimes of saying, when he was inclined to crook 
 his elbow, ^'This time don't count." On the whole, 
 he was a lazy, good-for-nothing wretch, Bip was. But, 
 after all, is n't it right that we should like and ex- 
 cuse these people that amuse us? that we should so 
 often go a point beyond moral propriety and for- 
 
PARKE GODWIN 165 
 
 give them all their shortcomings? This life of ours 
 is not so superlatively happy a life that we can dis- 
 pense with these things. Most of us do not ride 
 every day in gilded chariots; we do not lie every 
 night on beds of down; we have troubles and dis- 
 eases. In this world, too, where we live under a 
 series of religions, born in semi-barbaric ages, where 
 we live in a society which has its thorns, and which 
 perhaps for many of us is like one of those nettle 
 swamps where in former times our brothers used to 
 send the horse thieves, I say that we are not altogether 
 superlatively happy. We have our bad moments ; and 
 the fellow who can relieve us and put a sparkle in the 
 eye, a smile on the lip, in spite of all, is a man to be 
 admired and a man to be loved. 
 
 Even in its cursory form this ability to excite the 
 risibles is an admirable one. But when we think of it 
 in its higher forms ; when we think of it in the light of 
 Aristophanes, who for two thousand years has been the 
 delight of learned men of all nations; when we think 
 of Cervantes, who for three hundred years has given 
 the highest and the most exquisite pleasure to all man- 
 kind; when we think of Moliere, who through all the 
 darkness and reverses of France has yet been able to 
 shed a smile over her history; when we think of our 
 own Shakespeare, who for three hundred years past has 
 given to all the nations of the earth their supremest 
 happiness, I say that we ought to admire, we ought to 
 esteem, we ought to love the laughers. 
 
 Think for a moment. This faculty of appreciating 
 the ludicrous, this faculty of laughing at the odd, the 
 grotesque, the humorous, and the witty, is one of the 
 
 11* 
 
166 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 highest faculties, one of the richest endowments that 
 have been given to our human nature. Suppose that 
 we were all born without it, like the grizzly bear— 
 what a melancholy set we should be ! Suppose we were 
 all of us Scotchmen, who, Macaulay said, could take 
 a joke only when it was inserted by a surgical instru- 
 ment; suppose that we were confined in our diet to 
 red herring and sauerkraut, and a fellow should come 
 to us and offer us once in our lives a dinner such as 
 the Lotos Club offers to its guests, would not that man 
 be worthy of our admiration and of monuments erected 
 in the principal cities to his honor ? 
 
 Now all this, gentlemen, is but a long prelude to a 
 very short speech. The short speech is this, that we 
 have before us to-night one of those rare creatures who 
 seem to have been sent into the world to amuse and im- 
 prove their fellow-men. He was born unlike other chil- 
 dren. Instead of uttering a cry, he uttered a laugh. 
 As he has told us to-night, before the short clothes 
 were off he *^ Jumped Jim Crow" and played for the 
 amusement of his fellows ; and from that time for sixty 
 years, by his originality, by his versatility, by his sim- 
 plicity, by his naturalness, and by his universal charm, 
 he has contributed to the sweetest, the highest, the 
 noblest enjoyment of his fellow-men. I may say that 
 in all the islands of the sea that are on the other side 
 of the globe, if it were announced that Joe Jefferson 
 were coming, people would put on their best looks of 
 expectation, and when he was gone they would put on 
 their brightest smiles of gratitude for having been en- 
 tertained by him. And do you know the secret of this 
 whole influence over men ? It is expressed in one word, 
 and that word is ''heart." It is the heart. 
 
PARKE GODWIN 167 
 
 It was my good fortune, two or three summers ago, 
 to drop down upon him at Buzzard's Bay. The place 
 is called Buzzard's Bay because there are no buzzards 
 there. As I stepped from the railroad car I said to 
 the station-master: ''Will you inform me where Mr. 
 Joseph Jefferson lives ? ' ' He said : " Do you know Joe 
 Jefferson ? " I said : ' ' Yes, I am very well acquainted 
 with him." ''Is that so?" said he. "He 's a good 
 un, ain't he?" 
 
 As I was walking along the street to find Mr. Jeffer- 
 son's place I met a fisherman. He said: "Why, are 
 you acquainted with Joe Jefferson ? I have often fished 
 with Joe and Mr. Cleveland. Joe generally catches 
 the most fish. The fish seem to think that an actor is 
 better to know than a President." 
 
 Well, I found Joe that summer day— I call him Joe 
 because Joe means "my dear," "my love," or some- 
 thing like that— I found him sitting like Marius amid 
 the ruins of Carthage, but in a different mood. His 
 house had been burned, and he was contemplating how 
 such a thing could happen so early in the spring. I 
 think that he had some theory about spontaneous com- 
 bustion. My own theory was this, that he had uttered 
 some of his old jokes in the latter part of the autumn, 
 which had frozen up during the winter, and as the heat 
 of the spring came on had thawed out and exploded. 
 He came to meet me, and we went toward his tempo- 
 rary house. As we approached I saw two or three 
 heads coming toward us, and they scampered up to 
 Mr. Jefferson and climbed up his legs and his arms, 
 and I think they would have climbed up on his head 
 or crawled into his ears for the sake of getting nearer 
 to that dear old grandsire. 
 
168 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 We are drawn to this man not only by his art, but 
 by his heart. Yon will pardon me for one or two 
 more remarks. I have had a sad thought. When Mr. 
 Jefferson said that he had been sixty years on the 
 stage I thought that perhaps he would be drawing near 
 his time. There is a very unpleasant necessity that is 
 imposed upon most of us, and that is the necessity of 
 disappearing. We don't want to go, but we are obliged 
 to go. It occurred to me to ask myself where he is 
 going to. And that question was put in my mind by 
 my remembrance of an old anecdote which was told 
 a long time ago of Lester Wallack and John Brougham. 
 They got into a wordy combat and they sparred a good 
 deal, and Lester Wallack said a good many sharp 
 things good-naturedly, which rather shut up John. 
 Suddenly John said: ''I had such a dream the other 
 night!" 
 
 ''What was it, John?" said Lester. 
 
 "I dreamed that I died, and of course I made my 
 way to the gates of heaven as quick as I could in order 
 to get a front seat. Who should I see ahead of me but 
 Lester Wallack. The gates flew open, and he went in. 
 The gates were shut when I got there, and I knocked 
 and knocked, and for some time there was no answer. 
 Finally I knocked harder, and then St. Peter came 
 out, looking pretty glum. He said to me: ''Who are 
 you?" 
 
 " I am John Brougham, the actor. ' ' 
 
 He said: "Go down to the other place; no actors 
 admitted here." 
 
 "How 's that?" said I. "I just saw Lester Wallack 
 go in here." 
 
PARKE GODWIN 169 
 
 "Oh, yes, certainly, Lester Wallack; but lie 's no 
 actor," replied Peter. 
 
 I am therefore very much concerned about our friend 
 Mr. Jefferson, for he is an actor. I am sure of only one 
 thing, that wherever he does go, he will carry that gen- 
 tle, generous heart of his, and he will be welcomed by 
 all men and all women of gentle, genial, and generous 
 natures. 
 
HENEY VAN DYKE 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO JOSEPH JEFFERSON, APRIL 4, 1896 
 
 THE venerable speaker who preceded me has told 
 ■us that all religions originated in barbarous ages. 
 It may be said in answer that one of these religions 
 (to which I confess adherence) has been the leading 
 light of civilization for eighteen centuries. And in 
 coming to do honor to Mr. Joseph Jefferson to-night I 
 have felt no need of leaving that religion behind me. 
 
 There was once a Methodist convention out in Chi- 
 cago, and one of the preachers in attendance took a 
 walk between the sessions. He met a cowboy who was 
 feeling pretty well and who clapped him on the shoul- 
 der and said: ^' Hello, stranger! Come and have a 
 drink. ' ' 
 
 ''I don't drink," said the clergyman. 
 
 "Then come and have a cigar," said the cowboy. 
 
 '*I don't smoke," replied the minister. 
 
 The cattleman looked him over, and said: ''What 's 
 the matter with you, anyway? Have n't you got any 
 fun in you?" '' Not a bit, " said the preacher. ''Well," 
 said the cowboy, "I 'm going to find out," and he 
 gripped him. So they had a lively little tussle, and 
 the preacher dusted the pavement with the cowboy, 
 and then sat him up against the fence. He looked up 
 in mild surprise and said : 
 
 170 
 
HENRY VAN DYKE 171 
 
 ''What do you want to lie like that for? You are 
 chock full of fun." 
 
 Now, I wish I were chock full of fun ; I would pour 
 it out to-night. I am glad to be here because this is 
 not a genealogical affair. New York has gone crazy 
 lately over such things. We have got societies of 1812 ; 
 societies of the Revolutionary War; colonial societies 
 of all kinds; the only thing lacking is an Adam and 
 Eve society to complete the list. We may almost say 
 that our dinners in New York this winter have all been 
 in honor of our ancestors. But to-night we are mighty 
 glad that we are here not to do honor to one who is 
 dead, but who is alive, and very much alive. 
 
 Who does n't know Joseph Jefferson? An old lady, 
 when asked if she knew him, said : ' ' Joseph Jefferson ? 
 Why, yes ; I have seen him in all his caricatures. ' ' 
 
 Mr. Jefferson is a speaker himself, and I wonder how 
 he likes being obliged to sit still and have others speak 
 for him, and to him, and about him. He knows how 
 often a speaker's words run away with his meaning, 
 and as he sits smiling at us I am sure he has a secret 
 sense of uncertainty as to what is coming next. I sup- 
 pose he feels very much like that child— perhaps you 
 have heard the story. This little girl came to her 
 mother and said: ''Ma, Johnny and I just had a mad 
 cow chase us, and we were saved by prayer." 
 
 "How was that?" inquired the mother. 
 
 "We were running across the field, and this cow came 
 after us just as fast as ever she could come. I said to 
 Johnny that he must pray. Johnny said all he could 
 think of was what papa always says before breakfast, 
 and he said that: 'For what we are about to receive, 
 
172 SPEECHES AT THE LOJOS CLUB 
 
 the Lord make us truly thankful,' and then the cow 
 went away." 
 
 I do not know just where to strike into this subject 
 to-night. Mr. Jefferson is a master of the seven lib- 
 eral arts— the art of painting, the art of agriculture— 
 (Turning to Mr. Jefferson : Oh, I have been up in Para- 
 dise Valley, and I know your record as a farmer. Up 
 there you are often confused with Thomas Jefferson.) 
 Mr. Jefferson is a master of painting and agriculture 
 and oratory and literature and fishing and singing and 
 acting, we all know; but the greatest thing is that he 
 is a master of the art of living— the art of living cheer- 
 fully and cleanly and happily and helpfully to hu- 
 manity. 
 
 It is said, by those who know, that the stage is a 
 difficult place to lead that kind of life. I do not know. 
 I am willing to take the testimony of men who say it. 
 But Mr. Jefferson is a proof that ''some things can be 
 done as well as others," and that a man can lead a 
 very fine and noble life in the actor's profession. 
 When a man does that, all the more honor and praise 
 and gratitude are due him for showing us how the role 
 of genuine manhood should be played con amove. 
 
 well for him who finds a friend, 
 Or makes a friend where'er he come j 
 
 Who loves the world from end to end, 
 And wanders on from home to home. 
 
 Sixty years ago, sir, you came to this city, and you 
 tell us they called you then ''Master Joseph Jefferson." 
 We still call you ''Master Joseph Jefferson." 
 
JOHN A. TAYLOE 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO JOSEPH JEFFERSON, APRIL 4, 1896 
 
 IT is, to iny mind, gentlemen, a creditable thing to 
 our civilization that a body of men such as this 
 should come together to honor a man such as our dis- 
 tinguished guest is— a man who is not too far above 
 us to be above the common plane of our social life, and 
 yet is far enough above us to command our confidence 
 and esteem. 
 
 I think we are accustomed to think, gentlemen, that 
 occasions like this have nothing more about them than 
 the pleasure of the hour. I think it is a common esti- 
 mate that men put upon us that social clubs like this 
 are composed largely of men who are superficial in 
 their treatment of the affairs of life, and who only 
 want to enjoy themselves. Gentlemen, if our entire 
 civilization were wiped out to-night except as it is rep- 
 resented at this banquet-table here by all forms of writ- 
 ing and printing, and all the inventions were them- 
 selves to be done away with, I think that here in this 
 room these men who are laughing and eating and 
 drinking about these tables, and who are looking into 
 the faces of the men who are speaking here, have in 
 them the capacity and the power and the ability to 
 reorganize a civilization and marshal their forces at the 
 
 173 
 
174 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 head of the State, and to re-create all that the nine- 
 teenth century has given of wisdom or social sagacity. 
 
 You have in the past invited to this festal table many 
 distinguished guests— so many and so distinguished 
 that no author, or soldier, or statesman has come to be so 
 well known and so favorably received in our country 
 that he has not taken on an added dignity to find at 
 some climax of his career his forehead crowned with 
 the laurels of this club. Yet you have never invited 
 us to drain our glasses to one of all that distinguished 
 host of men to whom our hearts have gone out in more 
 spontaneous response than to him whose auspicious 
 future we pledge to-night. 
 
 For more than two human generations he has been 
 holding before us those matchless pictures of human 
 fellowship which, behind the different characters of 
 the play-bill, have been, after all, but poor and flimsy 
 devices through which he has opened up to us the 
 beautiful avenues of his own generous heart, and has 
 bidden us all to saunter down the pleasant paths which 
 lead to his own gracious presence. For who of us has 
 ever been so blinded by the pinched and wizened face 
 of Caleb Plummer that we have not seen behind it the 
 glowing personality of our guest? Or that we have 
 not seen behind the frayed buckskin of Rip Van Win- 
 kle that great fund of kindly human nature so charac- 
 teristic of Mr. Jefferson? 
 
 So that of all the thousands of people who have been 
 lifted up and illuminated by the generous heart and 
 the genius of our guest, there is not one sitting here 
 at this table to-night who would hesitate to reach his 
 palm across to Mr. Jefferson and expect that genial 
 
JOHN A. TAYLOR 175 
 
 response which is born of a liberal fund of kindly hu- 
 man nature. And so it is that we all find in this man 
 those qualities which knit him closely to each of our 
 hearts and make us all feel that we are not alone honor- 
 ing genius, but that we are honoring a part of our 
 common humanity. And do you say that so to carry 
 one's self for fifty years is not to signalize this among 
 his kind? It certainly bespeaks the best human at- 
 tribute. The path to military distinction is strewn 
 with the horrors of the battle-field ; the way to forensic 
 virtues is lined with the sufferings of defeat ; the sacred 
 office of the church even is shrouded with tears and 
 groans; but the great actor who holds himself loyally 
 and unswervingly to those great fundamental princi- 
 ples which underlie and uplift humanity, who has in 
 his own heart the best evidences of human conduct, 
 who holds above the souls of men these shining exam- 
 ples, sets the pace for humanity at large, and is a 
 material element which enters into the uplifting of the 
 world. 
 
 And so it is that, sitting down to-night, Joe Jefferson, 
 with your friends here at the table, above the welcome 
 music of their words of praise and above the shouts of 
 their applause, we are all glad to believe that you cheer- 
 fully recognize that the thing about you which we do 
 most of all admire and love is not the matchless skill 
 and art with which you have given us those portraits 
 behind the footlights, but it is that everywhere, all the 
 time, in your career you have given us no single pic- 
 ture there which we did n't know all the while could 
 not for a moment be compared with what you are 
 yourself. 
 
SIMEON FOED 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO JOSEPH JEFFERSON, APRIL 4, 1896 
 
 MR. JEFFERSON has graphically described the 
 horrors of stage fright, and he knows its symp- 
 toms, and if he will diagnose my case he won't need 
 any X-rays to see that I have it in its most malignant 
 form. It may seem strange that a man who knows 
 enough to keep a hotel open does n't know enough to 
 keep his face closed ; but it is no fault of mine. Why, 
 Mr. President, with all these orators sitting around, 
 bursting with suppressed speeches— men with elo- 
 quence to burn, and who like to smell of smoke — why, 
 I say, have you sprung me upon these innocent people ? 
 
 I should like to say some graceful things about our 
 honored guest which are boiling within me, but I 
 have n 't the power ; I am not built that way ; and, be- 
 sides, I am afraid his hat will bind a little to-morrow 
 as it is, and it would be a pity to have him at this late 
 day get stuck on himself. It 's a dangerous thing, Mr. 
 Jefferson, to get stuck on an actor. 
 
 I have followed Mr. Jefferson's career with interest 
 from early boyhood (that is, from my boyhood). At 
 first I watched him from above— from the family cir- 
 cle, where we had to take off our jackets so we could 
 sit close. I watched him as Eip Van Winkle while my 
 scalding tears fell upon the heads of the bloated aris- 
 
 176 
 
SIMEON FORD 177 
 
 tocrats beneath until they had to raise their umbrellas, 
 and my merry, infectious laugh echoed and reverber- 
 ated from those far heights until the guardian of the 
 gallery swooped down and repressed my boyish enthu- 
 siasm with a club. 
 
 As I became more affluent I descended through the 
 various strata of the theatre until now I have reached 
 the $2.50 seats purchased on the sidewalks (which are 
 said to be worthless) , and some day yet I may get into 
 a box (although I trust it won't be any such hot box 
 as I am in now) . And still my scalding tears fall over 
 Bip^s tribulations, but, alas! my merry, infectious 
 laugh is not now sufficiently contagious to occasion 
 alarm. 
 
 I relate all this not that it is of the slightest interest, 
 but I want Mr. Jefferson to know that I have freely 
 contributed to his support all these years, for he must 
 realize that although I can't talk, money talks. I 
 know enough to put up, if I don't know enough to 
 shut up. 
 
 But I never thought to stretch my legs under the 
 same mahogany with Mr. Jefferson (you notice how I 
 have stretched 'em), and as I stand here, six feet 
 in my stockings (for I do wear stockings, although 
 my looks may belie it!), I can feel myself swelling 
 with pride— it may not be visible to the naked eye, but 
 I am swelling— so that I almost fear I shall be laid up 
 to-morrow with what Artemus "Ward used to call ^'a 
 severe attack of embonpoint." 
 
 And yet I don't know why I should n't sit at table 
 with him, for there are some things in common between 
 the actor and the landlord, and yet more which are 
 
 12 
 
178 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 not in common. The actor and the landlord both take 
 in the public, and both provide entertainment for man 
 and beast. The landlord gives the people bed and 
 board, while in the theatre they get no bed but some- 
 times get bored, though never, of course, when Mr. 
 Jefferson is on the stage. The landlord gives his 
 patrons the best the market affords (in his advertise- 
 ments), while the actor has a certain delicacy about 
 receiving from his audiences the products of the mar- 
 ket—especially the vegetable products. Poor Bill Nye 
 used to have a recipe for removing egg stains from the 
 garments of lecturers and actors— but that is neither 
 here nor there. The pathway of our guest has for 
 many years been strewn with flowers, not fruit— and 
 certainly not hen-fruit. 
 
 And finally, while it is the actor's privilege to prance 
 upon the boards, it is the landlord's privilege to prance 
 upon the boarders. 
 
 You remember where Rip inquires of the innkeeper, 
 ''Is this the village of Falling "Water?" and the inn- 
 keeper replies, or would if he were up to date: ''Yes, 
 since Tom Piatt took to regulating the heavens above 
 and the earth beneath we have had water, water every- 
 where, but not a drop to drink. And the Raines Bill 
 descended and the floods came, and the winds blew 
 and beat upon that house, and dear old Uncle Levi 
 hardly knew which side of the fence to drop on in 
 order to keep out of the wet; and now the clubs have 
 to hang their liquor licenses on the outer walls, and 
 the governors thereof cry havoc and let slip the dogs 
 of war; and the free lunch has vanished like a tale 
 that is told, and there is weeping and wailing and 
 gnashing of teeth ; and the band plays on. ' ' 
 
SIMEON FORD 179 
 
 That sentence is a little involved, but it shows that 
 I am highly educated. 
 
 What a character was that of Rip! If such a per- 
 son should appear in real life to-day, with that clouded 
 intellect and those Pefferian whiskers trimmed to every 
 favoring gale, he 'd be sent to Congress as a silver 
 senator in spite of everything. 
 
 Mr. President, I am keeping better men from speak- 
 ing. I am glad to be here to pay this eloquent tribute 
 to our distinguished guest. ''May he live long and 
 prosper"— a remark which is not original with me. 
 
 As a landlord I have had much to do with actors, 
 and they have had to do with me, and some of them 
 have done me. I am the proud possessor of perhaps 
 the largest and most interesting collection of actors' 
 trunks extant. If I were asked to describe a vacuum 
 I would say, "A vacuum is the contents of an actor's 
 trunk left with a landlord as collateral for unpaid 
 board." If the cathode rays were to penetrate one of 
 these trunks, when they got inside they would die of 
 homesickness. I have n 't one of Mr. Jefferson 's trunks, 
 however. I wish I had, and then I could say with 
 Shakespeare's Lucius: 
 
 '* Draw you near 
 To shed obsequious tears upon this trunk." 
 
 Gentlemen, on behalf of the landlords, to whom you 
 all owe so much, I thank you for not throwing any- 
 thing at me. 
 
JOSEPH JEFFEESON 
 
 AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, APRIL 4, 1896 
 (Closing Speech.) 
 
 MY good friend Parke Godwin has been pleased to 
 say that he thinks the explosion at my house 
 was caused by the fact that I had let off some of my 
 old jokes there and that the walls of the house were not 
 strong enough to stand it. Why, gentlemen, if the re- 
 tailing of my old jokes had an effect of that kind there 
 would n't be one stone of the Lotos Club to-night left 
 upon earth. I have here told all that I could think of. 
 Another playful allusion was made by Mr. Godwin as 
 to where I should eventually go. It is rather early, pos- 
 sibly, to think of that; but, as Bardolph said of Fal- 
 stafff ''Wherever I go, I hope he will be with me." He 
 spoke of St. Peter and also of Lester Wallack and John 
 Brougham, who, I believe, have met St. Peter, and 
 who, I have no doubt, were freely admitted. A pa- 
 thetic allusion was once made by an actor who was 
 dying. He was one of the sweetest men I ever knew, 
 and I was in the room just before he died. He really 
 did say, when he was asked if he thought he had made 
 his peace with his Maker, and whether he hoped for 
 salvation and expected to enter the kingdom of heaven : 
 "Oh, yes, I believe they admit the profession." Of 
 
 180 
 
Joseph Jefferson 
 
>\Ofe'. 
 
 oV 
 
JOSEPH JEFFERSON 181 
 
 course it is a difficult thing to say which direction we 
 may take. Byron says: 
 
 '* Saint Peter sat by the celestial gate : 
 
 His keys were rusty, and the lock was duU, 
 
 So little trouble had been given of late j 
 Not that the place by any means was full, 
 
 But since the Gallic era — * eighty-eight ' — 
 The devils had ta'en a longer, stronger pull, 
 
 And * a pull all together,' as they say 
 
 At sea — which drew most souls another way." 
 
 So it is hard to tell which direction Mr. Godwin and 
 I may take, but I hope we shall go together. 
 
 The reverend gentleman who complimented me so 
 highly, and who said that to-morrow was his busy day, 
 mentioned and rather singled me out as knowing how 
 to live. Of course the important thing is to know how 
 to die. We have heard that life is like a play ; it mat- 
 ters not that it should be long, but that it should be 
 well acted, and we should be sure to make a good exit. 
 Now, then, I do not like, and I must protest against, 
 being selected for this exclusively virtuous career. My 
 profession is filled with many of the most honest and 
 virtuous men and women I have met anywhere. It is 
 not for me to defend it; and I know you will pardon 
 me on this occasion, for, as I said, it is embarrassing 
 to be singled out. I do not want to say with Lear, 
 ''Pour on, I will endure." 
 
 Now, gentlemen, in conclusion allow me to quote, 
 or to requote, the quotation at the end of our souvenir 
 to-night : 
 
 "Here's to your health, and to your family's good health, 
 May you live long and prosper! " 
 
 12* 
 
JOHN WATSON 
 
 (IAN MACLAREN) 
 AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, DECEMBER 5, 1896 
 
 IT would be an affectation if I said that I was unac- 
 customed to public speaking, after inflicting myself 
 upon so many American audiences during the last two 
 months ; but I trust that you will not think it an affec- 
 tation, but the pure utterance of the heart, when I say 
 that it is with much difficulty that I rise upon this 
 occasion. You have, sir, been most kind, and not only 
 eloquent, but far too generous in your references to my 
 work, and I have to thank you all, gentlemen, for the 
 great kindness with which you have received the presi- 
 dent's remarks. It is surely something which a Scotch 
 story-teller must remember unto the end of his days, 
 that he received so large and so cordial a welcome at 
 the hands of this club, devoted to many excellent ob- 
 jects, but, I believe, not least to the interests of lit- 
 erature and art and the drama and every means of 
 culture. 
 
 Your president has referred to Bohemia, and has 
 indicated that he thinks there will be struck up an alli- 
 ance between Scotland and Bohemia— on first sight one 
 of the most unlikely alliances that ever could be con- 
 summated. The president no doubt, however, has 
 many things in his eye, and when we remember the 
 
 182 
 
JOHN WATSON 183 
 
 careless garb of a Bohemian and the kilt of Scotland; 
 when we remember a Bohemian's tendency to live, if 
 he can, in a good-natured way upon his neighbors, and 
 the tendency of my respected ancestors to take any cat- 
 tle that they could see; and when also we remember 
 that a Bohemian's sins are all atoned for by his love of 
 letters, and that all the hardness and uncouthness of 
 Scotland may well deserve to be passed over because no 
 country has ever loved knowledge or scholarship more 
 than Scotland, I declare the president is predicting a 
 most harmonious marriage. 
 
 Your hospitality is only crowning the great kindness 
 which I have received during the past months— a kind- 
 ness which I never expected and which I have never 
 merited. Were one a lad of twenty-five, I declare it 
 would be dangerous, for after the audiences that have 
 been good enough to listen to me, and the favor I have 
 received, also, at the hands of distinguished men of 
 letters, whose welcome to one of the poorest recruits 
 that the republic of letters could send has been most 
 generous— I declare if I were twenty-five I might be 
 confused about my position. One of my friends, full of 
 didactic interest and anxious that I should maintain 
 my proper place, invented the following slight conver- 
 sation: An American, he says, recently entered his 
 study— he is a clergyman, and therefore much given 
 to morals— and asked him if he knew the man Maclaren. 
 He said he did. ''Well," said the American, **we 
 consider that there are two men, Shakespeare and Mac- 
 laren. ' ' I then began to see the drift of the anecdote. 
 ''Well," said my Scotch friend, "we also in Scotland 
 know them both, but we make a great difference be- 
 
184 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 tween them.'' ''Yes," said the American, 'Sve place 
 Maclaren higher ; he is a deal more sentimentaler. ' ' I 
 assured my friend that his effort was not in vain, and 
 that if he had ever had any anxiety as regards the con- 
 dition of my head, he might rest perfectly assured, for 
 I knew my place. 
 
 Gentlemen, when one receives as much kindness as 
 I have in America it does n't — if you will excuse an 
 expression not quite within the range of literature— 
 it does n't swell one's head. But it does something 
 better : it swells one 's heart. 
 
 Had I the opportunity, when I return home, of 
 speaking to one of the great gods on our Mount Olym- 
 pus, or to any man who has the genuine gift of letters 
 and who has consecrated his life to that great cause, 
 I would venture to point my moral, and what I would 
 say to him would be this: If a man who enters the 
 republic of letters late in life, and who is fully con- 
 scious of his imperfections and who has never counted 
 on attaining to any great standard of art, through his 
 slowness in beginning and through the exigencies of 
 his position, can yet obtain the favorable ear of the 
 public because he deals Idndly with humanity, what 
 will humanity not add to men richly endowed with 
 genius and who have a grace to which no amateur 
 writer can aspire? 
 
 That would be my moral; and I am convinced, Mr. 
 President, that if those men whom we look up to and 
 who sit in high places, whose witchery of style and 
 magnificent genius we all respect, could withdraw 
 themselves from the study of certain moods which 
 we believe are fantastic, and certain sides of human- 
 
JOHN WATSON 185 
 
 ity confined only to literary coteries and to great cities, 
 and could embrace the great, rich, simple, and unaf- 
 fected humanity that is throughout all lands, the tri- 
 umph they have won in the world of letters would be 
 as nothing compared to the triumph they would win 
 if, with all their culture, they laid their hand upon the 
 heart of the common people. 
 
 During those months it is impossible that one should 
 travel to and fro without having formed impressions; 
 and it is pleasant to go back with such entirely friendly 
 and kindly impressions of the nation whose best 
 thought and feeling are represented in this room. One 
 has had the privilege of having passed through a polit- 
 ical campaign that will ever leave a trace in the mem- 
 ory. For one will start up in sleep in days to come, 
 hearing in imagination the cry ringing through the car : 
 ''What 's the matter with William McKinley?" and 
 sink back to rest with perfect confidence, lulled to sleep 
 with the honest refrain, ''He 's all right." Not that I 
 mean that my allegiance to the cause represented by 
 that eminent man was quite unshaken, for after having 
 been eight hours in bed in Oberlin, Ohio, and being 
 awakened on the night of election every fifteen minutes 
 by enthusiastic cheers for sound money beneath my 
 window, I at length made three resolutions: first— in 
 which I hope you will sympathize with me without re- 
 bate—a desire to be naturalized immediately as a citi- 
 zen of the United States ; second, to try and pass a bill 
 to enable me still to vote, though the poll was closed; 
 and, third, as I was finally awakened, at six o'clock, by 
 shouts for McKinley, I had a desire to go to the poll 
 and vote for another person. 
 
186 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 The undeniable vivacity of your people, which puts 
 us poor Englishmen and Scotchmen quite to shame, 
 was most excellently shown in that election. It was 
 shown beyond anything that I ever could have ima- 
 gined, and I understand now why American life so 
 largely partakes of excitement, tempered by iced-water. 
 One thing profoundly impressed me— I am speaking 
 in perfect seriousness— and that was the courtesy of 
 your people. Without any question— and I am not 
 saying this for the saying's sake— your people are the 
 most courteous people one could meet, whether he be 
 traveling on the road or engaged in ordinary inter- 
 course. Courtesy may be tried by various standards, 
 and possibly the highest form of courtesy is respect to 
 women, I have never seen anywhere, and certainly 
 not among continental nations, who rather boast of 
 their courtesy in this direction— I have never seen 
 such a genuine, unaffected, and practical courtesy paid 
 to the weaker and the gentler sex as I have seen in 
 America. 
 
 Courtesy also can be tried by general agreeableness. 
 During my tour— and owing to the arduous exercise 
 of my friend Major Pond I have never stayed long in 
 one place — I have traveled far and wide, and have n't 
 always been able to ride in parlor cars. I have conse- 
 quently seen much of the people, but with the ex- 
 ception of one single person, and she was an immigrant 
 and, I have no doubt, a delightful woman, although 
 somewhat indifferent as to her personal appearance— 
 with the exception of that single individual, I have met 
 no woman and no man in the cars with whom I would 
 not be willing to sit in the same compartment or the 
 
JOHN WATSON 187 
 
 same seat of the car during a day's journey. That 
 seems to me a remarkable thing, but it may seem to you 
 nothing. To us, from a European standpoint, it means 
 a great deal. It means the comfort of your people; it 
 means the self-respect of your people; it means the 
 manners of your people; it means many things on 
 which I congratulate you as a nation. Of course 
 there may be flaws in the marble, but with this high 
 standard of manners there remains only one thing for 
 you to do. I have no doubt you do not do it because 
 you are afraid of Phariseeism if you become alto- 
 gether perfect. But there are certain appliances 
 provided, even in a parlor car, which might be re- 
 moved. 
 
 I am also struck, Mr. President, by another form of 
 courtesy which has greatly impressed me, and that is 
 that with you all language is raised to the highest 
 point, and your anxious desire is to place everything 
 upon the most dignified platform. I have been intro- 
 duced to an almost infinite number of men who fought 
 in your great war in the rank of commanding officers, 
 and to no lawyers who have not attained to the posi- 
 tion of judge; and as for my own profession, which 
 affords at home only a doctor here and there, it affords 
 nothing else in America. This, also, I recognize as a 
 great courtesy, and a wish to make life pass agree- 
 ably to everybody concerned. The rudeness, or let 
 me say uncouthness, of the Englishman was never 
 brought home to me more forcibly than when I re- 
 cently approached one of your colored brethren in a 
 hotel and asked him for the lift. ''Lift, sah?" he 
 said. ''Oh, elevator, sah, you mean." Then I knew 
 
188 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 where I was; and, in fact, that is entirely a parable 
 which saves me further explanation. What we call 
 *'lift" generally throughout England is called ''ele- 
 vator" here; so we are raised here to a higher level. 
 
 And, sir, what has interested me deeply is that while 
 you are contending with the difficulties which fall to 
 the lot not only of a new and growing people, but of 
 a nation into which is flowing the very refuse of Europe, 
 there is throughout your people, and especially in the 
 "West— I notice in the East you do not always value the 
 West at its highest— a great love of letters and of art. 
 I have seen again and again in the houses of men who 
 are, as they say in Europe, self-made men, who have 
 risen suddenly to affluence, abundant evidence that 
 their love is set not merely on the things that a man 
 holds in his hand, but on the means of culture through 
 which we see into the unseen and the beautiful. Some 
 of the most lovely pictures of modern art can be found 
 in the houses of those men. They do not have their 
 pictures, gentlemen, merely as pieces of furniture, 
 which they have bought for so much money: but the 
 men who have them, as I can bear testimony, can ap- 
 preciate the beauty of those pictures and are in no 
 mean degree art critics themselves. On the other side 
 I have been assured that if a bookseller has a rare 
 book— one of those lovely volumes that we should all 
 like to have, with a creamy and beautiful binding, and 
 marked perhaps with the arms of a king or a pope— 
 it is not in England that he finds a purchaser, but in 
 America. And, Mr. President, I would congratulate 
 you on the fact that to your high spirit and great en- 
 terprise you are also adding reverence for the past, 
 
JOHN WATSON 189 
 
 and especially that love of letters and art which is 
 surely the height of perfection. 
 
 I would only add one other thing, and it is this, that 
 while the good will between the old country and yours 
 can be maintained, and is going to be maintained, by 
 honorable self-respect, we are encouraged to cherish the 
 hope that the two nations will be bound more and more 
 closely together, until at last the day comes when from 
 Washington and London may go forth a voice on a 
 great international question of righteousness that no 
 nation will dare to pass by. While that can be se- 
 cured only by the agreement of eminent statesmen, yet 
 surely, gentlemen, the coming and going of individuals 
 treated after a most friendly fashion on this side, and, 
 I trust, also not unkindly on the other side, will not 
 only unite men of letters, but also our two great nations 
 with silken cords that can never be broken. 
 
 Mr. President and gentlemen of the Lotos Club, I 
 thank you for this great honor, which, in my quiet and 
 retired life of the future, will never be forgotten. 
 
WILLIAM WINTER 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO JOHN WATSON (IAN MACLAREN), 
 DECEMBER 6, 1896 l 
 
 IT is a pleasure to know, from the assurance we have 
 just received, that every man who rises upon the 
 platform of the Lotos Club immediately becomes elo- 
 quent,— for I do not recall an occasion when the need 
 of eloquence was more urgent. In this distinguished 
 presence I should have been pleased to remain silent; 
 to listen, not to speak. But since, in your kindness, 
 you will have it otherwise, I must thank you as well as 
 I can, and I do thank you, most sincerely, for the privi- 
 lege of participating in your whole-hearted and lovely 
 tribute to the great writer who is your guest to-night. 
 All that I feel, as an humble and obscure votary of 
 literature standing in the presence of one of its masters, 
 could not be briefly spoken, but the little that it seems 
 essential I should say can be said in a few words. 
 My oratorical ministrations, as many of my present 
 hearers are aware, have usually, and almost exclusively, 
 been invoked upon occasions of farewell,— until I have 
 come to feel like that serious Boston clergyman who 
 declined to read the wedding service because he con- 
 sidered himself ' ' reserved for funerals. ' ' A certain de- 
 
 1 Copyriglit, 1898, by William Winter. By permission of Macmillan Co. 
 
 190 
 
WILLIAM WINTER 191 
 
 lightful humorist now present, however, has recorded 
 for you the reassuring opinion of the grave-digger of 
 Drumtochty, that there is no real pleasure in a mar- 
 riage, because you never know how it wiU end ; whereas 
 there is no risk whatever in a burial. Under these 
 circumstances you know what to expect. It is no part 
 of my intention to infringe upon the facetious treat- 
 ment of this occasion. 
 
 About eight years ago, when I visited for the first 
 time [1888] the glorious city of Edinburgh, I had the 
 singular good fortune to meet with a venerable gentle- 
 man—Captain W. Sandylands— then more than eighty, 
 who, in his youth, had personally known Sir Walter 
 Scott ; and he described, minutely and with natural en- 
 thusiasm, the appearance of that great man, as he had 
 often seen him, when walking in Prince's street, on 
 his way to and from that Castle-street house which 
 has become a shrine of devout pilgrimage from every 
 quarter of the world. What a privilege it was to have 
 looked upon that astonishing genius— that splendid 
 image of chivalry and heroism! To have heard his 
 voice ! To have seen his greeting smile ! To have 
 clasped the hand that wrote ' ' Ivanhoe ' ' and ' ' The An- 
 tiquary," ''Old Mortality" and ''The Lady of the 
 Lake"! As I listened, I felt myself drawn nearer 
 and ever nearer to the sacred presence of a great 
 benefactor; to the presence of that wonderful man, 
 who, next to Shakespeare, has, during all my life, been 
 to me the most bountiful giver of cheer and strength 
 and hope and happy hours. To you, my hearers, for- 
 tunate children of the Lotos flower, within the twenty- 
 six years of your club life, has fallen the golden op- 
 
192 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 portunity of personal communion with some of the 
 foremost men, whether of action or of thought, who 
 have arisen to guide and illumine the age— Froude, 
 who so royally depicted the pageantry and pathos of 
 the Past; Grant, who so superbly led the warrior le- 
 gions of the Present; Charles Kingsley, with his deep 
 and touching voice of humanity; Wilkie Collins, with 
 his magic wand of mystery and his weird note of ro- 
 mance; Oliver Wendell Holmes, the modern Theocri- 
 tus, the most comforting of philosophers ; Mark Twain, 
 true and tender heart and first humorist of the age; 
 and Henry Irving, noble gentleman and prince of 
 actors. Those bright names, and many more, will rise 
 in your glad remembrance ; and I know you will agree 
 that, in every case, when the generous mind pays its 
 homage to the worth of a great man, the impulse is 
 not that of adulation, but that of gratitude. Such is 
 the feeling of this hour, when now you are assembled 
 to honor the author of the ''Bonnie Brier Bush," the 
 most exquisite literary artist, in the vein of mingled 
 humor and pathos, who has risen in Scotland since the 
 age when Sir Walter Scott,— out of the munificence 
 of his fertile genius,— created Wamba the Jester, Cud- 
 die Headrigg, Caleb Balderstone, Dugald Dalgetty, 
 Dominie Sampson, and Jeannie Deans. 
 
 There are two principles of art, or canons of criti- 
 cism, call them what you will, to which my allegiance 
 is irrevocably plighted: that it is ahvays best to show 
 to mankind the things which are to be emulated, 
 rather than the things which are to be shunned, and 
 (since the moral element, whether as morality or im- 
 morality, is present in all things, perpetually obvious. 
 
WILLIAM WINTER 193 
 
 and always able to take care of itself) that no work 
 of art should have an avowed moral. Those princi- 
 ples are conspicuously illustrated in the writings of 
 Dr. Watson. Without didacticism they teach, and 
 without effort they charm. Their strength is elemen- 
 tal; their stroke is no less swift than sure,— like the 
 scimetar of Saladin, which, with one sudden waft 
 of the strong and skilful hand, could shear in twain the 
 scarf of silk or the cushion of down. Dr. Watson has 
 himself told you that ^'we cannot analyze a spiritual 
 fact. ' ' We all know that the spirit of his art is noble, 
 and that its influence is tender and sweet. We all 
 know that it has, again and again, suddenly, and at 
 the same instant, brought the smile to our lips and the 
 tears into our eyes. I cannot designate its secret. I 
 suppose it to be the same inaccessible charm of truth 
 that hallows the simple words of the dying Lear: 
 
 ^' Pray you undo this button : Thank you, sir ; " 
 
 the same ineffable pathos that is in the death speech 
 of Brutus: 
 
 ^' Night hangs upon mine eyes -, my bones would rest, 
 That have but labour'd to attain this hour -, " 
 
 the same voice of patient grief that breathes in the 
 touching farewell of Cassius: 
 
 ^' Time is come round, 
 And where I did begin there shaU I end— 
 My life is run his compass ; " 
 
 13 
 
194 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 the same woeful sense and utterance of human misery 
 that thrills through the wonderful words of Timon: 
 
 ^' My long sickness 
 Of health and living now begins to mend, 
 And nothing brings me all things ; " 
 
 the same exquisite flow^ of feeling that is in the lilt of 
 Burns, when he sings of the Jacobite cavalier ; 
 
 " He turned him right and round about 
 Upon the Irish shore ; 
 And gave his bridle reins a shake 
 With adieu for evermore, my dear, 
 And adieu for evermore." 
 
 I remember that magic touch in some of the poems 
 of Richard Henry Stoddard, and in some of the stories 
 — the matchless American stories— of Bret Harte. I 
 recognize it in the sad talk of poor old Bows, the 
 fiddler, when, in the night, upon the bridge at Chat- 
 teris, he speaks to the infatuated Pendennis about the 
 heartless and brainless actress to whom they both are 
 devoted, and drops the stump of his cigar into the 
 dark water below. I feel it in that solemn moment 
 when, as the tolling bell of the Charterhouse chapel 
 calls him for the last time to prayer, the finest gentle- 
 man in all fiction answers to his name and stands in 
 the presence of the Master: and I say that there is 
 but one step from the death-bed of Colonel Newcome 
 to the death-bed of William Maclure. 
 
 Through all that is finest and most precious in litera- 
 ture, like the King's Yarn in the cables of the old 
 
WILLIAM WINTER 195 
 
 British navy, runs that lovely note of poetry and 
 pathos. So, from age to age, the never-dying torch 
 of genius is passed from hand to hand. When Rob- 
 ert Burns died, in 1796, it might have been thought 
 that the authentic voice of poetry had been hushed 
 forever; but, even then, a boy was playing on the 
 banks of the Dee, whose song of passion and of grief 
 would one day convulse the world; and the name of 
 him was Byron. In that year of fatality, 1832, when 
 Crabbe and Scott and Goethe died, and when the ob- 
 server could not but remember that Keats and Shelley 
 and Byron were also gone, it might again have been 
 thought that genius had taken its final flight to Hea- 
 ven; but, even then, among the pleasant plains of 
 Lincolnshire, the young Tennyson was ripening for 
 the glory that was to come. And now, when we look 
 around us, and see, in England, such writers as Black- 
 more, Thomas Hardy, and Rudyard Kipling, and, in 
 Scotland, such writers as John Watson, and Barrie, 
 and William Black, and Crockett, I think that we may 
 feel— much as we reverence the genius of Dickens and 
 Thackeray and George Eliot, and much as we deplore 
 their loss— that the time of acute mourning for those 
 great leaders has come to an end. 
 
 Nor am I surprised that the present awakening of 
 poetry, passion, and pathos in literature has come 
 from Scotland. When, on a windy Sabbath day of 
 cloud and sunshine, I have stood upon the old Calton 
 hill, and, under a blue and black sky, seen the white 
 smoke from a thousand chimneys drifting over the 
 gray city of Edinburgh; when from the breezy, fra- 
 grant Braid Hills I have gazed out over the crystal 
 
196 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 Forth, "whose islands on its bosom lie, like emeralds 
 chased with gold"; when from the gloomy height of 
 the Necropolis I have looked across to ancient Glas- 
 gow and the gaunt and grim Cathedral of Rob Roy; 
 when I have seen Dumbarton rock burst through the 
 mountainous mist and frown upon the sparkling Clyde ; 
 when, from the slopes of Ben Cruachan, I have watched 
 the sunset shadows darkening in the dim valleys of 
 Glen Strae ; when, just before the dawn, I have paused 
 beside the haunted Cona, and looked up at the cold 
 stars watching over the black chasms of Glencoe; and 
 when, at midnight, I have stood alone in the broken 
 and ruined Cathedral of lona, and heard only the 
 ghostly fluttering of the rooks and the murmuring 
 surges of the desolate sea, I have not wondered that 
 Scotland has all the poetry, and that deep in the heart 
 of every true Scotchman there is a chord that trembles 
 not alone to the immortal melodies of Burns and Scott, 
 but to the eternal harmonies of Nature and of God. 
 There may be countries that are more romantic and 
 more poetical. I have not seen them; and as I think 
 of Scotland I echo the beautiful words of Burns : 
 
 '"'' Still o'er the scene my mem'ry wakes, 
 And fondly broods with miser care ; 
 Time but th' impression deeper makes, 
 As streams their channels deeper wear." 
 
 I propose this sentiment: Scotland, its glories, its 
 memories, its beauties, and its loves: and I will close 
 this address with some verses of mine, expressive of 
 the feeling with which I parted from the most sacred 
 of Scottish shrines : 
 
WILLIAM WINTER 197 
 
 FAREWELL TO lONA i 
 
 Shrined among their crystal seas — 
 Thus I saw the Hebrides : 
 
 All the land with verdure dight ; 
 All the heavens flushed with light ; 
 
 Purple jewels 'neath the tide ; 
 Hill and meadow glorified j 
 
 Beasts at ease and birds in air ; 
 Life and beauty everywhere ! 
 
 Shrined amid their crystal seas — 
 Thus I saw the Hebrides. 
 
 II 
 
 Fading in the sunset smile — 
 Thus I left the Holy Isle; 
 
 Saw it slowly fade away, 
 Through the mist of parting day ; 
 
 Saw its ruins, grim and old, 
 And its bastions, bathed in gold, 
 
 Rifted crag and snowy beach, 
 
 Where the sea-gulls swoop and screech, 
 
 1 Copyriglit by the Macmillan Company, of New York. 
 13* 
 
198 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 Vanish, and the shadows fall, 
 To the lonely curlew's call. 
 
 Fading in the sunset smile — 
 Thus I left the Holy Isle. 
 
 Ill 
 
 As Columba, old and ill, 
 Mounted on the sacred hill, 
 
 Raising: hands of faith and prayer. 
 Breathed his benediction there, — 
 
 Stricken with its solemn grace — 
 Thus my spirit blessed the place : 
 
 O'er it while the ages range, 
 
 Time be blind and work no change ! 
 
 On its plenty be increase ! 
 On its homes perpetual peace ! 
 
 While around its lonely shore 
 Wild winds rave and breakers roar. 
 
 Round its blazing hearths be blent 
 Virtue, comfort, and content ! 
 
 On its beauty, passing all, 
 
 Ne'er may blight nor shadow fall ! 
 
 Ne'er may vandal foot intrude 
 On its sacred solitude ! 
 
WILLIAM WINTER 199 
 
 May its ancient fame remain 
 Glorious, and without a stain j 
 
 And the hope that ne'er departs, 
 Live within its loving hearts ! 
 
 IV 
 
 Slowly fades the sunset light, 
 Slowly round me falls the night : 
 
 G-one the Isle, and distant far 
 All its loves and glories are : 
 
 Yet forever, in my mind. 
 
 Still will sigh the wand'ring wind 
 
 And the music of the seas, 
 Mid the lonely Hebrides. 
 
HOEACE PORTER 
 
 AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, JANUARY 9, 1897 
 
 THEEE is sometimes doubt as to whether there is 
 more pleasure regarding a dinner in realization 
 or in anticipation. Some think that it is better not 
 to give the man the dinner and have people going 
 about saying, ''Why don't they give him a dinner?" 
 than to have the dinner given to him and then have 
 people going about saying, ''Why did you give him a 
 dinner?" But having tasted the enjoyment thus far 
 this evening, I shall always cast my vote in favor of 
 realization and against anticipation. 
 
 You have made things easy for me to-night, sup- 
 plied me with everything, made it just as easy for me 
 as it was made easy for a man in Texas. I found, 
 when I was visiting there two months ago, a fellow 
 was going around who said : "I 've struck a big thing 
 here. ' ' People said to him : ' ' What 's the matter with 
 you?" "Why," said he, "I was sent down here by a 
 temperance society from Kansas as a reporter to dis- 
 tribute tracts; every time I give a Texas man a tract 
 he looks it over, hauls out a six-shooter from one hip 
 pocket and a quart bottle of whisky from the other 
 and says : 'You drink some of that P. D. Q. or my gun 
 will go off.' I have n't had to pay for a drop of 
 liquor since I 've been distributing these tracts." 
 
 200 
 
HORACE PORTER 201 
 
 Your president has treated me very handsomely to- 
 night. The only moment in which I did n't like him 
 was when he cast his eyes toward me and seemed to 
 say, in the language of Menenius: '* Therefore I '11 
 watch him till he be dined to my request, and then I '11 
 set upon him. ' ' 
 
 I am always glad to listen to our distinguished 
 president, for I know him for his great brilliancy after 
 dinner and his thorough knowledge of the needs of this 
 club. His zeal in the work and his affection for the 
 association have enabled him to do more than any other 
 man in elevating it to its present exalted position in 
 the great family of New York clubs. 
 
 He has just filled me full of his encomiums. The 
 only fear is that I cannot get away with them all. 
 Some of them might leak out, and I should be in the 
 condition of Mark Twain when he made his celebrated 
 visit to Niagara and walked in under the falls. He 
 said that he got scared and called to his guide, and 
 in opening his mouth to do so he thought he took in 
 about three fourths of that famous cataract. Then he 
 remarked: ''For me it was an anxious and a perilous 
 moment. I knew if I should spring a leak I 'd be 
 lost." 
 
 My embarrassment to-night lies in the fact that you 
 have not given me a toast. When my friend Dr. 
 Van Dyke is going to preach he must have a text. 
 Why should n 't we have a toast ? Before I get through 
 you will probably be saying, as Johnson said to Bos- 
 well: "You seem to have nobody to talk about except 
 yourself and me, and I 'm sick of both. ' ' 
 
 The easiest thing for me would be to spring on 
 
202 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 you one of my old campaign speeches. I know them 
 all by heart, and could, of course, introduce slight 
 changes to bring the thing up to date to suit the occa- 
 sion. But I might get into the condition of a Scotch- 
 man who was riding on the road that runs from Perth 
 to Inverness. He had his ticket in his mouth, chewing 
 it. A friend said to him: ^' Sandy, you are getting 
 mighty extravagant; that ticket cost you twelve and 
 sixpence." "Nay, mon," replied Sandy. ''It is a 
 limited ticket, and I 'm only sucking off the date. ' * 
 
 You have dined all the great men of this country 
 and from abroad. About the only man you did n't get 
 hold of was Li Hung Chang. I wanted him to come 
 here. If you had got him down into the coal-hole and 
 opened an opium joint down there, he would have been 
 robbed of his yellow jacket and his peacock feathers 
 earlier in the season than is usual. Not finding him 
 at the Lotos Club, I went to see him at his hotel. I 
 asked him for a photograph for my little girl, and he 
 got the photograph out and got his paint-pot and his 
 pencil, holding it as a drummer holds a drumstick, and 
 he worked along from right to left, up and down, 
 until he covered it all over with hieroglyphics. He 
 said— I took his word for it— that on the left-hand side 
 was a list of his titles, and on the other side a list of 
 the public positions he had held. I took it home, look- 
 ing as if I had torn something off the end of a tea- 
 chest. My little girl looked it over curiously. I said 
 to her: ''Here, there 's what you wanted. If you 
 can't read it, probably you can play it on the piano." 
 
 But I have reason to feel grateful to this club. 
 When I came here, a stranger among you, you took me 
 
HORACE PORTER 203 
 
 in and shortly afterward you elected me second vice- 
 president of the club. The only reason for this was 
 that there was no provision in the by-laws for a third 
 vice-president. But what I really like about the Lotos 
 Club is the good-fellowship that always prevails here. 
 Here we always have the true comrade's touch of the 
 elbow and the shoulder to shoulder contact. ''Here/' 
 in the language of the redoubtable Richard Chevalier, 
 "is the spot that proves most acceptable to the choice 
 few.'' Here men meet on common ground, without 
 regard to nationality, creed, or avocation. Why, here 
 the moose-slayer of the North meets the alligator- 
 pursuer of the South; here the man who spends his 
 days in tobogganing meets the man who spends his 
 nights in coon-hunting ; here the Atlantic-coaster, with 
 a stereotyped look on his face, meets the stalwart man 
 from the mighty West, who has just crawled out of a 
 cyclone cage; here the pursuer and the pursued sit 
 down together in that form of original sin put up in 
 quart bottles with labels on them. 
 
 And now I want to say here in this presence to-night 
 that in all the welcomes you have given to me from 
 time to time in this club, the good-fellowship extended 
 to me has touched my heart in its inmost depths, and 
 I want here to make my most profound acknowledg- 
 ment and to express my deepest sense of gratitude 
 and appreciation. I shall carry these recollections 
 with me as one of the pleasantest memories of life, as 
 long as life lasts; and when the span of life is ap- 
 proaching its end, when we find our bended forms 
 crouching within the shadow of the falling columns of 
 life's decay, I know that I, for one, shall find myself 
 
204 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 indulging in those reveries which are the joyous twi- 
 light of the soul. And when, in the Yuletide season, 
 sitting by the hearth fire, I shall watch the droppings 
 of the grains of sand in Time's great hour-glass and 
 count all the brilliant memories of the past, I shall see 
 reflected in the flame of the Yule log all the faces that 
 have ever looked into mine here. It will recall the 
 men with whom I have communed heart to heart and 
 soul to soul. Some of them may have their bosoms 
 pressed beneath the sods of distant valleys; some of 
 them may be in the ocean's depths; some gathered to 
 the family tomb; others remaining, not yet having 
 joined the other living commonly called the dead: but 
 all their faces will pass in review there, and I know I 
 shall find myself whispering : * * I cannot but remember 
 such things were, and were most precious to me." 
 
HENEY VAN DYKE 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO HORACE PORTER, JANUARY 9, 1897 
 
 IT seems a little singular that a man of peace should 
 be called upon to speak at a dinner which is given 
 to a man of war. I will confess that I do not feel like a 
 stranger in this most hospitable and friendly and open- 
 hearted of New York clubs— the Lotos. I remember 
 the kindly welcome which you gave me here a year ago, 
 when I had the honor of coming to pay the respects of 
 the clergy to such an actor as Mr. Joseph Jefferson. 
 And yet, when I look on this title-page, with its blaz- 
 onry of bayonets and drums and cannon, and when I 
 read the somewhat unpronounceable list of General 
 Porter's early works, I find myself in the position of a 
 predecessor in the clerical profession on the occasion of 
 a memorable excursion, when the whale did the fishing 
 and Jonah said, ''I can't help feeling a little out of 
 place. ' ' 
 
 My honorable friend General Porter alluded to the 
 fact that gentlemen of my profession always speak 
 from a text. Tha.t was the old way. General. At pres- 
 ent they sometimes speak from a moral example, and 
 sometimes from an awful warning. It must be con- 
 fessed that the men of peace do sometimes show a most 
 unaccountable liking for war. I remember a story 
 
 205 
 
206 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 which was not told by Dr. Watson when he was here in 
 this country— a Scotch story. In Scotland, you know, 
 among the Highlanders it is quite customary for the 
 dogs to go to church with their masters. Well, the 
 minister of a certain church had a very fine and large 
 and well-instructed collie, which was quite able to main- 
 tain any position that he thought it proper to assume 
 in debate with heretical dogs. He was willing to con- 
 cede the orthodoxy of most dogs on ordinary occasions ; 
 but on one occasion the wrong dog came into the church, 
 and the minister's dog thought it proper to settle im- 
 mediately the question of that dog's orthodoxy. The 
 minister endured it as long as he could, until he thought 
 I it was n't going quite the right way; then he said to 
 ' the owner of the other dog: "Donald, ta' the two tykes 
 to the rear of the Mrk. But I 'd have ye to under- 
 stand, ma freends, that, ootside o' the sacred precincts 
 of the sanctuary, ma doggie can whup any doggie in 
 Scotland." 
 
 There was a friend of mine who always told me I 
 had made the mistake of my life in not going into the 
 cavalry service. This friend was a writer of fiction, and 
 his opinion was not based upon my powers as a cavalry- 
 man, but purely upon his observation of my practice as 
 a preacher. 
 
 And yet, Mr. President, I may as well own up at 
 once that there is no man in the world for whom 
 I have a higher admiration or respect than I have 
 for a brave, true, loyal, honest, clean soldier, such as 
 General Porter— a man who has proved his courage on 
 the field of battle, and his temperance by not drawing 
 a pension, and his versatility by bringing back prob- 
 
HENRY VAN DYKE 207 
 
 ably a larger stock of war stories than any other man 
 now in the United States. Now, there are, you know, 
 three kinds of stories in the world— fish stories, war 
 stories, and true stories. I never hear General Porter 
 break loose without being reminded of my guide in 
 the northern part of Maine. He told me a story once 
 about a moose. I said: ''That 's a splendid story." 
 "That 's nothin'!" said he; ''you ought to hear old 
 Bill Masterman tell moose-stories— some of 'em true, 
 too." 
 
 I think we should not forget, in doing honor to Gen- 
 eral Porter, that he has not only proved that a true and 
 right-thinking and conscientious and God-fearing man 
 can be a good and brave soldier, but he has also proved 
 that a brave soldier can turn around and become the 
 very best kind of a citizen. 
 
 I sympathize very fully with what General Ruger 
 has said to-night about the army and about the posi- 
 tion which it ought to hold in the esteem and the love 
 of all citizens of the Republic. A great republic like 
 ours must be in a position where she will be able to 
 defend the right when questions of right arise between 
 nations— mi^s^ be in such a position. But I think at 
 the same time that no standing army that we could pos- 
 sibly raise, or equip, or support would be of as great 
 value to this country in defense of its own rights and 
 in the defense of right among the nations, as a true 
 martial spirit among all its citizens— a spirit which 
 holds itself ready to serve at every high and noble call 
 of duty for the sake of the flag and the country, and 
 the country's honor; a spirit which is fostered and de- 
 veloped by the drill and discipline of voluntary militia 
 
208 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 service among our young men— a spirit which found a 
 peaceful expression, not long since, in that great and 
 memorable procession, orderly, obedient, and splendid, 
 which passed for one whole day through the streets 
 of this metropolis under the marshalship of General 
 Horace Porter. 
 
CHAELES EMOEY SMITH 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO HORACE PORTER, JANUARY 9, 1897 
 
 IT is true that I come from the City of Brotherly 
 Love. Coming from that unsophisticated, virtuous, 
 and innocent region, I nevertheless have approached 
 these precincts without any misgivings; for, knowing 
 the high character of this club, I have felt assured, not- 
 withstanding what I have recently read, that in com- 
 ing here to-night I should not, with the figure of Por- 
 ter, meet also a study of Egyptology, And if I had felt 
 any misgivings on the subject I should have been reas- 
 sured when I entered the room and found among the 
 first that I met and greeted the distinguished Police 
 Commissioner of New York, whom you had taken the 
 precaution to have present from the beginning of the 
 entertainment. 
 
 I have indeed, as your president has suggested, en- 
 joyed on former occasions the hospitality of the Lotos 
 Club. It is abundant. Charles Lamb had a friend of 
 whom he said: "He had the habit of taking gin and 
 water, goblet on goblet. He sent down the first gob- 
 let on a tour of observation, and then he sent down 
 the second to see where the first had gone. After that 
 he sent down the third to keep company with the 
 second ; then he sent down the fourth to let them know 
 down there that the fifth was coming, and he next 
 
 u 209 
 
210 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 sent the fifth to proclaim that it was very far from 
 being the last. ' ' 
 
 The hospitality of the Lotos Club is as boundless as 
 the thirst of Charles Lamb's friend. Its public spirit 
 never flags; it is the foremost to give its tribute to 
 literature, to art, to science and the drama, to leader- 
 ship in every realm. I know I am only saying what 
 has doubtless often been said here, and much better 
 said, but as I am not one of you, as I am not even a 
 New-Yorker, as I come from an interior city, but am 
 an American citizen, solicitous of the good name of my 
 country and the impression which it makes upon those 
 who come within its borders, I want to say that I am 
 proud of the Lotos Club and what it does for our na- 
 tional reputation. It does, as I know from the observa- 
 tion of years, more than any other organization in this 
 land to show to science in every realm the sunny side, 
 the appreciative recognition, and the graceful homage 
 of true American intellectual life. The foreigner of 
 distinction who comes to our shores finds the first prof- 
 fered hand and the first public voice of welcome here ; 
 and it is fortunate for our national reputation that 
 those who do so much to make the public opinion of 
 the world receive their first impressions within these 
 beautiful, homelike walls and amid these bright and— 
 I am sure you will permit me to say, as I look into 
 your eyes and observe your spirit to-night— amid these 
 gay and genial spirits assembled here. And this Clov— 
 I mean Lotos Club— you see I cannot conceal that I 
 come from Philadelphia. But the clover leaf is one 
 thing and the lotos leaf is another thing. Every star 
 has its own glory, and there is no star like the star 
 
CHARLES EMORY SMITH 211 
 
 of the Lotos Club. This club is as quick to appreciate 
 and recognize American genius as foreign genius. 
 When Dr. Clark of Rhode Island was elected bishop 
 and was paying his last pastoral calls before enter- 
 ing upon his bishopric, he visited, among others, a 
 lady of his congregation, a good housewife, who was 
 distinguished for the size of her family. After he had 
 stayed awhile the good doctor rose to go, and the lady 
 said to him: "But, doctor, you have n't seen my last 
 baby, have you?" ''No, madam," answered the doc- 
 tor, ' ' and I never expect to. ' ' And this club, Mr. Pres- 
 ident, with its hospitality to genius and leadership, 
 will never see the last worthy in the memorable row of 
 those who wear the lotos garlands, unless succeeding 
 years shall become sterile and no longer bring out lead- 
 ers and masters in the various realms. 
 
 I am glad to be here to join in this tribute to Gen- 
 eral Porter. I am glad to come from Philadelphia for 
 that express purpose. He has gone to Philadelphia on 
 more than one occasion to render great and honorable 
 service, and I am glad to give him a certificate of char- 
 acter, if not from his last place, at least from one of 
 them. And I don't mean to say anything to his face 
 that I would not dare to say behind his back. He has 
 won his great place in public leadership and public 
 esteem by the union of brilliancy and sense and by 
 rare and extraordinary capacity for doing everything 
 well. You call him Porter, but he has the life and 
 vivacity and sparkle of champagne. He came origi- 
 nally from Pennsylvania, but he has never been slow. 
 On the contrary, he has been fast enough— I use the 
 word in no technical New York sense— to keep in ad- 
 
212 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 vance of the stirring life of this great metropolis. You 
 think of him and recognize him as the prince of after- 
 dinner speakers, and he has given you to-night a 
 magnificent display of the scintillation of wit and the 
 poetic description and the apt story, always inexhaust- 
 ible. But those of you who have heard him on more 
 serious occasions know that he has also the power of 
 philosophical and analytical and critical, nay, more, of 
 impassioned eloquence which commands the highest 
 admiration. 
 
 Your gniest was the student of General Grant. He 
 came forward under that glorious flag, and he hgts 
 achieved a success brilliant, comprehensive, extraordi- 
 nary; and in such works as the erection of that great 
 tomb, after others had thrown aside the task, he has 
 illustrated that indomitable energy, that persever- 
 ance, that power of organization, and that genius of 
 leadership which distinguish him and which you are 
 here to-night to recognize. And underlying it all is 
 that true and steadfast quality of manhood which has 
 always characterized him. He is eloquent; he is pow- 
 erful ; but you remember that saying of the old master : 
 '*The weight and value of a sentiment depend upon 
 whether there is a man behind it.'' And in all the 
 utterances of this man, so modest and unobtrusive as 
 to himself, so generous and hearty in his recognition 
 of merit in everybody else, you have always seen re- 
 vealed the truest and best traits of manhood. 
 
STEWART L. WOODFORD 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO HORACE PORTER, JANUARY 9, 1897 
 
 AFTER these many brilliant speeches my words shall 
 J\. be very few. We are met to do honor to my old 
 army comrade, to our friend Horace Porter. I first 
 heard of Horace Porter when I went to the Department 
 of the South. While in service there as chief of staff 
 I heard of an ordnance officer who was regarded by 
 every man in that department as singularly prolific of 
 brilliant achievements in engineering, and as one of the 
 finest artillery officers that the Department of the South 
 had known. I first saw Horace Porter when the war 
 had closed and he was acting as secretary to General 
 Grant. I soon came to know how thoroughly Ulysses 
 S. Grant trusted in his judgment, relied upon his in- 
 tegrity, and believed in his assured future. 
 
 It has been suggested by our friend Mr. Hewitt that 
 General Porter has not received all the recognition that 
 is due to him from New York. In political preferment, 
 no; in social recognition, yes. In profound and thor- 
 ough acknowledgment and appreciation of his worth as 
 a man and citizen, Horace Porter to-day is one of the 
 honored names of this great city of New York. You 
 and I owe to him a debt that we shall recognize in years 
 to come, and which we ought to recognize while he is 
 with us. After our old hero, succumbing to the last 
 
 14* 213 
 
214 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 enemy, had been buried at Riverside, and after New 
 York had lingered and delayed in providing a fit 
 monument, the credit and gratitude are due to Horace 
 Porter, more than to one and all of the men of New 
 York, that the remains of Ulysses S. Grant are to be 
 buried by the Hudson in a mausoleum that shall be 
 worthy of the great captain, and that shall stand for- 
 ever as an object lesson in patriotism. And when 
 the next springtime shall come and that tomb is com- 
 pleted and the ashes of our great hero shall be trans- 
 ferred to their final resting-place; when the flag of 
 every nation in the world shall come into our harbor 
 to dip its salute to his memory; when in peaceful uni- 
 son the guns of the world on that next birthday shall 
 speak their tribute to the memory of Ulysses S. Grant, 
 it will be under General Porter's direction, as Presi- 
 dent of our Monument Association, that the transfer 
 will be made. And if at such an hour the spirit of 
 the dead can come back from its place of final blessed- 
 ness, I believe that no thought will stir in that spirit 
 of our dead soldier more grateful than this: ''My old 
 aide-de-camp and my old secretary to-day gives me 
 burial here by the Hudson, in the heart of our people. ' ' 
 Grant, with us, will thus pay recognition to our friend 
 whom we greet to-night. 
 
WILLIAM WINTEE 
 
 AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, APRIL 24, 1897 i 
 
 THE meaning and the elements of this charming 
 spectacle,— the lights, the jiowers, the music, the 
 gentle, eager, friendly faces, the kind and generous 
 words which have been so graciously spoken, the cor- 
 dial sympathy and welcome with which those words 
 have been received, the many denotements, unequiv- 
 ocal and decisive, of personal good will,— are as touch- 
 ing to the heart as they are lovely to the senses, and 
 a fond and proud remembrance of this beautiful scene 
 will abide with me as long as anything in my life is 
 remembered. 
 
 On previous occasions when I have been privileged 
 to participate in festivals of the Lotos Club it has been 
 my glad province to unite in homage to others: on 
 the present occasion I am to thank you,— and I do 
 thank you, most heartily,— for a tribute of friendship 
 to myself. Gratitude is easy; but an adequate ex- 
 pression of it, under the circumstances which exist, is 
 well-nigh impossible. The Moslems have a fanciful be- 
 lief that the souls of the Faithful, just before they enter 
 into Paradise, must walk, barefooted, across a bridge 
 of red-hot iron. That ordeal not inaptly typifies the 
 
 1 Copyright, 1898, by William Winter. 
 215 
 
216 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 experience of the honored guest who, at a feast like 
 this, is bidden to consider his merits, must hear the 
 commendation of his deeds, and must utter his thanks 
 for the bounty of praise. My first impulse would be 
 to declare that I have done nothing to merit this honor : 
 but, without qualification, to disclaim all desert would 
 be to impugn your judgment and discredit your kind- 
 ness. The great and wise Dr. Johnson, I remember, 
 did not scruple to accept the praises of his sovereign. 
 ^'When the King had said it," he afterward remarked, 
 *'it was to be so." My literary life,— dating from the 
 publication of my first book, in Boston, in 1854,— has 
 extended over a period of forty-three years, thirty- 
 seven of which have been passed, in active labor, in 
 this community. Since 1865 I have been the accred- 
 ited and responsible representative of ''The New- York 
 Tribune" in the department of the Drama. In the 
 dramatic field, and also in the fields of Poetry, Essay, 
 Biography, and Travel, I have put forth my endeavors, 
 striving to add something of permanent value to the 
 literature of my native land. No one knows so well as 
 I do my failures and my defects. But,— I have tried 
 to follow the right course; I have done my best; and 
 now, in the review of that long period of labor, if you, 
 my friends, find anything that is worthy of approval, 
 anything that seems, in your eyes, to justify such a 
 testimonial as this, it would ill become me to repel an 
 approbation which it is honorable to possess, and which 
 I have labored and hoped to deserve. When the King 
 has said it, it is to be so ! 
 
 While, however, I gratefully accept and deeply value 
 the honor that you have bestowed, I feel that you 
 
WILLIAM WINTER 217 
 
 have intended something much more important and 
 significant than a compliment to me. You have de- 
 sired to effect a rally of stage veterans and of the 
 friends of the stage, and, at a time of theatrical de- 
 pression, when the fortunes of the actor seem dubious 
 and perplexed, to evince, once more, your practical 
 admiration for the great art of acting, your high es- 
 teem for the stage as a means of social welfare, and 
 your sympathy with every intellectual force that is 
 arrayed for its support. The drift of your thought, 
 therefore, naturally, is toward a consideration of the 
 relation between the theater and society, together with 
 the province of those writers by whom that relation is 
 habitually discussed. It is a wide subject, and one 
 upon which there are many and sharply contrasted 
 views. For my own part, I have always believed— 
 of all the arts— that they are divinely commissioned 
 to lead humanity, and not to follow it, and that it is 
 the supreme duty of a writer to advocate, and to ex- 
 ercise, a noble influence, rather than much to concern 
 himself with the delivery of expert opinions upon indi- 
 vidual achievement. The right principle is expressed 
 in the quaint words of Emerson : 
 
 *' I hold it a little matter 
 Whether your jewel be of pure water, 
 A rose diamond or a white, 
 But whether it dazzle me with light." 
 
 The essential thing is the inspiration that is fluent 
 from a great personality. The passport to momentous 
 and permanent victory, whether on the stage or off, is 
 
218 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 the salutary and ennobling strength of splendid char- 
 acter. It is not enough that you possess ability; your 
 ability must mean something to others, and the world 
 must be exalted by it. 
 
 Many images crowd upon the mind at such a mo- 
 ment as this, and many names are remembered which 
 it would be good to mention and pleasant to hear. 
 My thoughts go back to my young acquaintance with 
 such stage advocates as Epes Sargent and Edwin 
 Percy Whipple, Henry Giles and William W. Clapp, 
 Wallace Thaxter and Charles T. Congdon, Francis A. 
 Durivage, Charles Fairbanks, Curtis Guild, and James 
 Oakes (the friend of Forrest) ; and, as I think of 
 them, I recall a time when Catherine Farren was the 
 Juliet of my dreams, and Julia Dean the goddess of 
 every youth's idolatry, and when the green curtain (in 
 those days it was always green) never rose except 
 upon a land of enchantment, and the roses were always 
 bright by the calm Bendemeer. Much might be said 
 of those old times, and much might be said of the crit- 
 ical art, as it was exemplified by those old writers. 
 But this is not the moment for either a memoir or an 
 essay; and, after all, experience may sometimes utter 
 in a sentence the lesson of a life. As I have said 
 elsewhere,— to understand human nature; to absorb 
 and coordinate the literature of the drama; to see the 
 mental, moral, and spiritual aspect of the stage, and 
 likewise to see the popular aspect of it ; to write for 
 a public of miscellaneous readers, and at the same time 
 to respect the feelings and interpret the ambitions of 
 actors; to praise with discretion and yet with force; 
 to censure without asperity ; to think quickly and speak 
 
WILLIAM WINTER 219 
 
 quickly, and yet avoid error; to oppose sordid selfish- 
 ness, which forever strives to degrade every high ideal ; 
 to give not alone knowledge, study, and technical skill, 
 but the best powers of the mind and the deepest feel- 
 ings of the heart to the embellishment of the art of 
 others, and to do that with an art of your own,— this 
 it is to accomplish the work of the dramatic reviewer. 
 It is a work of serious moment and incessant difficulty. 
 But it has its bright side; for, as years speed on and 
 life grows bleak and lonesome, it is the Stage that 
 gives relief from paltry conventionality; it is the 
 Stage, with its sunshine of humor and its glory of 
 imagination, that wiles us away from our defeated 
 ambitions, our waning fortunes, and the broken idols 
 of our vanishing youth. In the long process of social 
 development,— at least within the last three hundred 
 years,— no other single force has borne a more con- 
 spicuous or a more potential part. "The reason of 
 things," said Dr. South, ''lies in a small compass, if a 
 man could but find it out. ' ' The reason of the Drama 
 has never been a mystery. All life has, for its ulti- 
 mate object, a spiritual triumph. The Divine Spirit 
 works in humanity by many subtle ways. It is man's 
 instinctive, intuitive imitation of nature that creates 
 artificial objects of beauty. Those, in turn, react upon 
 the human mind and deepen and heighten its sense of 
 the beautiful. It is man's interpretation of humanity 
 that has revealed to him his Divine Father and his 
 spiritual destiny. All things work together for that 
 result,— the dramatic art deeply and directly, because, 
 when rightly administered, it is the pure mirror of all 
 that is glorious in character and all that is noble and 
 
220 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 gentle in the conduct of life; showing ever the ex- 
 cellence to be emulated and the glory to be gained, 
 soothing our cares, dispelling our troubles, and casting 
 the glamour of romantic grace upon all the common- 
 places of the world. What happy dreams it has in- 
 spired! What grand ideals it has imparted! With 
 what gentle friendships it has blessed and beautified 
 our lives ! 
 
 Moralists upon the Drama are fond of dwelling on 
 its alleged decline from certain *' palmy days" of the 
 past,— a vague period which no one distinctly remem- 
 bers or defines, and which still recedes, the more dili- 
 gently it is pursued, ' ' in the dark backward and abysm 
 of time." One difference between the Past and the 
 Present is that the stage which once lived in a camp 
 now lives in a palace. Another difference is that emi- 
 nent talents which once were concentrated are now 
 diffused. The standard of taste has fluctuated. At 
 the beginning of the century it appears to have been 
 more fastidious and more intellectual than it is now, 
 but not more so than it has two or three times been, 
 within the intervening period. In my boyhood the 
 great tragic genius of the stage was the elder Booth, 
 whom I saw as Pescara, during his last engagement 
 in Boston, in 1851,— -and a magnificent image he was, 
 of appalling power and terror. The popular sovereign, 
 however, was Edwin Forrest, and for many years his 
 influence survived, affecting the style of such com- 
 peers as Eddy, Neafie, Scott, Proctor, Kirby, and Mar- 
 shall, and more or less molding that of the romantic 
 Edwin Adams, the intellectual Lawrence Barrett, and 
 the gentle, generous, affectionate, stalwart John Mc- 
 
WILLIAM WINTER 221 
 
 Cullough, ''the noblest Eoman of them all." In com- 
 edy the prevalent tradition was that of Finn,— whom 
 I never saw, but of whom I constantly heard,— but 
 the actual prince was the elder Wallack ; and very soon 
 after he had sparkled into splendid popularity the rosy 
 gods of mirth released such messengers of happiness as 
 Warren and Gilbert, Burton and Blake, Hackett and 
 Fisher, Placide and Owens, and the buoyant John 
 Brougham, whose memory is still cherished in all our 
 hearts. A little later, — the more intellectual taste in 
 tragedy gaining a sudden preeminence, from the reac- 
 tion against Forrest,— the spiritual beauty and the 
 wild and thrilling genius of Edwin Booth enchanted 
 the public mind and captured an absolute sovereignty 
 of the serious stage; while, in comedy, the glittering 
 figure of Lester Wallack bore to the front rank, and 
 reared more splendidly than ever before, the standard 
 of Wilks, and Lewis, and Elliston, which had been pre- 
 served and transmitted by Charles Kemble, the elder 
 Wallack, and both the chieftains of the house of Mat- 
 thews. Meanwhile Murdock, Yandenhoff, E. L. Daven- 
 port, and the younger James Wallack maintained, in 
 royal state, the fine classic tradition of Kemble, Cooper, 
 Macready, and Young ; the grandeur of Sarah Siddons 
 lived again in Charlotte Cushman; and, in the realm 
 of imaginative, romantic, human drama, a more ex- 
 quisite artist of humor and of tears than ever yet had 
 risen on our stage— an artist who is to Acting what 
 Reynolds was to Painting and what Hood was to Po- 
 etry—carried natural portraiture to ideal perfection, 
 and made illustrious the name of Joseph Jefferson. 
 The stage, in itself, is not degenerate. The old fires 
 
222 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 are not yet dead. The world moves onward, and *'the 
 palmy days" move onward with the world. At this 
 moment the public taste is fickle and the public mo- 
 rality infirm; but this moment is reactionary, and of 
 course it will not last. The stage has been degraded; 
 the press has been polluted; the church has been 
 shaken; the whole fabric of society has been threat- 
 ened. The assaults of materialism, blighting faith and 
 discrediting romance, have had a temporary triumph. 
 The dangerous delusion that there is a divinity in the 
 untaught multitude has everywhere promoted disorder, 
 violence, and vulgarity. So, from time to time, the 
 dregs endeavor to reach the top. But all this fever 
 and turmoil will pass ; and, in those saner times which 
 are at hand, the Stage, as we know it and love it,— 
 the stage of Wignell and Dunlap, the stage of Keach 
 and Barry, the stage of Wallack, and Booth, and 
 Henry Irving, and Augustin Daly, the stage that, in 
 our day, has been adorned by Eachel, Ristori, Seebach, 
 Janauschek, and Modjeska, and by Adelaide Neilson 
 and Mary Anderson (twin stars of loveliness, the one 
 all passion and sorrow, the other all innocence, light, 
 and joy!), the stage that possesses the wild, poetic 
 beauty and rare, elusive, celestial spirit of Ellen Terry, 
 and the enchanting womanhood and blithe, gleeful, 
 tender human charm of Ada Rehan, the stage that 
 is consecrated to intellect, genius and beauty,— will 
 again assert its splendid power, and will again rejoice 
 in all the honors, and manifest all the inherent virtues, 
 of the stage of our forefathers, in the best of their 
 golden days. 
 But I detain you too long from voices more eloquent 
 
WILLIAM WINTER 223 
 
 than mine, and thoughts more worthy. There is little 
 more to be said. My career as an active writer about 
 the stage may, perhaps, be drawing to a close. It has 
 covered the period of more than one generation ; it has 
 been freighted with exacting responsibility ; it has been 
 inexpressibly laborious ; and its conclusion would cause 
 me no regret. I have no enmities, and if ever in my 
 life I have wounded any heart, I have done so with- 
 out intention, and I hope that my error may be for- 
 given. For the rest, I should exactly express my feel- 
 ings, if I might venture to use the words of Landor : 
 
 '^ I strove with none, for none was worth my strife -, 
 Nature I loved, and next to Nature, Art -, 
 I warmed both hands against the fire of Hf e : 
 It sinks, and I am ready to depart." 
 
 Let me close this response with some lines that I 
 have written, remembering other days and other faces, 
 now hidden behind the veil, and remembering that 
 for me also the curtain may soon fall : 
 
 MEMORY.i 
 
 A tangled garden, bleak and dry 
 And silent 'neath a dark'ning sky, 
 Is all that barren Age retains 
 Of costly Youth's superb domains. 
 Mute in its bosom, cold and lone, 
 A dial watches, on a stone ', 
 
 1 Copyright by the Macmillan Company, of New York. 
 
224 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 The vines are sere, the haggard boughs 
 In dusky torpor dream and drowse ; 
 The paths are deep with yellow leaves, 
 In which the wind of evening grieves ; 
 And up and down, and to and fro, 
 One pale gray shadow wanders slow. 
 
 II 
 
 When now the fading sunset gleams 
 Across the glimm'ring waste of dreams ; 
 When now the shadows eastward fall, 
 And twilight hears the curlew's call ; 
 When blighted now the lily shows, 
 And no more bloom is on the rose ; 
 What phantom of the dying day 
 Shall gild the wanderer's sombre way — 
 What new illusion of delight — 
 What magic, ushering in the night "? 
 For, deep beneath the proudest will 
 The heart must have its solace stiU. 
 
 m 
 
 Ah, many a hope too sweet to last 
 Is in that garden of the Past, 
 And many a flower that once was fair 
 Lies cold and dead and wither'd there ; 
 Youth's promise, trusted Friendship's bliss. 
 Fame's laurel, Love's enraptured kiss. 
 Beauty and strength — the spirit's wings — 
 And the glad sense of natural things, 
 And times that smile, and times that weep - 
 AU shrouded in the cells of sleep j 
 While o'er them careless zephyrs pass. 
 And sunbeams, in the rustling grass. 
 
WILLIAM WINTER 225 
 
 IV 
 
 So ends it all : but never yet 
 Could the true heart of love forget, 
 And grander sway was never known 
 Than his who reigns on Memory's throne ! 
 Though grim the threat and dark the frown 
 With which the pall of night comes down, 
 Though all the scene be drear and wild, 
 Life once was precious, once it smiled, 
 And in his dream he lives again 
 With ev'ry joy that crowned it then. 
 And no remorse of time can dim 
 The splendor of the Past for him ! 
 
 The sea that round his childhood played 
 
 Still makes the music once it made, 
 
 And still in Fancy's chambers sing 
 
 The breezes of eternal Spring j 
 
 While, thronging Youth's resplendent track, 
 
 The princes and the queens come back, 
 
 And everywhere the dreary mould 
 
 Breaks into Nature's green and gold ! 
 
 It is not night — or, if it be, 
 
 So let the night descend for me, 
 
 When Mem'ry's radiant dream shall cease, 
 
 Slow lapsing into perfect peace. 
 
 15 
 
ANTHONY HOPE HAWKINS 
 
 (ANTHONY HOPE) 
 AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, OCTOBER 23, 1897 
 
 I AM too well aware of the history of your club and 
 of the distinction of the guests whom you have 
 entertained before not to rise on this occasion with 
 perhaps more than the usual— shall I say trepidation or 
 discomfort?— which possesses an after-dinner speaker. 
 I have received here to-night an appreciation which 
 would be wholly delightful if I were not persistently 
 haunted with the idea that it is too excessively in- 
 dulgent. 
 
 As I crossed the Atlantic Ocean, feeling less at ease 
 than I usually do on land, an intelligent sailor came 
 up to me and told me that we were in the Gulf Stream. 
 The consolation was slight, because the Gulf Stream 
 seemed to me as turbulent as any other part of the 
 ocean. But it has occurred to me since that he spoke, 
 as it were, in a metaphor, and that what he really 
 referred to was the gulf stream that flows between 
 here and England; the gulf stream of sympathy 
 which unites the two countries, and which, unlike the 
 merely physical and uncomfortable stream, flows both 
 ways— from us to you, and from you to us. It is, in- 
 deed, in a way, strange for an Englishman to make his 
 first visit to this country. I was asked by a cynical 
 
 226 
 
ANTHONY HOPE HAWKINS 227 
 
 friend, before I started, why I was going, and he re- 
 ferred not obscurely to the hopes I entertained of pay- 
 ing my expenses. 
 
 The ancient epigram forbids us to say that it is 
 necessary to live; but I am still among those who con- 
 sider that it is desirable. I agree with the clergyman 
 in my own country who said that the Scriptures teach 
 that the laborer is worthy of his hire, but that, for his 
 part, he thought it ought to be paid free of income tax. 
 
 But that was not the sort, not exclusively the sort, 
 of American gold which was in my mind ; and if it had 
 been when I started, I should before now have found 
 out my mistake. Better than that is the gold of your 
 cordial reception, of your unstinted hospitality, of 
 your appreciation, which still sits on my heart as too 
 much undeserved. 
 
 But to come here is indeed, in the old phrase, the 
 experience of a lifetime. It has been my fate— I don't 
 know whether you will be surprised about it— to be 
 asked quite three or four times already what were my 
 impressions of America. When in quarantine I was 
 asked first, and my only impression then was that I 
 should never get here. I was asked again at the land- 
 ing, when my sole feeling was that I was very glad 
 to get here. 
 
 The question I have not yet answered. It is diffi- 
 cult to answer. One comes to a country that is unfa- 
 miliar, and yet not strange ; that is new, and yet recalls 
 every moment the things that are old ; that is familiar, 
 and yet is distinct with a separate, individual, and 
 proud nationality. 
 
 And as with your nationality, so, if I may say so. 
 
228 :SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 it seems to me with your literature. It has its roots 
 where our literature has; but new and patriotic as I 
 am, I must admit that a brighter sun has shone upon 
 it, copious rain has nourished it, it has its own fruit 
 and its own flavor, and thus it enhances and glorifies 
 the English language, in which both itself and our 
 literature, on the other side of the Atlantic, are ex- 
 pressed. 
 
 It is far from my desire to speak to you long to- 
 night, but it is impossible for me to sit down without 
 at least trying to say to you how very deeply I feel 
 the generosity and the kindness of this greeting, and 
 to say also how I have felt for years back the kindness 
 and the readiness with which the public of America 
 greets us English writers. 
 
W. BOURKE COCKRAN 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO ANTHONY HOPE HAWKINS 
 (ANTHONY HOPE), OCTOBER 23, 1897 
 
 I AM profoundly grateful to the Lotos Club for giv- 
 ing me an opportunity to participate in its wel- 
 come to the guest of the evening. Among the many 
 obligations which I owe to the late Charles A. Dana 
 I count one of the chief my introduction to Mr. An- 
 thony Hope, through the medium of the "Prisoner of 
 Zenda." Since that happy hour I have devoured 
 every product of his pen with eager avidity— but with 
 an appetite whetted, not sated. That introduction 
 opened to me a field of such pure delight that, highly 
 as I value a personal acquaintance to which I have 
 been since admitted, I cannot help identifying him still 
 by the name under which he first captured my admira- 
 tion and earned my gratitude. I hope, therefore, that 
 he will forgive me if I refer to him now by the name 
 which his genius has made illustrious, rather than by 
 that which has been made respectable by the virtues of 
 his ancestors. 
 
 As Mr. Hope's works have been a source of uni- 
 versal delight, I am glad, Mr. Chairman, that you have 
 not assigned to any of us a particular toast this even- 
 ing. Indeed, there is but one to which any of us 
 could speak. Whatever oratorical purposes we might 
 15* 229 
 
230 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 have formed, in rising to our feet one sentiment would 
 inevitably dominate all others. However the speeches 
 might differ in verbal expression, the burden of each 
 would be a wish for still wider success in the field of 
 literature to Anthony Hope. And in wishing him a 
 wider success we are wishing a wider sphere of intel- 
 lectual enjoyment to each one of us. "We are doing 
 more. We are wishing a distinct advance to English 
 literature. Standing, as he does, in the forefront of 
 literary excellence, to wish him wider success is to 
 wish that the standard of literary perfection be lifted 
 higher, and that literary ambition be advanced to 
 nobler aims. 
 
 It is no disparagement of other writers to say that 
 since the hand of Dickens fell helpless by his side no 
 one has wielded a pen of such power as Anthony 
 Hope. Many authors are producing works which 
 charm us by varied forms of merit, but none of them 
 has imparted to pages of equal pathos a sentiment so 
 lofty, a wit so keen, a humor so subtle, a literary style 
 so simple and so elegant. Since Dr. Johnson wrote 
 the lives of the poets literary discussions nearly always 
 lead to a comparison between the works of different 
 authors. I am not sure whether this is a fixed rule 
 of criticism, or an unconscious but irresistible ten- 
 dency of the critical mind: whatever it be matters 
 little, for Hope's work is so distinctively original that 
 there is no other with which it can be compared. I 
 have, indeed, heard it said that his position in the lit- 
 erature of this period resembles the place which Charles 
 Dickens occupied in the literature of another genera- 
 tion. But if there be a resemblance between Dickens 
 
W. Bourke Cockran 
 
W. BOURKE COCKRAN 231 
 
 and Hope it is limited to their popularity; it does not 
 and cannot extend to tlie style or quality of their 
 works. 
 
 If we compare the works of Hope and those of Dick- 
 ens or any other author we will not find points of 
 resemblance, but points of contrast between them. 
 Dickens's plots were always simple, his sentiment was 
 sometimes exaggerated. Hope's sentiment is always 
 natural; his plots are sometimes fantastic and perhaps 
 extravagant, but their daring originality is the crown- 
 ing triumph of his genius. Thackeray achieved and still 
 maintains his unquestioned primacy solely through a 
 brilliancy of style which holds the interest enthralled 
 through several volumes, although the incidents de- 
 scribed in them are so slight that they scarcely deserve 
 the name of a plot. Hope, on the other hand, capti- 
 vates our interest and our admiration, while he recon- 
 ciles us to plots daring almost to extravagance by 
 minute attention to detail and remarkable skill in 
 composition. But Hope differs preeminently from 
 both Dickens and Thackeray in one quality, peculiar to 
 all his work, which we who have met him to-night can 
 fully appreciate, and that is a singular modesty which 
 completely effaces the author. 
 
 Dickens, whatever may be thought of his style or his 
 sentiment, was unquestionably triumphant in produc- 
 ing characters so eccentric, so striking, yet so natural, 
 that they have come to be regarded as personal ac- 
 quaintances by millions of human beings, but Dick- 
 ens's work is marred by digressions which in no way 
 aid his narrative, but leave us under the impression 
 that he was seeking to show how well he could 
 
232 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 write. Thackeray had this habit even in more marked 
 degree, although with him it was a charm, not a blem- 
 ish, so perfectly did he succeed in giving his reader 
 the impression that if he paused to talk with him it 
 was because he liked him. Hope's work does not con- 
 tain a superfluous sentence or one which anybody could 
 suspect of having been inserted merely for the purpose 
 of ornamentation. Not once is there an attempt at dis- 
 play, even by that trick, so common to authors, of un- 
 dertaking to describe natural scenery or to amplify 
 by moral reflections the movements of characters. 
 Every word contributes to the progress of the narra- 
 tive, and it is always the best word for that purpose. 
 Never for a single instant is the personality of the 
 writer obtruded upon the attention of the reader. 
 
 To measure the praise which one writer deserves it 
 is not necessary to belittle other authors. Dickens and 
 Thackeray each occupies a field and dominates it, to 
 the exclusion of all rivals. Anthony Hope, with a style 
 different from both, has a charm which is peculiarly 
 his own. In one respect his art is carried to a perfec- 
 tion that neither of them ever reached. No writer of 
 the century has been able so completely to capture our 
 judgments and bind them to the chariot wheels of his 
 imagination as it speeds through the wildest realms of 
 fancy. Even Swift, bending our senses to the empire 
 of his genius, forcing us by veri-similitude of detail 
 to accept as inhabitants of this terrestrial globe the 
 Lilliputians and the Brobdingnagians, the philosophers 
 of Laputa and the equine moralists of the Houyhnhnms, 
 was not more triumphant than Anthony Hope in build- 
 ing a twelfth-century romance among the social and 
 
W. BOURKE COCKRAN 233 
 
 material conditions of the nineteenth century without 
 once offending our sense of proportion. 
 
 The ''Prisoner of Zenda" moves among incidents as 
 stirring as those which attended Ivanhoe's return to 
 England, but one work is built purely on imagination, 
 while the other rests on a solid foundation of his- 
 tory. Scott's narrative is aided by customs, habits of 
 thought, means of locomotion, and weapons of warfare 
 peculiar to a period when every man's safety, progress, 
 and success depended almost entirely upon his own 
 prowess and qualities. Hope succeeds in carrying his 
 hero through scenes as thrilling and exciting, display- 
 ing even in more marked degree the results of indi- 
 vidual strength and the resources of individual cour- 
 age, within sight of the railway train, the telegraph, 
 and other appliances of modern civilization which, 
 while they extend enormously the power of men in 
 cooperation, narrow decisively the field of individual 
 adventure. When fleetness of foot or excellence in 
 horsemanship could carry a man to safety from all 
 pursuit of private vengeance or public justice, when 
 skill and the sword enabled one man to hold numbers at 
 bay, it was easy for imaginative writers to endow an 
 individual with qualities which made him capable of 
 withstanding the hostility of a monarch or the fury of 
 a multitude. But in an age when no fleetness of horse 
 or human feet can outspeed a telegraphic message, 
 when the personal strength of a giant counts as noth- 
 ing against a platoon of police that could be called to 
 subdue him in an instant by telephone, the field of the 
 author is sensibly narrowed. The materials at his 
 command are no longer the unusual conditions pro- 
 
234 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 duced through possession by some men of unusual 
 qualities. He must now hold our interest by skill in 
 arranging and dealing with commonplace events to 
 which many men contribute. Here I think is where 
 Anthony Hope has shown a power without parallel in 
 literature. Other modern writers, it is true, have suc- 
 ceeded in lending an air of plausibility to impossible 
 narratives, but only by dealing with materials beyond 
 the comprehension of the average reader. Edmund 
 About tells of the man with the broken ear and of the 
 mishaps which befell the notary's nose without shock- 
 ing our natural perceptions; but these stories are laid 
 in the field of scientific discovery where few can follow 
 him, and where, therefore, his statements of fact are 
 free from challenge. Hope never deals with events 
 beyond the comprehension of the simplest, yet he holds 
 our interest and compels our acquiescence in wildly 
 improbable incidents by the pure force of his genius. 
 
 But it is not alone in reconciling the judgment of 
 the sober to fantastic conceptions that Mr. Hope ex- 
 cels. He performs a far nobler part in literature and 
 renders a far better service to humanity. No writer 
 who has ever contributed works of fiction to the world 
 has wielded a purer pen. No man has ever treated 
 love with more delicacy, or woman with more rev- 
 erence. 
 
 No one mil dispute this statement who has read the 
 two last chapters of the "Prisoner of Zenda" and real- 
 ized that noble conception of passion purified by duty, 
 of love ennobled by loyalty. What can surpass in 
 power and pathos, in tenderness and lofty senti- 
 ment that parting scene between Rassendyll and 
 
W. BOURKE COCKRAN 235 
 
 Flavia, when the woman stoops for one moment to 
 kiss with tenderest emotion the lover at her feet, 
 but in another minute the queen dismisses for all time 
 the man whose love might not be accepted without 
 treason to her duty. And the exquisite poetry of their 
 subsequent intercourse! What could be more poetic 
 than their fidelity to a tie holier than any tainted with 
 earthly passion, expressed by an exchange of roses every 
 year? Such a love, refined in sorrow and self-renun- 
 ciation, suggests the spiritual rather than the material 
 life— approaching the earth, if at all, only to dip its 
 wings in the stream of memory, repelling any sugges- 
 tion of a possibility that it could ever descend to the 
 muddy depths of licentious indulgence. 
 
 The literary works which we admire are the stan- 
 dard of our own morals and our own tastes. The 
 author whom we crown with praise embodies our lit- 
 erary judgment and the standard of our own civiliza- 
 tion. No man could read any of the works which our 
 guest has contributed to the civilization of the world 
 without feeling that here was an author who could be 
 witty without being gross; who could display abun- 
 dant humor without the slightest violation of decency. 
 I have often wondered why it is that virtue is gener- 
 ally left to the defense of the serious, the sober, and 
 even the dull, while vice seems always able to enlist in 
 its service the subtle, dangerous, and effective weapon 
 of wit. Surely vice painted, bedizened, and prepos- 
 terous should furnish a better field for the shafts of 
 satire and ridicule than virtue, lofty, sincere, and essen- 
 tially natural! I venture to say that the warmth of 
 this welcome to Anthony Hope is largely due to our 
 
236 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 belief that in him the simpler virtues have found a 
 champion who can wield in their defense a blade as 
 keen as any that has ever been prostituted to the ser- 
 vice of vice— a genius who can describe every phase 
 of human life without exalting the basest, who can 
 awaken interest and hold it without any sacrifice of 
 cleanliness. 
 
 At the risk of being thought tedious, I must mention 
 a striking instance of this power to describe graphic- 
 ally the operation of the passions without the slightest 
 suggestion of grossness. Do you remember the rescue 
 of the Princess Osra by that militant bishop who, how- 
 ever he may have handled the crozier, wielded the 
 sword with tremendous efficiency; and do you remem- 
 ber how comprehensively and how skilfully the tempta- 
 tion which assailed him as he bore her in his arms to 
 safety was suggested rather than told by a brief ref- 
 erence to the additional penance imposed on him at his 
 next confession. I know of no description in litera- 
 ture so graphic and so complete, yet so exquisitely 
 delicate. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, as we read these works, these contri- 
 butions to the literature of our age, the question often 
 arises, ''What place in the civilization of the world 
 does the novelist hold?" Is a work of fiction to be 
 treated as the mere pastime of an idle hour— to be 
 read, as our friend declared, while a train bumps over 
 the anvil rails of an American railway, to be discarded 
 when the engine rolls into the station. Oh, no, Mr. 
 Chairman, the creations of the author are important 
 features of our whole lives. Which of us is not richer 
 and better for knowing Colonel Newcome and Henry 
 
W. BOURKE COCKRAN 237 
 
 Esmond? How many living acquaintances have given 
 us the same pleasure as Pendennis, or Mr. Pickwick; 
 afforded us as much merriment as Captain Costigan or 
 Sam Weller; awakened as much sympathy as Little 
 Nell or Nancy Sykes; aroused as much admiration as 
 Rassendyll or Flavia; provoked as much interest as 
 Father Stafford, with his perplexities, or that ''Man 
 of Mark" whom we can't help liking in spite of his 
 very questionable morals, or that workman who as 
 prime minister of a British colony failed to realize his 
 hopes of improving the social conditions of his fellows, 
 but who became ' ' Half a Hero ' ' through his very fail- 
 ure? Who would not sacrifice most of his material 
 positions rather than have these creations of the nov- 
 elist blotted from his memory? 
 
 Mr. Chairman, it is a mistake to suppose that the 
 ideal is less durable than the material. Indeed, I be- 
 lieve there is nothing permanent in the world except 
 the ideal. Palaces, with their occupants, be they kings, 
 princes, or lackeys, all crumble to dust; fortresses fall 
 before the remorseless strokes of time; laws and their 
 administrators pass away ; even creeds and altars totter 
 to decay, but ideals live forever. He who pens a true 
 and lofty sentiment liberates a force which will operate 
 in the minds of men long ages hence, when the author 
 himself may have been forgotten and every monument 
 of his generation may have perished. 
 
 This welcome extended to Anthony Hope is a tribute 
 of gratitude from men whom he has served and en- 
 riched. We rejoice at this opportunity to examine this 
 lamp which has shed a generous light over our path- 
 way, to approach this fountain which has thrown many 
 
238 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 refreshing streams over the dry fields of our daily ex- 
 istence. As we grasp the hand of the author who has 
 contributed so much to the joy of our lives, and as 
 we touch glasses with him we cherish high hopes that 
 during many additional years of fruitful labor he will 
 win wider glory by the production of new works which 
 will still further extend and ennoble the intellectual 
 wealth of mankind. 
 
JOHN S. WISE 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO ANTHONY HOPE HAWKINS 
 (ANTHONY HOPE), OCTOBER 23, 1897 
 
 I THINK I cannot add to what has been said concern- 
 ing Mr. Hope, but I will give him a little foresight 
 of what he may expect in his travels in America. I 
 am sure that he will find all through this country that 
 he is no stranger. In my visits to England the thing 
 that impressed me most was how much I felt at home. 
 Standing in the shadow of Nelson's monument, in the 
 mists which often surround it, and looking at his splen- 
 did figure on the summit and the sleeping lions about 
 its base, or standing in Westminster Abbey amid the 
 tombs of England's great men or in St. Paul's, it is 
 utterly impossible for a man of English extraction to 
 feel that he is anywhere but in the home of his fathers. 
 I hope and believe an Englishman visiting America 
 feels more or less the same way. It is more or less a 
 surprise to him, no doubt, because he does not realize, 
 until he comes here, how well preserved have been 
 many of the traditions of England, or the feelings of 
 Americans toward the people from whom they sprung. 
 Among the people I have met there I have been much 
 struck with the fact that, in spite of what we read in 
 the newspapers about antagonisms, the average Eng- 
 lishman regards the American as a brother, or at least 
 
 239 
 
240 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 as a cousin. It is true that now and then we meet a 
 gentleman who is not so friendly. I recollect that once 
 I took a train at Taunton, and a passenger read aloud 
 an extract from a newspaper saying that we had had a 
 severe storm in New York, adding: "This is a very 
 nawsty day! I presume that this is the same storm 
 that they have had in New York." "I presume so," 
 replied his companion, a red-faced old English gentle- 
 man. "Everything nawsty comes from America." 
 
 Now, my experience is that they really do not think 
 so badly of us, after all. When they come over here 
 they see a great deal more that they approve than they 
 expected to before they came. Among my earliest rec- 
 ollections of Englishmen I recall those of one of the 
 most remarkable of her literary men. It was Thack- 
 eray. I was a very small boy, and I had never in all 
 my life seen a man who was so red and full, apparently, 
 of food and drink, or who "sweated his spectacles" 
 like William Makepeace Thackeray. No doubt the 
 American small boy was equally a revelation to him. 
 I did not hesitate to inquire about all of his characters, 
 and how he had learned so much about the Virginians, 
 never having been there before. 
 
 It has been a pleasure to welcome our friend from 
 across the ocean. There is no other nation of our 
 magnitude to which Britons can come and feel that 
 they are still within the atmosphere of their own homes. 
 Yet my friend is only at the beginning of his task. 
 His companion and manager told me to-night that he 
 contemplated visiting old Virginia. I am glad to hear 
 it. He will find there a people more like his own than 
 any others on this continent— a people who have re- 
 tained the traditions of old England, the names, the 
 
JOHN S. WISE 241 
 
 characteristics, and are less mixed with foreign blood 
 than anywhere else in America. They will be inter- 
 ested in him also. They are a reading people. They 
 are a people who do not intend to let him come among 
 them as a stranger, because he is no stranger. 
 
 He will go westward, and still be interested in what 
 he finds. He must, however, bear in mind the experi- 
 ence of Lord Coleridge when he was here some years 
 ago. Our people are extremely hospitable, even at the 
 risk of bad consequences. Coleridge was given a din- 
 ner which was levied on by the sheriff for a debt of 
 the host after the guests were assembled, and could 
 not be eaten until the invited guests paid for the meal. 
 And he must also bear in mind that he will meet peo- 
 ple here who are a little confused in their knowledge 
 of historical facts. A girl rushed up to Lord Cole- 
 ridge and, grasping him by the hand, said how pleased 
 she was to meet the author of ' ' The Ancient Mariner ' ' ! 
 Don't be surprised, therefore, if some one slaps you 
 on the back and tells you of his or her delight at 
 being able to look into the face of the man who bade 
 the world farewell when Kosciusko fell, or mistakes 
 you for the gentleman who aided Drake and Frobisher 
 in destroying the Spanish Armada. Some of our people 
 do not keep tab on the centuries, or correctly place the 
 Hopes and the Hawkinses who have lived in England. 
 
 Yet all of these things will furnish the material for 
 new literary ventures, for surprising literary situa- 
 tions, not less wonderful than those imaginary situ- 
 ations which have already made you famous. It is 
 easier for a man to be a literary character in America 
 than in England, because we have truths here which 
 are stranger than your fictions. 
 
 16 
 
ELIHU EOOT 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO ANTHONY HOPE HAWKINS 
 (ANTHONY HOPE), OCTOBER 23, 1897 
 
 IT is always delightful to share in your hospitality, 
 always an honor to take part in the well-timed and 
 well-chosen compliments which you pay to the men who 
 are worthy of consideration and regard. And it is 
 especially so now, when one comes from the turmoil 
 and all-absorbing interests of a political controversy 
 into an island where it is always afternoon, and where, 
 but for the ever-present enthusiasm of our young 
 friend who makes up for being an after-dinner speaker 
 at political meetings by being a political speaker after 
 dinner, we should all be able to pass from low realities 
 to high ideals, to turn from King George to devotion 
 to Prince Rudolph, and to stay behind to take part 
 with the singers of hymns of praise. Nevertheless, sir, 
 I feel now, rising to my feet without the opportunity 
 for elaborate preparation which is sometimes apparent 
 in after-dinner speaking— 
 
 Mr. Depew : Cockran, he means you. 
 
 Mr. Cockran : I should n 't be surprised. 
 
 Mr. Root— I feel much as did a friend of mine who 
 was at dinner with you one evening. Making his way 
 homeward with some difficulty, he came in contact with 
 a tree— the only tree in the street. He fell backward 
 
 242 
 
ELIHU ROOT 243 
 
 a step, then returned to the effort, and met the tree 
 again. This time he sat upon the sidewalk, put both 
 hands to his head, and cried: "Lost! lost! lost in an 
 impenetrable forest!" 
 
 How, sir, after all that has been said so eloquently 
 and so well, with such wdt and humor, such pathos 
 and such point, such delightful discrimination and just 
 judgment, shall I find a single word to add to the ap- 
 preciation which our guest may take away of the feel- 
 ing of the American people toward him? But one 
 thing I may say, and that is a thing which no fre- 
 quency of repetition can make stale or old. I can say 
 to him that we are grateful and appreciative; that 
 though his face is strange to us, except as we have seen 
 it upon the pictured page, though his direct personality 
 is among us for the first time, we have very affectionate 
 relations with his family. We love the men whom he 
 has brought into the world, whom he has cherished 
 and sent out— men who, springing from the brain of 
 this generation, are worthy to stand by the side of our 
 own masters and men of genius. We have a warm 
 feeling toward him because he has brought to us these 
 creatures of imagination and impressed upon our 
 minds and hearts every feature of every character, not 
 by talking to us about them, but by letting us live with 
 them in their lives. We had grown tired of the books 
 which developed character by letting us see it devel- 
 oped in the act. 
 
 I do not know that I can give any better idea of what 
 seems to me the goal that every writer might well wish 
 to attain more than any other than to say that every 
 man has but few friends, whether among men or among 
 
244 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 books. It is not within the capacity of human nature 
 to love many men. We have many acquaintances, 
 many friends, but whether it be among the millions of 
 the city or in the hamlet, there are but few real friends. 
 So it is with books. Each man has but a few books 
 which he really loves, but few to which he turns at 
 night when the house is still, when the workaday world 
 is behind him, and a night of leisure, with its possibili- 
 ties of enjoyment by the fireside, is before him; when, 
 with the lamp at his shoulder and the fire burning on 
 the hearth, he turns to the old friends that soothe his 
 soul, that uplift his spirit, that smooth out the lines of 
 his face, that bring back to him the sweetest and the 
 noblest times of life, the sweetest and noblest aspira- 
 tions of his youth. There are but a few friends that 
 come to a man then, and they are the few volumes he 
 takes down from his shelf and greets with the warmth 
 of friendship. 
 
 Mr. Hope has entered into that charmed circle, has 
 found a place more firm, more certain, and more en- 
 during in that circle of the heart among more Ameri- 
 cans than any man who has ever written during your 
 lifetime and mine. And when he moves among us in 
 the street, at the banquet-table, or looks down upon his 
 audiences from the desk, his heart will warm toward 
 America because he may know that he sees about him 
 a multitude of faces of those to whom he comes when 
 the great and busy world has passed away, and when 
 the noblest sentiments and the tenderest feelings bring 
 men back to their youth again. 
 
Charles H, Van Brunt 
 
CHAELES H. VAN BRUNT 
 
 AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, DECEMBER 4, 1897 
 
 (Upon Ms re-election as a Justice of the Supreme Court.) 
 
 THE hospitable and instructive spirit of this club 
 is so great that the members cannot allow a single 
 opportunity to pass without availing themselves of it 
 for the purpose of exercising what they consider to be 
 their peculiar vocation. And so when my learned 
 friend Mr. Justice O'Brien was elevated to the Su- 
 preme Court he was entertained at dinner here, and 
 he was informed what was expected of him in his new 
 position. And how he profited by the advice which he 
 received upon that occasion is evidenced by the admir- 
 able manner in which he has filled the position which 
 he now occupies. And I hope that four years hence the 
 club will think it their duty to their fellow-member 
 further to instruct him as to the manner in which he 
 should conduct himself during his new term, which he 
 will then be about to commence. 
 
 I feel the more assured that the club will not allow 
 that opportunity to pass by unimproved because I am 
 here this evening. I have come here in an humble, re- 
 ceptive spirit, having determined to avail myself of all 
 the good things that might be set before me, whether 
 in the shape of food, drink, or advice; and I expect 
 before I leave to be thoroughly informed as to how I 
 
 16* 245 
 
246 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 should improve in my judicial conduct. I leave Bro- 
 ther Carter here to solve the problem which has always 
 troubled the judiciary, and that is how to decide the 
 controversies which may come before them in favor of 
 one party without disgusting the other. 
 
 The words of your president, which have been en- 
 tirely too enthusiastic in view of the subject upon 
 which they treated, have made me believe that even a 
 judicial career does not pass unobserved in our vast 
 and busy community. And I feel, and shall feel, 
 greatly encouraged by the memories of this evening, 
 and will endeavor to make my record during the new 
 term which is about to commence better than that which 
 has been made during the term about to end. 
 
JOSEPH H. CHOATE 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO PRESIDING JUSTICE VAN 
 BRUNT, DECEMBER 4, 1897 
 
 IEEALLY do not know how much flattery Judge 
 Van Brunt can swallow. If indeed it could be 
 reduced to liquid form, he himself would not permit 
 me to prescribe the limit which he could imbibe. But 
 when it is hurled at his head in such solid masses, I 
 think that even his stalwart frame might well shrink 
 from any further shower of the same kind. 
 
 And so it has occurred to me that I might take a 
 different tack, and point out possibly some points of 
 view in which this universal shower of praise might 
 meet its proper qualifications. Therefore, under the 
 protection of the hospitable roof of the Lotos Club, I 
 frankly confess that I have always been afraid of 
 Judge Van Brunt. And I really believe that that is 
 a sentiment in which you, Mr. President, and all my 
 brethren of the bar, from the youngest to the oldest, 
 would readily concur. I find, too, that the holy awe in 
 which he is held is shared by his associates in the Ap- 
 pellate Division; and I loiow that it is the common 
 sentiment of that countless horde of judges of the Su- 
 preme Court who reign at the old court-house. Judge 
 Gray has shown us that even the Court of Appeals is 
 afraid of him too; they are afraid to tamper with 
 his law. 
 
 247 
 
248 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 Now let me tell you some of the points of view in 
 which I have been afraid of him. Until to-night I 
 have been afraid of his absolute command and know- 
 ledge of the law ; but it has been reserved for the Lotos 
 Club to relieve us forevermore of fear on that ground. 
 This club has happily bound up and distributed for 
 us the combined fruit and result of his life's work. 
 [Holding up one of the souvenirs of the dinner, a hol- 
 low, book-shaped case marked **Yan Brunt's Deci- 
 sions," the speaker continued:] I hold in my hand, 
 as does each of you, Van Brunt's decisions— all of 
 them; the sum and substance of all that he has ever 
 known or done. And when I open it, why, it occurs 
 to me that I know all there is there myself. The 
 merest tyro at the law knows as much as is bound up 
 in this volume. It was a great philosopher who said: 
 *'One thing I know— that I know nothing." And al- 
 ways, after that was made clear, he passed for one of 
 the brightest and wisest of mankind. 
 
 Then I have always been afraid of his austere coun- 
 tenance. Often as I have risen, with trembling knees, 
 to speak before him, I have wished that something 
 might mitigate the austerity of that face. And yet I 
 have felt, you have felt, all have felt, I think, that he 
 possesses one quality that has not been referred to 
 here to-night— a warm and sympathetic and tender 
 heart. He is not half so severe as he looks. If I 
 might borrow and alter a stanza of one of the match- 
 less verses of William Cowper, I would say, and I think 
 that you would all agree with me : 
 
 " He hides a smiling Providence 
 Behind a frowning face." 
 
JOSEPH H. CHOATE 249 
 
 Then another thing I have been very much afraid 
 of ever since, as a mere stripling, I first rose to address 
 him in the first term at which he sat in the Court of 
 Common Pleas, and that is his keen insight. It always 
 seemed to me that when his eye was fixed upon me he 
 saw right through me ; and as I sometimes have in my 
 arsenal when I go to court a good deal that I would 
 like to conceal or disguise, I have always felt that all 
 my disguises were stripped off in his commanding 
 presence. 
 
 And then I have been afraid of another thing— his 
 extreme fairness and sense of justice. It is, half the 
 time, one of the functions of our profession— Brother 
 Carter knows it and practises it as well as myself— to 
 mislead the court if we can. Well, now, in an experi- 
 ence of twenty-seven years before Judge Van Brunt, 
 I never have succeeded in misleading him once. 
 
 Gentlemen, if we want thoroughly to realize how 
 much we value Judge Yan Brunt, we must only imagine 
 what our feelings would be if, upon political exigen- 
 cies that may arise about the first of January, he should 
 he taken from us. It is true that by almost the unani- 
 mous voice of his fellow-citizens he has been reelected 
 a justice of the Supreme Court. He has not been 
 elected presiding justice of the Appellate Division of 
 the First Department. Suppose that, in the wisdom of 
 the governor, in the peculiar shuffle system of that 
 great game of judicial cards which he has to play 
 every little while, these presiding justices of the Ap- 
 pellate Division should be reassigned? I have often 
 thought how we should feel if the governor, in his wis- 
 dom, on the first of January should announce that 
 
250 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 Judge Van Brunt had been assigned to hold court in 
 the Appellate Division among the wolves and bears of 
 Chautauqua County, or somewhere up there. I have 
 often thought how it might affect us in the city of 
 New York, and also what they would think of it up 
 there. Eeally it would be a new experience for any 
 of the rural brethren; and if he should take his seat 
 in one of those numerical departments beyond the 
 first, I really believe that the stampede of people in 
 the country toward the city would be intensified ten- 
 fold. 
 
 Well, your chairman has very kindly referred to the 
 Constitutional Convention, in which I had some part, 
 which created these Appellate Divisions. Now, I am 
 free to say that one of the fond dreams— perhaps it 
 was only a dream— that the convention had was that 
 if we could create in each of these departments an 
 appellate court that was almost as good, if not quite 
 as good, as the Court of Appeals, suitors would be sat- 
 isfied and go no further. It has not yet been realized, 
 and for this reason : up to this point the Court of Ap- 
 peals has had but little to do with the decisions of the 
 Appellate Division of the First Department. But that 
 my dream will yet prove true I think is largely indi- 
 cated by this fact, and I think Judge Gray will bear me 
 out when I say that, having only just now, in the regu- 
 lar course of his calendar, reached the review of the 
 decisions of the Appellate Division of the First Depart- 
 ment, out of some sixteen appeals that they have heard, 
 fifteen have received the affirmance of the Court of 
 Appeals. 
 
 Another thing I have been afraid of when I have ap- 
 
JOSEPH H. CHOATE 251 
 
 peared before Judge Van Brunt is the calm intensity 
 and severity with which, against all alike, he enforces 
 the rules. It sometimes appears to me to be almost 
 impossible for me, and always impossible for my bro- 
 ther Carter, to say what we have to say in an hour. 
 Times have changed in the forty years since Judge Van 
 Brunt, over the way on the south side of Wall street, 
 was a clerk in Judge Leonard's office, and I was a 
 clerk with Butler, Evarts, and Southmayd. I had pre- 
 viously gone through a clerkship in the office of my 
 brother Carter. I sat beneath his wings, and I fol- 
 lowed his footsteps as closely as I could, and was de- 
 termined to keep as near the heels of that leader of 
 the bar as possible. I went to hear him discourse in 
 the courts, and to hear such men as George Wood and 
 Daniel Lord and Francis B. Cutting entertain the 
 courts before which they appeared for a whole day to- 
 gether. Now we are all tied down on this bed of Pro- 
 crustes and limited to an hour; and I must say that 
 I believe justice is better administered by bringing the 
 lawyers and the parties right to the point, and, if they 
 have anything to say, requiring them to say it, and 
 when they have said it to stop and assist the adminis- 
 tration of justice, the rules with respect to which Judge 
 Van Brunt so well understands and so forcibly ad- 
 ministers. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, I do not like to say anything in 
 praise of a man to his face. What can I add to what 
 has already been said? My brother Carter has asked 
 him how he bears the responsibility of deciding a case 
 in favor of one party without disgusting the other. 
 Well, he has never disgusted me, because I follow the 
 
252 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 theory, in the practice of the law, that I have no re- 
 sponsibility for the decision of the court. "What does 
 it matter to me whether I win or lose a case, provided 
 I win or lose it rightly? It is the calamity, if it is 
 anybody's calamity, of the client for having so poor 
 a case or the jury for being so stupid or the Appellate 
 Division for having so slight an appreciation of those 
 overwhelming reasons that I am in the habit of pre- 
 senting. 
 
 Well, gentlemen, I hope he may live through the 
 years of service for which he has been elected, and 
 then return to practice at the bar and join the rest of 
 us, who will be ready warmly to greet him. 
 
 There is a sentiment which I know he will join with 
 me in proposing, and which before I sit down I should 
 like to offer on the part of so many of the profession 
 in this city and State as are here to-night. The State 
 of New York, the judiciary of New York, the bar of 
 the State are about to suffer a grievous and irreparable 
 loss. After twenty-seven years of public service, cov- 
 ering the whole period of the existence of the present 
 Court of Appeals, its present chief judge, Charles An- 
 drews, is to retire under the age limit imposed by the 
 edict of the Constitution. I believe he has held out 
 an example to every lawyer in the State of New York. 
 He will carry into his retirement the affection and the 
 esteem of all of us ; and I should like— I wish he were 
 here himself to receive the tribute— to offer as a sen- 
 timent, the health of Charles Andrews, Chief Judge of 
 the Court of Appeals. 
 
Morgan J. O^Brien 
 
'v^^VvS'O .\» it»\).toM 
 
^t!/!^,i.t-t^t />"«?.? -zft^ J9/^.-^,^i4^->^ 
 
MORGIAN J. O'BRIEN 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO PRESIDING JUSTICE VAN 
 BRUNT, DECEMBER 4, 1897 
 
 I HAVE been a member here sufficiently long to 
 realize the responsibility that is cast upon any gen- 
 tleman who is called upon to respond to any sentiment 
 that is proposed at this board, and I feel a good deal 
 like the boy who unexpectedly fell into a cold stream. 
 He concluded that the very best thing he could do was 
 to swim for the shore. 
 
 Some allusion has been made here to-night to the 
 public career of Judge Van Brunt. Fortunate is that 
 man who has lived to see his reputation as a judge and 
 his position on the bench commemorated by deserved 
 and appropriate honors, by a tribute which is the 
 greatest any judge can expect— to be nominated and 
 elected by all political parties and factions. 
 
 But there are one or two things about this dinner 
 which may seem to Judge Patterson and myself most 
 agreeable and a little personal. You will notice that 
 this great tribute came to him after he had served 
 twenty-seven years. We are all willing to serve twen- 
 ty-seven years, and take the chances of getting that 
 indorsement, but it seems to me that it would be the 
 proper thing for the gentlemen who are here to so 
 shape public affairs that judges who endeavor honestly 
 
 253 
 
254 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 and faithfully to perform their duties shall be retained 
 in office twenty-seven years, and then invited to the 
 Lotos Club to receive, as they deserve, praise or con- 
 demnation. 
 
 Now, I can add nothing, except in one slight respect, 
 to what has been so well said concerning Judge Van 
 Brunt. As presiding justice of the court it is un- 
 necessary for me to tell you of the close and intimate 
 personal relations into which every member of the 
 court is brought with him. We are situated as are 
 members of a family. Ours is a judicial family, and 
 you cannot realize, unless you get that family idea in 
 your minds, how important is the personnel of those 
 with whom you associate. There is not a man in the 
 court who is not wishing and longing to see Judge Yan 
 Brunt designated again as the presiding justice, and 
 there is not one who would willingly occupy his place. 
 Therefore as one of his associates, I desire to say that 
 by the same fairness, by that same candor, and that 
 same frankness which have endeared him to the bar, he 
 has won the respect and affection of every one of his 
 associates. 
 
FEANK E. LAWEENCE 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO LORD HERSCHELL, NOVEMBER 5, 1898 
 (In introducing the guest of the evening.) 
 
 AS we assemble at the beginning of another season it 
 jljL is my privilege to greet you once more. When 
 last we sat about these tables none of us could have 
 imagined the events which the next few months were 
 to bring forth. Our country had for many years been 
 at peace with all the world. "War came suddenly and 
 with little warning, and the sensations it brought were 
 new to the present generation. Happily, it has been 
 short, and we hope that its shadow has passed from 
 us for many long years to come. 
 
 History has been made very rapidly this year. But 
 yesterday we had no thought of expansion, of aggran- 
 dizement, of foreign conquest. To-day we have taken 
 into our dominion fertile possessions that are near at 
 home, and are wondering whether and how we can 
 assimilate into our political system millions of human 
 beings of unknown races at the Antipodes. 
 
 The events of the year must give to every American 
 a feeling of pride and of happiness as we reflect how 
 soon the problems of the war were met and mastered, 
 and when we recall the valiant deeds of our soldiers 
 and sailors upon land and sea. 
 
 But there is no more happy recollection in connec- 
 
 255 
 
256 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 tion with our recent history, and none, I hope, which 
 will longer endure, than that of the friendship which 
 at a critical time was shown by the great mother nation 
 toward us, whom Kipling has called the "Youngest 
 People." May that friendship always be reciprocal, 
 and may it be accepted by mankind as an evidence 
 that though the ocean separates, it does not divide the 
 two great branches of the English-speaking race ; that 
 they are one in purpose and aspiration, and that when- 
 ever the bonds of human freedom are to be enlarged or 
 the wrongs of an oppressed nation are to be righted 
 England and America will stand as one. 
 
 But it seems that there are questions— differences, if 
 you please— between the two countries, and those ques- 
 tions are of great and far-reaching importance, too. 
 Yet many of us know of them only in a very imperfect 
 way. But for to-night let us rejoice and be glad that 
 there are such questions, for it is to their existence 
 that we owe the presence of the distinguished guest in 
 whose honor we assemble. 
 
 We hope that the proceedings of the Joint High 
 Commission which is to settle those questions may 
 in all respects be successful; and it has been rightly 
 characterized as an evidence of the close friendship 
 which exists between the two countries that England 
 has sent to preside over the deliberations of that body 
 one of the most illustrious of her sons. 
 
 Lord Herschell has been best and longest known 
 here, and I think he would wish it to be so, in connec- 
 tion with the profession in which he has attained the 
 highest eminence; and I do not think that any of the 
 learned judges who sit about this table will say that I 
 
FRANK R. LAWRENCE 257 
 
 go too far when I assure him that many of his judg- 
 ments pronounced as Lord Chancellor, in the House of 
 Lords and in the Judicial Committee of the Privy 
 Council, have long been considered as weighty and as 
 persuasive in this country as they are authoritative in 
 his native land. 
 
 We greet and welcome his lordship right heartily. 
 May his present mission be crowned with all success; 
 may Great Britain and the United States furnish to 
 the world another illustration of the fact that all dif- 
 ferences between nations are capable of friendly solu- 
 tion. May the two countries always stand side by side 
 in pursuing every high purpose; may they be, in the 
 words of one of England's greatest poets, 
 
 " Yoked in all exercise of noble end -, " 
 
 and may nothing ever occur to impair the friendship 
 which so happily exists between them at the present 
 time. 
 
 17 
 
LORD HERSCHELL 
 
 AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, NOVEMBER 5, 1898 
 
 I THANK you with all my heart for the maimer in 
 which you have received the proposal for my health 
 which has been made to you by your president. I wish 
 that I could make a speech worthy of your kindness, 
 worthy of such an occasion. The circumstances, how- 
 ever, are not propitious. Plain living and high think- 
 ing, together with the hospitality of my friends in 
 New York, naturally render speech-making impossible. 
 
 I have been led to inquire why it is that I am hon- 
 ored by such an invitation as this. I was informed 
 that the club consisted largely of literary men, of ar- 
 tists, musicians, dramatists, and lawyers, and naturally 
 I began to ask how it came about that a club composed 
 of such elements would do me the honor of making me 
 their guest. To literature, in the proper sense of the 
 term, I can make no claim. I saw an account the other 
 day of my life, in which the writer said that I had 
 made but one venture into the region of literature, 
 and the result was such as to induce a feeling of satis- 
 faction that I had ventured no further. This was 
 rather hard, because my venture consisted only of an 
 address, the subsequent revision and publication of 
 which was somebody else's work, not my own. 
 
 You remember, doubtless, that Mr. Disraeli said that 
 
 258 
 
LORD HERSCHELL 259 
 
 his critics were those who had failed in literature and 
 art— a most unjust description of critics as a body, 
 but no doubt perfectly correct as regards some mem- 
 bers of the class. And it has always been a consola- 
 tion to me to think that it may have been one of such 
 critics who described my literary attempt. 
 
 So I put literature aside and turned to art. Well, I 
 never made any attempt to draw anything since I was 
 a boy. I am bound to say that what I drew then was 
 strictly of the impressionist school. I believe that my 
 work conveyed an idea of what I intended to describe, 
 but it looked almost everything to the imagination. I 
 am not quite sure that the time will not arrive when 
 my drawings will be considered high works of art, 
 because there are certain schools of art nowadays of 
 which all you can say is that you have a kind of dim, 
 misty, vague idea of what the artist intended to con- 
 vey; he has thrown too much upon you the responsi- 
 bility of figuring it out. 
 
 I will put aside art and turn to music. Well, I have 
 performed in a very indifferent fashion at times upon 
 a violoncello, but I am very sure that no artist of that 
 instrument would regard me as his fellow. 
 
 Gentlemen, I am aware that upon an occasion of 
 this sort, when I am perhaps not expected to indulge 
 in the greatest of reflections, something lighter and 
 more entertaining will not be disagreeable. But, un- 
 fortunately, this is a quality which I am assured is not 
 in my possession. Some years ago I received a cut- 
 ting from a provincial journal containing a very elabo- 
 rate account of my life and career, and the writer 
 ended up by saying that, unfortunately, there was one 
 
260 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 drawback to any real greatness, and that was that I 
 was entirely devoid of the sense of humor. He was 
 himself an unconscious humorist of the highest order, 
 because he sent me a copy of the newspaper cutting 
 with the request that I would inform him whether I 
 thought it, on the whole, a just appreciation of my 
 qualities. 
 
 I am absolutely convinced that the criticism must 
 be a just one, because I always believe everything that 
 I read in the newspapers, except perhaps at election 
 time. 
 
 I have dismissed the various artistic qualities which 
 might have justified this invitation, and I am aware 
 that there is one bond between myself and your presi- 
 dent and some members of this club, and that is the 
 love for and practice of the profession of law. My 
 heart always warms to lawyers. But at the same time 
 I am not sure that the members of the various artistic 
 and literary professions regard lawyers with absolute 
 and unqualified satisfaction. We could not altogether 
 do without them, and at the same time I am afraid, 
 with all my love for lawyers, that they are regarded 
 as a disagreeable necessity. 
 
 I have come to the conclusion that the real reason 
 why I am your guest to-night is that I am here as an 
 Englishman, a representative of my country. I am 
 rather alarmed at having used the language that I 
 have. There may be some here perhaps who imagine 
 that Scotland will say that in describing myself as 
 English I have forgotten both Scotland and Ireland, 
 and Wales may make her complaint. However, I 
 think that I can justify my use of the term. I admit 
 
LORD HERSCHELL 261 
 
 that it is a great misfortune that we have no all-em- 
 bracing term to describe those who are members of the 
 United Kingdom, the same as the Germans have. We 
 have no all-embracing word, yet I know that the word 
 Englishman may suffice for this reason: that at least 
 all are English-speaking men, all English-men. 
 
 Yet again, however, I pause because I reflect that if 
 I thus describe Englishmen I embrace many more than 
 the inhabitants of the United Kingdom, of the British 
 Empire, and, in that sense, all whom I am addressing 
 to-night are Englishmen also. And this surely is sig- 
 nificant of one, at least, of the very strongest bonds of 
 union between us— our common language, which means 
 a common literature. The works in which we glory, 
 you glory in also. The greatest of authors that the 
 mother country ever produced were produced before 
 the time when you became a nation, and are yours as 
 much as ours ; and at that time, too, flourished some of 
 the greatest artists. I need only name Reynolds and 
 Gainsborough and Romney, in whom you may glory 
 as much as ourselves. And so I might deal with other 
 regions of art. The English school of music came into 
 existence when you had a right to call it yours as much 
 as we had to claim it as ours. 
 
 Allusion has been made to the state of feeling which 
 at present, happily,— most happily,— exists between 
 your country and my own. Nothing, I can assure you, 
 is to me a greater personal joy. There have been 
 times, no doubt, when we have n't thought as well 
 of each other— perhaps we have n't always taken the 
 most charitable view of one another's actions. There 
 was once a lord in the western part of England who 
 
 17* 
 
262 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 sent for one of his clergy, about whom he had heard 
 reports as to some goings-on, and he said: ''Mr. So- 
 and-So, I regret to hear these stories about you. It 
 is a matter of great concern to me." "Oh," replied 
 the clergjTnan, ''surely your lordship does not believe 
 them." "Well," observed the latter, "I have heard 
 them repeated so often that I am almost forced to 
 think that there must be some truth in them." "Oh, 
 my lord, ' ' responded the clergyman, ' ' I have heard all 
 sorts of stories about you, but I always say to myself 
 that the devil is n't as black as he is painted." 
 
 I join most heartily with your president in the belief 
 that nothing could augur better for the future of the 
 world and for the happiness of humanity than the 
 closest union between the two English-speaking peo- 
 ples. We have so much in common. Wherever our 
 flag floats and wherever your flag floats, they cover so 
 many institutions that we alike revere and love. It 
 indicates in your case as in ours the reign of law, the 
 supremacy of law, and the equality of the law under 
 it. And I believe that this can be said of the United 
 States and of Great Britain as it can be said probably 
 of no other nation under heaven. 
 
 And our institutions have a common origin. I need 
 only point to the question of the relationship existing 
 between the two countries, which seems to me a very 
 speculative question, and one which it may be inter- 
 esting to many to discuss; but it is certain that what- 
 ever there may be, the original Constitution of the in- 
 habitants of the United States, which declared that 
 the institutions should be theirs as citizens of the 
 United States, had its growth and origin in the mother 
 
LORD HERSCHELL 263 
 
 country. And whether the people be now Anglo- 
 Saxons, the institutions are of Anglo-Saxon origin. 
 Wherever we may go, whatever may be the future 
 destiny of the two peoples, this is absolutely certain— 
 sooner or later, in the near future or in the distant 
 vista, there will be planted there these institutions 
 under which we have lived and flourished and thrived, 
 and under which we hope our children and those who 
 come after them may do the same. 
 
 It has always been my dearest desire to promote a 
 good understanding, a good feeling between the people 
 of my country and the people of the United States. 
 I do not believe I have ever actually said one word at 
 critical moments that would embitter their relations, 
 because I have always believed in their union— I am 
 not speaking of paper alliances or of anything of that 
 description, but of something much deeper and more 
 enduring— I have always believed in their union for 
 the good of the people. I have always looked forward 
 to the time when, united, they might achieve something 
 for humanity. I therefore need hardly say with what 
 satisfaction it is that I have been called upon to take 
 part in the deliberations in which I am now engaged. 
 If I should have any share, however humble, in pro- 
 moting good relations between the two countries, then 
 I shall have done, in my opinion, the highest work that 
 is open to any man living upon earth— that of promot- 
 ing concord and harmony when concord and harmony 
 between the nations may be good for the world. 
 
W. BOURKE COCKRAN 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO LORD HERSCHELL, NOVEMBER 5, 1898 
 
 THIS institution has afforded me in the past many 
 pleasant evenings. To-night it has greatly in- 
 creased the weight of my obligations. To meet an 
 illustrious jurist who has achieved the highest distinc- 
 tion in a profession which plays an important part in 
 our own national life— who has been chief of that 
 magistracy which is the fountain of our own jurispru- 
 dence—is to enjoy a pleasure rare even among the hos- 
 pitalities for which the Lotos Club is famous. When 
 we welcome Lord Herschell to this banquet we express 
 not merely our admiration for the qualities which 
 have lifted him to the woolsack and which have won 
 him an honorable place in the long line of Eng- 
 lish chancellors, but we pay a tribute of respect to the 
 judiciary from whose wisdom sprang that common law 
 which, transplanted to this country, we may well claim 
 has here found a congenial soil to nourish its roots, as 
 well as a wider field to shade with its ever-growing 
 branches. 
 
 We may not all concur in Lord Herschell 's opinion 
 that this government is modeled upon the government 
 of Great Britain, but there is one inheritance from 
 England which every one regards as of priceless value 
 to this people, and that is respect and reverence for 
 the judiciary. Some of us may question the policy of 
 
 264 
 
W. BOURKE COCKRAN 265 
 
 English statesmen, many of us may not approve the 
 acts of English cabinets, most of us may doubt the wis- 
 dom of extending English authority over reluctant 
 peoples, but we are all unanimous in our admiration 
 for English judges. And this respect for the judi- 
 ciary which we have inherited from the English people 
 might, without exaggeration, be described as the most 
 valuable of our possessions, for it has proved the vital 
 principle of constitutional government in this country. 
 We are proud of our Constitution, and justly so; but 
 that Constitution, whose fruits have been so beneficent 
 as almost to suggest that its source was the inspiration 
 of Heaven rather than the wisdom of man, contains 
 nothing that is original. Every principle which it 
 embodies is as old as human thought ; every one of its 
 provisions for the security of individual rights has 
 been copied from other charters of freedom. Yet it 
 stands secure, effective, and powerful, while nearly 
 every other government built on a written constitution 
 has perished in confusion and disaster. The history 
 of human progress is the history of attempts to estab- 
 lish democratic institutions. The upward pathway of 
 the race is strewn with the ruins of constitutions con- 
 ceived in lofty ideals of human capacity, but wrecked 
 under the stress of human passions. Our Constitution 
 has been made secure and effective not by the formula- 
 tion of new principles, but by committing it to the 
 protection of an independent judiciary established as 
 a distinct department of our government, whose shel- 
 tering aegis can be invoked by the humblest citizen if 
 his rights be threatened, no matter what may be the 
 source from which the threat proceeds. This is the 
 
266 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 original feature of our government— the one distinc- 
 tive American contribution to the civilization of the 
 world. 
 
 When Lord Herschell returns to his own country, 
 and again surveys that magistracy whose origin is lost 
 in the mists of antiquity, whose history is a long record 
 of service in the cause of liberty, which, since the days 
 of Gascoigne, has never hesitated to maintain the integ- 
 rity of justice against the aggressions of king or prince, 
 which has been untiring in finding ways to evade op- 
 pressive laws and fruitful of inventions for protecting 
 the rights of the subject, his reverence for its achieve- 
 ments will be increased, his confidence in its future 
 will be strengthened as he reflects that far beyond the 
 sea he has seen another and a younger judiciary spring- 
 ing from the same root, maintaining the same juris- 
 prudence, and rising to an authority which no English 
 judge ever exercised and which a few years ago few 
 English judges could have conceived. He will realize 
 that this younger judiciary from a subordinate has 
 become a coordinate, aye, the dominant branch of a 
 mighty government, the controlling element fixing the 
 extent of its own authority and prescribing limits of 
 power to every other department, exercising its func- 
 tions with such courage and wisdom that here no execu- 
 tive officer, however powerful, no legislative body, how- 
 ever numerous its members, nor all of them combined, 
 can disturb one hair on the citizen's head or one gar- 
 ment on his back. As a judge he must rejoice to see 
 here a court without soldiers or weapons able to de- 
 liver the humblest citizen from the custody of ten 
 times ten thousand soldiers, unless his detention can 
 
W. BOURKE COCKRAN 267 
 
 be justified, not by the order of the commander— 
 even though he be the President, and commander-in- 
 chief of all the armies and navies of the United States 
 —but by the law of the land. And even if the law- 
 making power itself attempted by legislative enact- 
 ments to invade the domain of individual rights, to 
 confiscate a citizen's property, to restrain his liberty, 
 to endanger his limb or to imperil his life, that court 
 would nullify it, and reduce it to a mere impo- 
 tent declaration of an unconstitutional purpose. And, 
 above all, he must be gratified to see that this extraor- 
 dinary and salutary power is not granted by an ex- 
 press constitutional provision, but,— asserted by the 
 courts as a necessary feature of constitutional govern- 
 ment, and acclaimed by public opinion as the supreme 
 invention of wisdom for the protection of human 
 rights,— it has become the chief pillar of our govern- 
 mental fabric, resting securely and immovably on the 
 confidence of the people in the virtue of the judiciary, 
 established by a century of illustrious service, con- 
 firmed and broadened by the experience of every day 
 in our national existence. 
 
 Mr. Lawrence has said this evening with perfect truth 
 that during the past year it has been the custom at 
 banquets and other festive gatherings to pay attention ^ 
 almost exclusively to men of the sword. Nations have \ 
 been too busy crowning the soldiers who have extended • 
 their frontiers to bestow much thought on the magis- 
 trates who maintain peace within their borders. While 
 this tendency is undeniable, I confess I can't quite 
 understand it. I cannot accept the rather common be- 
 lief that the soldier and the lawyer are hostile elements 
 
268 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 of human life. I regard them not as conflicting but 
 as kindred forces, and I believe the progress of civili- 
 zation is the fruit of their joint cooperation. Wher- 
 ever the soldier leads, there the lawyer follows. The 
 only permanent result that has ever flown from a vic- 
 tory in battle has been the establishment of new insti- 
 tutions—that is to say, a new system of laws. All the 
 great struggles of the world, whether they be the deci- 
 sive battles fought between nations or the cases decided 
 every day in our courts between suitors, whether they 
 are recorded by historians as wars between nations, or 
 by reporters as litigations between individuals, they 
 have all been conflicts between different systems of law. 
 The soldier marching to battle carries a system of juris- 
 prudence in his kQapsack, and the lawyer pleading 
 for his client embodies in his brief a contention for 
 some legal principle of general application. The sol- 
 dier who wins a decisive victory overthrows certain 
 institutions of government; the lawyer, from their 
 ruins, constructs a new political system. The struggle 
 of the soldier lasts for a day, the labor of the lawyer 
 extends through generations. What remains of the 
 greatest military campaigns except the impressions 
 which they have left on civil institutions? What is 
 left of the victories won by Roman generals, of the 
 provinces which they conquered, the countries they 
 despoiled, the cities they beautified, the palaces they 
 built, the wealth they amassed? The very ruins of 
 Roman magnificence have perished, but the Roman civil 
 law still exercises a great influence over the civilized 
 w^orld. What remains of Napoleon's empire, except 
 the code that bears his name ? What is left of all the 
 
W. BOURKE COCKRAN 269 
 
 struggles recorded in English history, from the battle 
 of Hastings to the Revolution of 1688, of the castles 
 defended and stormed during the civil wars, of the 
 great houses established on the ruins of dynasties, and 
 the murder of kings, except the ancient com m on law? 
 Nations rise and flourish, decay and fall; their kings 
 and their cabinets, their warriors and their nobles, their 
 cities and their fortresses all pass away; the very dust 
 to which they crumble is scattered on the wings of the 
 wind, but a system of law once established remains a 
 source of authority among men long after its founders 
 have departed and the language of its framers has 
 perished. 
 
 I have heard it said that because the volume of liti- 
 gation is shrinking, and because this country has just 
 been engaging in war with a foreign power, the conse- 
 quence of the lawyer is declining, while that of the 
 soldier is increasing. In my judgment, neither the 
 lawyer nor the soldier has declined in consequence. 
 Each has cultivated his original field so effectively 
 that little opportunity is left for further labor. But 
 that fact, far from rendering either superfluous, 
 opens a new and wider field of usefulness to both. 
 The American soldier, who has never drawn a sword 
 except in defense of liberty, has shown by an unbroken 
 record of success that justice is invincible. Never has 
 this been proved so decisively as during this very year, 
 when we saw a great nation deliberately pour out its 
 blood and its treasure with lavish hand, not to repel 
 invasion of its own territory or avenge insult to its own 
 dignity or prevent injury to its own interests, but to 
 prevent the perpetration of injustice by a foreign op- 
 
270 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 pressor on a weak and helpless people beyond our doors. 
 If the American soldier remain faithful to the cham- 
 pionship of justice, as I believe he will ; if this govern- 
 ment now declines to accept any indemnity or recom- 
 pense for its sacrifices, other than the triumph of the 
 cause for which they were made ; if it prove by forbear- 
 ance in victory that its strength in war was exercised 
 not to extend the boundaries of its own dominion, but 
 to extend the dominion of justice throughout the world, 
 then I believe that henceforth no government can un- 
 dertake to make war for a baser reason, and the peace 
 of the world will hereafter depend not upon the caprice 
 of rulers, the ambition of statesmen, or the greed of 
 mercenaries, but upon the judgment of civilization. 
 Under the stimulating example of what the American 
 soldier has achieved, the valor he has displayed, his 
 efficiency in repelling invasion, in suppressing rebel- 
 lion, and now in overthrowing despotism even on for- 
 eign soil, I believe the world will come to regard stand- 
 ing armies as unnecessary burdens. Military service 
 will no longer be the function of paid mercenaries, but 
 the honorable duty of every citizen. The soldier will 
 not decline but grow in importance and repute when 
 every soldier will be a citizen and every citizen a sol- 
 dier; when war will be impossible unless waged for a 
 cause which the conscience of a nation must approve. 
 
 And the lawyer, too, will hereafter play a nobler and 
 greater part in the evolution of government. Lawyers 
 and judges have performed their part so well, they 
 have made the principles of jurisprudence so nearly 
 perfect, that it is difficult now for honest men to 
 dispute which way lies the path of justice in any 
 
W. BOURKE COCKRAN 271 
 
 transaction of life. As the kingdom of justice ad- 
 vances the field of dispute necessarily narrows. The 
 same causes which operate to preserve peace between 
 nations operate to restrict private litigation in the 
 courts. Men are learning to understand the waste, 
 the folly, and the wickedness of contest, and the profit, 
 the glory, the godliness of peace and industrial cooper- 
 ation. But while the prospect of private retainers 
 may grow fainter, new, profitable and honorable 
 fields of usefulness are opening before the footsteps of 
 the lawyer. He will obtain larger fees and perform a 
 better service to his client and to the community by 
 assisting in the management of great industrial enter- 
 prises, guiding them throug^ the shoals and narrows 
 of commercial activity so as to avoid disputes and" dis- 
 turbances; directing to fruitful enterprises all the en- 
 ergies formerly wasted in litigation and contention; 
 preserving peace between employer and employee, stim- 
 ulating the productivity of both labor and capital, in- 
 creasing the commodities available for human comfort— 
 thus widening the prosperity of the whole community. 
 But the lawyer's highest service and largest opportu- 
 nity will be in laboring always to maintain the inde- 
 pendence and increase the efficiency of the judiciary 
 which, as I have already said, has developed in this 
 country into the controlling element of government, 
 the vital force of constitutional freedom. 
 
 New questions of grave importance to the whole social 
 fabric are rising to prominence with which nations 
 everywhere must deal if civilization is to live. These 
 questions touch not the relations of countries, but of 
 individuals to each other. They do not involve the 
 
272 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 division of the earth's surface among different nations, 
 but the division of the earth's product among the differ- 
 ent elements contributing to its creation. I believe these 
 questions will be settled here, because here we have a 
 judiciary which has made every difficulty that ever 
 arose in the pathway of this Republic a stepping-stone 
 to higher conditions. With these questions legislative 
 bodies cannot deal, for they cannot be settled by the 
 mere enactment of new laws. They must be settled 
 on the basis of natural justice, justice so clearly defined 
 and so obvious that no honest man can doubt it. Natu- 
 ral justice is not of to-day or of yesterday— it is eter- 
 nal. It does not rise from the experience of man, but 
 descends from heaven itself. It cannot be established, 
 but it can be discovered by human wisdom, and surely 
 if the sound principles of morality governing these 
 questions are to be formulated correctly it must be by 
 the courts which have always been the sanctuary of 
 justice and by the judges who have always been its 
 faithful priests. 
 
 In aU that I have said I hope our guest will detect 
 no note of national boastfulness, but rather an expres- 
 sion of confidence in the security of that civilization 
 based on the common law which is the priceless posses- 
 sion of both countries. "We cannot praise the Ameri- 
 can judiciary without paying tribute to the English 
 judiciary; we cannot cherish the stream and overlook 
 the fountain. 
 
 We have heard many words of wisdom from Lord 
 Herschell to-night— some of weighty import concern- 
 ing an alliance between the two peoples. All the alli- 
 ance that can ever exist between the two countries 
 
W. BOURKB COCKRAN 273 
 
 exists to-day. Every decision of the courts on either 
 side of the ocean and every law passed by the legisla- 
 tures of both countries tending to maintain order 
 against lawlessness, reason against violence, the su- 
 premacy of the civil over the military power, are fea- 
 tures of an alliance which has always subsisted and 
 which no written treaty could either strengthen or dis- 
 turb. And the benefits of this alliance are not confined 
 to these two countries. Its uninterrupted operation 
 must result in such prosperity as will show all the na- 
 tions of the earth the true pathway to enduring peace 
 and measureless prosperity. May this alliance, based 
 on a common jurisprudence, continue forever effective 
 to widen the ramparts of freedom and to strengthen 
 the bulwarks of order by extending the reign of jus- 
 tice and the principles of the common law over all the 
 nations of the earth. 
 
 18 
 
SETH LOW 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO LORD HERSCHELL, NOVEMBER 5, 1898 
 
 I TRUST that I may be permitted to caution the dis- 
 tinguished guest of the evening against a wrong in- 
 ference that he may have been tempted to draw from 
 one of the details of this banquet. I observed that 
 when the Roman punch was brought into the room the 
 English flag was on one side of it and the American 
 flag on the other. I hope our guest did not infer that 
 that was an indication of any coolness between our two 
 countries. If he did, I think we must give to him the 
 true interpretation of the symbol as illustrated by an 
 anecdote I heard last summer of a distinguished jus- 
 tice of the Supreme Court of Connecticut. It was 
 noticed at a certain dinner that he allowed himself to 
 be helped to ice cream three or four times, and some 
 one remarked to his friend at the table, ''The judge 
 seems to be very fond of ice cream." ''Yes," said 
 the friend, "it warms him up." I have no doubt that 
 the Roman punch was furnished to us this evening 
 with that friendly intent, and my interpretation of 
 the symbolism of it on this occasion is still further 
 vindicated by the fact that it has already disappeared. 
 So whatever coolness there may have been is a matter 
 of the past. 
 
 Like his Lordship, I am no musician; but this I 
 274 
 
SETH LOW 275 
 
 know. If a tuning-fork be struck, and there be within 
 the sound of it another fork tuned to the same key, 
 though they be far apart and apparently unrelated, 
 there will come from the second instrument an an- 
 swering note. It seemed to me, during the last sum- 
 mer, that there came from our cousins across the sea 
 that answering note which showed that their hearts 
 and ours were beating as one. And I like to think, 
 when it is the other fork that is struck, that the same 
 true answer, the answer of a kindred spirit, will go 
 back to them. 
 
 I am really perplexed as to how I can get into sym- 
 pathetic relation with the guest of the evening upon 
 the subject of the law. I am not a lawyer-orator, as 
 Mr. Root is. I remember that I did go to the law 
 school for a single year. Meeting my preceptor a few 
 years later in the City Hall Park, he expressed his 
 regret that I did not come back for the second year to 
 take the degree. I said that I should have been glad 
 to do so, but circumstances forbade. Yet I thought 
 I had learned one thing during the year I did pass in 
 the law school under his instruction which would be 
 of value to me as long as I lived. He asked what that 
 was, and I said I had learned just enough of the law 
 to understand the importance of keeping out of it. 
 
 There is perhaps in the law a good enough bond of 
 sympathy between many of our fellow-citizens and the 
 guest of the evening ; but that scarcely furnishes to me 
 a common meeting-ground with one who has occupied 
 the lofty position of Lord Chancellor of England. 
 And yet I may perhaps properly claim to extend to 
 him my greetings as the titular head of one of the law 
 
276 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 schools of the city. I am, indeed, the President of the 
 Faculty of the Columbia school of law; but I hope 
 that my learned friends here to-night will not for 
 that reason question the orthodoxy of the school when 
 I assure them that the president needs to know only 
 two things— namely, what he does n't know, and who 
 knows it. That thought has always been a consolation 
 to me. I endeavor to conduct my relations with the 
 teaching of the law at Columbia University upon that 
 basis; otherwise I am afraid that the common law of 
 England might become in the transition the uncommon 
 law of the State of New York. 
 
 Reference has been made to the Dreyfus trial, and 
 you may be interested in an incident that my relation 
 with many branches of learning has brought to my 
 attention, bearing on that question. I was talking with 
 the French gentleman who is at the head of our de- 
 partment of the Eomance languages. In most respects 
 he is an entirely acceptable teacher, though I am 
 obliged to confess that he cannot pronounce his own 
 language in a way that the president of the university 
 can understand. I ventured to remark to him one day 
 that the procedure at the Zola trial struck the Ameri- 
 can mind as very singular. "But," I said, with that 
 breadth of sympathy which is natural in the president 
 of a university, "I dare say that our own legal pro- 
 cedures seem just as strange to you ? " He said : ' ' They 
 do. Some time ago Dumas wrote a play. He wanted 
 to bring suit in America to protect his rights in this 
 play. The papers were drawn and presented to him, 
 that he might take the necessary steps. The first thing 
 that struck his attention was the fact that he was called 
 
SETH LOW 277 
 
 upon to swear that he was the author of the play. 
 'Swear that I wrote that play?' said he. 'Every one 
 knows that I wrote the play! I will not swear!' " 
 And because he would not swear he could get no pro- 
 tection from our courts. I thought the illustration 
 suggested happily the different points of view of the 
 two peoples concerning the procedure of the law. 
 
 There is, however, one point of sympathy between 
 the guest of the evening and myself on which I may be 
 permitted to speak a single word with some confidence. 
 He is the Chancellor of the University of London ; and 
 certainly as the President of Columbia University, the 
 oldest educational institution of learning in the city of 
 New York, I may give him greeting and not be 
 ashamed. I think it most interesting and significant 
 that as education has become democratized in England 
 it has been found necessary to create in London a 
 teaching university for the city. For many years the 
 University of London existed simply as an examin- 
 ing center, but its examinations are not sufficient now 
 to give to the people the rich food of the higher 
 learning. 
 
 I think that that development, like kindred develop- 
 ments in the cities of this country, is full of hope. 
 The cities draw into themselves the strongest men in 
 every part of the world. They do so among the teach- 
 ers of the land just as surely as in any other profes- 
 sion, and I think it is self-evident that the cities must 
 not only take in, but they must give out ; and just be- 
 cause they draw from all parts of the land the most 
 virile and powerful intelligence, the obligation rests 
 heavily upon them to repay the world by service of 
 
 18* 
 
278 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 the highest order, in universities and in every other 
 field. 
 
 Therefore, on behalf of the oldest university of the 
 second city of the world and the first city on this side 
 of the Atlantic, I bid Lord Herschell a right royal and 
 hearty welcome. The phraseology of old King's Col- 
 lege, now Columbia College, comes naturally to my 
 mind on this occasion— ''I bid you a hearty and a 
 royal welcome to the city of New York." 
 
FEANK E. LAWEENCE 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO KEAR-ADMIRAL SCHLEY, 
 NOVEMBER 26, 1898 
 
 (In introducing the gnest of the evening.) 
 
 WE assemble to-night in honor of one of the chief 
 participants in the recent great drama of real 
 life, where contending nations occupied the stage, with 
 the destinies of an oppressed people as the stake, and 
 where there awaited the vanquished captivity or death, 
 and the victor honor and glory. 
 
 Our guest of to-night was no stranger to scenes of 
 battle and danger such as those through which he has 
 lately passed; for when scarcely more than a boy he 
 commanded a vessel of war under Farragut, and had 
 his career terminated thirty years ago, his name would 
 have been remembered by a grateful country as one of 
 its heroes. 
 
 Years ago an officer in the service of the United 
 States, while engaged in a vain quest for the North 
 Pole, was lost with a few companions far within the 
 Arctic Circle. After long delay it was determined to 
 send an expedition for his relief, and, the task being 
 one which required unusual intrepidity combined with 
 coolness of calculation, the direction of the little squad- 
 ron was intrusted to the charge of a commander in the 
 navy, Commander Winfield Scott Schley. The mission 
 
 279 
 
280 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 was performed so well that, with scarcely a clue, 
 those of whom they went in search were found, per- 
 ishing of cold and hunger, and by the narrowest 
 margin were rescued from death, and Greely and 
 his companions were restored to life and home and 
 friends. 
 
 I remember very well the banquet which was given 
 to the officers of the relief expedition upon their return 
 from the quest, and as it was my pleasant duty to per- 
 form on that occasion, at Delmonico's, the same agree- 
 able task which falls upon me to-night, I remember 
 particularly the speech of the principal guest of the 
 evening. At that time the navy was at a very low 
 ebb so far as public interest in it was concerned. The 
 antiquated vessels which had seen service twenty or 
 thirty years before were still in use, and it seemed al- 
 most impossible to secure the necessary legislation to 
 bring about their replacement by new ones. I remem- 
 ber that the guest of that evening called attention to 
 the fact that the United States stood at that time with- 
 out a single modern vessel and without a single modern 
 gun. He said, if after a lapse of fourteen or fifteen 
 years I remember rightly, that as we were then circum- 
 stanced it would take at least three years to assemble 
 the material and establish the plant from which mod- 
 ern guns could be made. He predicted, what few of 
 us then believed, that, according to the universal ex- 
 perience of mankind, war within our time must come, 
 and I remember that he urged upon his audience that 
 night the supreme importance of being ready for war 
 whenever it should arrive. While none of us who lis- 
 
FRANK R. LAWRENCE 281 
 
 tened to that speech realized how likely it was that its 
 prophecy would be fulfilled, we all felt confident that, 
 if war must come, the gallant officer to whom we lis- 
 tened that night would be foremost among those who 
 took part in it. 
 
 When hostilities began last spring I believe the peo- 
 ple generally felt satisfaction in the appointment of 
 Commodore Schley to one of the principal commands ; 
 and we all feel now, I know, that he is one of those 
 to whom it is chiefly due that the war was short, that 
 the war was decisive, that the objects for which it was 
 begun were completely accomplished, and we hail him 
 as one of the principal heroes of the war who have 
 shed honor and glory and luster upon the American 
 name. 
 
 It was my privilege to spend some time at Old Point 
 Comfort last spring, while the Flying Squadron, under 
 command of the then Commodore Schley, was lying 
 in Hampton Roads, and preparing to put to sea, within 
 sight of the spot where the first two ironclad vessels 
 which ever engaged in battle, the Monitor and the Mer- 
 rimac, had met in memorable conflict thirty-five years 
 before. When the order for departure came, the rapid 
 change of the vessels from beauty to ugliness, from the 
 hue of white-winged peace to that of grim-visaged war, 
 was most impressive. 
 
 A lady who had observed the contented manner in 
 which the commanding officer was conducting his prep- 
 arations, suggested to him, in my hearing, that he 
 surely must feel great anxiety for his own safety and 
 for that of his men; to which he replied characteris- 
 
282 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 tically in the trite old saying: "Madam, you can't 
 make omelets if you don't break eggs." 
 
 I said to him, ''Commodore, if you will go and de- 
 stroy the Spanish fleet, when you come back we will 
 give you a dinner at the Lotos Club." He replied, 
 "Consider it a bargain." If it was a bargain, how 
 admirably he performed his part of it is known to all 
 the world. 
 
 It is not for me now to dwell upon the uncertain 
 quest for the enemy, the long vigil in deadly tropical 
 heat before the narrow mouth of Santiago harbor, or 
 even upon the brilliant finish on the third of last July, 
 when Schley's flagship was in the van, receiving more 
 shots from the enemy than any other American vessel, 
 and when the entire Spanish fleet was destroyed with- 
 out loss or serious injury to a single vessel of our 
 own. We feel that in all these events our guest of 
 to-night so bore himself as to delight the American 
 people; that to him, as much as to any man, is due 
 the triumph of our arms and the gaining of a victory 
 large enough, as he has said, for all of us— large enough 
 for all who took part in it, large enough for the whole 
 American people. 
 
 Gentlemen, the American sailor represents to us the 
 spirit of adventure, the spirit which led Columbus to 
 cross an unknown sea, the spirit which first led Fran- 
 cis Drake to sail around the globe, the spirit which 
 sent Martin Frobisher and so many after him in search 
 of a northwest passage, the spirit without which so 
 many glorious chapters in the world's history must 
 have remained unwritten and so much of the world's 
 store of knowledge must have remained unknown. 
 
FRANK R. LAWRENCE 283 
 
 I have very great pleasure in proposing the health of 
 our guest. We greet him as one of the most brave, 
 accomplished, and distinguished officers of a service in 
 which the whole people feel the utmost pride— the 
 American navy. I ask you, gentlemen, to rise and 
 drink the health of Rear-Admiral Winfield Scott 
 Schley. 
 
WINFIELD SCOTT SCHLEY 
 
 AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, NOVEMBER 26, 1898 
 
 THIS is not the first time that I have enjoyed the 
 hospitality of your organization. I came here 
 prepared for a most excellent dinner, and I brought 
 with me a splendid appetite. Your president has been 
 kind enough to paint for you a word portrait of me 
 that I hardly think I deserve. I am really unable to 
 recognize myself in the framing of words which he has 
 so beautifully placed around it. I was simply a sharer 
 in great events. I had the honor of assisting, merely, 
 in bringing about a result which has been glorious for 
 our country, and which has made the third of July a 
 red-letter day in our modern history. 
 
 The matchless victory of the peerless Dewey in Ma- 
 nila on May 1, and that on July 3 off Santiago, sup- 
 plemented by the beautiful work of our army in the 
 field before Santiago, were but the culmination and 
 the outcome of the preparation and equipment that had 
 been organized by the Navy Department and its offi- 
 cials. How well our work was done the wrecks now 
 lying upon the beach on the south side of Cuba tell 
 the better story. It is a curious thing, however, in the 
 circumstance of battles how little things frequently de- 
 termine results. It had been determined by the fleet 
 of Admiral Cervera to leave Santiago on the night of 
 
 284 
 
WINFIELD SCOTT SCHLEY 285 
 
 July 2. By some one of the strange circumstances of 
 telepathy, I felt that a critical moment was at hand, 
 and had determined to connect the forward and the 
 after engines of the ship. But so convinced was I that 
 a movement was at hand that I feared to be caught in 
 the operation, which would require nearly an hour. 
 Hence, when the commanding officer assured me that 
 better speed could be made with two engines and full 
 boiler power, I concluded that we would take the risk. 
 Much has to be risked in battle. 
 
 Now, it appeared that at the very hour when this 
 question was occupying my own mind Cervera had in- 
 tended to attempt his escape. But a curious circum- 
 stance occurred to the westward. The enemy had re- 
 treated over the high hills to the westward of Santiago. 
 The army lines were closing so rapidly that there was 
 little chance left, and they availed themselves of it. 
 The insurgents took possession of the block-houses that 
 had been evacuated, and burned them in succession to 
 the number of six, which corresponded exactly with 
 the number of ships forming the fleet of Cervera. He 
 assumed at once that the insurgents were communicat- 
 ing the fact of his coming out that night, and he de- 
 cided to postpone it until morning, in order to fool the 
 Yankees. It was a fatal decision. That little fact 
 contributed much to determine the result. 
 
 It ought to be said, also, that the discipline of our 
 navy was so complete, and its officers and men were so 
 constantly vigilant, that the first movement of the 
 enemy was discovered simultaneously from every ship. 
 The time chosen by Admiral Cervera was 9 :30 in the 
 morning, because he assumed that we would be at 
 
286 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 quarters at that time— and we were. From the time 
 that the first vessel carrying his flag, the Maria Teresa, 
 appeared in the mouth of the harbor until the first gun 
 was fired it was exactly three minutes. The ships came 
 out in beautiful order; technically denominated, they 
 were in column, at distance, under a high pressure of 
 steam. Signal was made immediately to clear for ac- 
 tion—for close action. It was followed at once by a 
 general inward movement of the fleet. Fire was imme- 
 diately opened, and such a bombardment as took place 
 in the next fifteen minutes rarely falls to the experi- 
 ence of any one to behold. The batteries to the east 
 and west of the harbor opened upon our vessels, the 
 ships themselves fired with a rapidity that was only 
 possible with modern rapid-fire guns, and the storm of 
 projectiles that passed above us was simply terrific. 
 I myself was standing on the bridge at the time, in 
 order to get a better view of the situation and to de- 
 termine what would be the method chosen of the only 
 three possible, and to my great delight the movement 
 was made westward, which was the most vulnerable. 
 
 All the ships advanced as closely as their speed 
 would permit until the purpose of the enemy had been 
 accurately determined to be that of flight rather than 
 fight. I found myself in the Brooklyn, in a position 
 where, if the turn had been made inward, fifteen min- 
 utes of very precious time would have been lost through 
 masking the enemy against our own fire; whereas in 
 turning outward they were uncovered and the fire was 
 continuous, with the result that in twenty-nine minutes 
 from the opening gun four of the enemy's vessels were 
 practically destroyed, were on fire and retreating to 
 
WINFIELD SCOTT SCHLEY 287 
 
 the beach, while two remained. The Viscaya and the 
 Colon put their helms a-port and attempted to escape 
 to the westward. They were pursued by all the vessels 
 of the fleet except one or two, which remained behind 
 to perform those offices of humanity, in saving life, 
 which are common to civilized warfare. 
 
 For fifty-four minutes from the destruction of the 
 Teresa there was a running fight with the Oquendo, in 
 which that vessel suffered terribly. It was the first 
 time in my life that I had ever seen shingles fly from a 
 ship. Her men were driven from her batteries, the 
 ship was pierced by over one hundred projectiles, her 
 water-mains were cut, she was set on fire, and one shell 
 alone killed and wounded eighty people. Just before 
 she surrendered, which was at 11 :05, she made a move- 
 ment as if turning to seaward, when she received three 
 projectiles almost simultaneously, one striking the belt 
 and the other two perforating her soft parts above the 
 belt. That was sufficient. Fire burst from her port- 
 holes, her hatches were taken off, and flame and smoke 
 burst from those; she turned inshore a distance of 
 perhaps half a mile, and I thought she was going to 
 capsize. As soon, however, as she had hauled down 
 her colors and had made for the beach to seek the best 
 place to save her people, we saw that the Colon had 
 been steaming up a little closer inshore. She was then 
 out of range— except very long range— and I directed 
 Captain Cook to go to dinner, because I thought that 
 men who were to fight ought to be fed. 
 
 The Oregon and the Brooklyn, being faster than the 
 other ships, had separated considerably from the fleet 
 that was following up. I then sent word, directing 
 
288 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 the Oregon to do the same, to the men below, the fire- 
 men and coal-heavers, that force of noble, silent, effec- 
 tive workers, npon whose efforts was to depend the 
 fate of the Colon. I heard, coming up through the 
 ventilators on the bridge, the song; 
 
 '^ John Brown's body lies mouldering in the grave." 
 
 Those sterling fellows shoveled coal for all fhey were 
 worth, and the engines took hold of the ship and she 
 bounded forward like a greyhound. After thirty min- 
 utes of pretty good feeding we found that we had 
 gained so much upon the Colon that I signaled Captain 
 Clark of the Oregon to let go one of his railroad trains 
 at her. He fired one of his thirteen-inch shells, and it 
 landed just under the stern of the Colon. The Brook- 
 lyn then fired an eight-inch shell, which landed about 
 an equal distance ahead of her. Clark wigwagged to 
 me, ^'A little ahead," and I wigwagged back to him, 
 *'A little astern." Then there came a signal from the 
 Oregon asking me if that was not an Italian ship that 
 we saw. I answered no; I thought she wore other 
 colors now. That was the pleasantry of the battle. 
 
 A third shot was fired from the thirteen-inch guns of 
 the Oregon, which was three hundred to four hundred 
 yards astern of me, a little further inshore. That shell 
 passed fore and aft and over the Colon. The fourth 
 shell, fired from the Brooklyn, an eight-inch shell, 
 struck her on the quarter, and entered the cabin and 
 wrecked everything. We were coming very rapidly 
 into range, and, seeing that he was occupying very 
 dangerous ground— he could not have escaped because 
 
WINFIELD SCOTT SCHLEY 289 
 
 his course would have been south and in ten minutes 
 more he would have had to fight— he fired a gun to 
 leeward, hauled doAvn his colors, and ran his ship 
 ashore. We approached him very rapidly, and a boat 
 from the Brooklyn, with Captain Cook, the flag cap- 
 tain, wa^ sent on board to demand an unconditional 
 surrender, which was granted. 
 
 Some time afterward the commander-in-chief came 
 upon the scene, and the prize was turned over to him 
 and a substantial report made of the circumstances. 
 While we were engaged in an informal conversation 
 about the features of the battle Commander Eaton ap- 
 peared and reported that the Spanish battle-ship PeZa^/o 
 was on the coast. Admiral Sampson turned to me and 
 said: *' Schley, take the Oregon and go eastward and 
 finish up the job." I immediately went on board my 
 ship and started to the eastward, and after I had been 
 gone about an hour I saw a vessel just ahead of me 
 which bore all the earmarks of a Spaniard, and I felt 
 that she was treading upon very dangerous ground. 
 My belief was further fortified later by the Vixen 
 coming from the westward with the commander-in- 
 chief's flag lieutenant on board. He came alongside 
 and reported to me that the vessel which I saw was the 
 Pelayo; that he had seen her. I told him to go to the 
 westward and let the commander-in-chief know, and 
 said I would go to the eastward and engage her. We 
 felt after the action of that day that there was n't any- 
 thing that bore the Spanish flag that would dare meet 
 any vessel of ours. Finding ourselves rather nearer 
 the coast than was favorable to manoeuvering, I started 
 about southeast for a few minutes, when the vessel 
 
 19 
 
290 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 ahead changed her course to about southwest. Then 
 we thought we had a fight sure ; but as she uncovered 
 and exposed herself I saw that she was a turreted ship 
 and not a battle-ship such as the Pelayo. Our men— 
 I think it was the rule in all the ships— were carefully 
 educated to the appearance of all these Spanish vessels 
 by having pictures of them posted in various places 
 about the ships. While Captain Cook and myself were 
 talking over the situation one of the men came up and 
 said, "Commodore, that is not the Pelayo; it is the 
 Cardinal Cisneros.^' Well, that was easy. I said to 
 Captain Cook, "Cook, that is not so hard a nut as I 
 supposed ; go for him at full speed. ' ' 
 
 It was difficult to distinguish the flag, the colors 
 being red and white, instead of red and yellow, and 
 running in the same direction as those of the Spanish 
 flag. We approached to within twenty-five hundred 
 yards, and I had just given the order to commence 
 firing when I saw a signal go up on board the ship. I 
 wondered what a Spaniard meant by signaling to us. 
 Cook suggested that perhaps it was to find out what 
 was the matter on the beach; and when we made it 
 out, by the commercial code, it was the announce- 
 ment that the vessel was the Austrian battle-ship 
 Maria Teresa — a bad name for that day in that 
 locality. We steamed up alongside, and the command- 
 ing officer came aboard and said he was in search of 
 the commander-in-chief ; that he wanted to go into San- 
 tiago to carry off a lot of German citizens who were in 
 peril. I told him that I did n't believe he would be 
 allowed to go in, but that when the commander-in-chief 
 came up off Santiago in the morning he would per- 
 
WINFIELD SCOTT SCHLEY 291 
 
 haps give Mm the authority he asked, and that if the 
 commander-in-chief was not present I should certainly 
 not do so. He said that he had noticed that something 
 had gone on, but he did not know the result. I ran 
 quickly over the result of the action for him. He 
 said, "You say I must come up in the morning. Now, 
 what do you think would be a safe distance for me to 
 lie off Santiago to-night?" I said that I thought ten 
 miles would be quite sufficient. He said, ''I will dou- 
 ble it and make it twenty, to be on the safe side." 
 Well, he did go off the harbor to the southward about 
 twenty miles, and there he remained until nine o'clock 
 the next morning, when he appeared off the harbor, 
 and, as I supposed, he was not permitted to enter, and 
 was obliged to send a steam launch in. 
 
 That practically ended the operations of July 3. 
 There were many other officers and many other men 
 who did not have the opportunity of actual combat, 
 but whose services deserve quite as much reward and 
 quite as much mention, not only for their alertness, but 
 for their exposure, very often in vessels that had no 
 protection and in which a greater risk was run than in 
 our case, where belted protection was afforded. 
 
 It ought to be said of the men of our navy that as 
 gunners they are without peers. I came to the conclu- 
 sion, after the result of that third of July had been 
 worked out, that the fellow who wanted to fight us 
 had better come over here with a lot of fellows who 
 could shoot if he expected to be in our class. So far 
 as my own connection with the battle was concerned, 
 it was, as I have said, merely that of a sharer with 
 others ; and the praise which has been accorded to me 
 
292 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 is much more satisfactorily enjoyed when I feel that 
 even the smallest share is big enough to divide with my 
 whole command. 
 
 War unquestionably shortens life, but no doubt 
 broadens it in the same proportion. It has been said 
 by a very celebrated authority that every generation 
 of men should be able properly to defend the title to 
 the spurs they have inherited. It is also said by the 
 same authority : " If you point out to me a nation that 
 has gone for two generations without war, I will point 
 out to you one whose decadence has begun." War, 
 of course, is one of the necessary evils. It is the medi- 
 cine which the body politic has to take in very much 
 the same way that the physician gives you medicine for 
 the natural or corporeal body. It frequently purifies 
 the blood, and teaches people to know each other as 
 they can in no other way. 
 
 My connection with the operations in the West In- 
 dies terminated only on the fifth day of November at 
 Porto Rico, where the President assigned me to duty 
 as one of the commission. In sixty days from the day 
 we landed there was not a Spanish uniform left in the 
 island, and none nearer to us than Cuba. I found that 
 the Spanish officer was a very cultivated gentleman, a 
 very brave man, and that he was susceptible to argu- 
 ment and to fact just the same as anybody else. It was 
 merely a little diplomatic parley, in which I think we 
 were a little superior. Anyhow, we accomplished our 
 purpose, and the flag of our country floats everywhere 
 in Porto Rico, whose people are very gentle and whose 
 capabilities are very great. 
 
 It will of course be a difficult thing to overturn the 
 
WINFIELD SCOTT SCHLEY 293 
 
 prejudices of four hundred years. Nothing that I 
 know of is so difficult to get rid of as prejudice ; but I 
 am quite sure that the moment the population seizes 
 the fact that the rule of repression has been removed 
 and the rule of confidence established, there will be as 
 much happiness in the new state of things as it is pos- 
 sible to imagine. I feel that Porto Rico has immense 
 possibilities, and I am sure, under our beneficent gov- 
 ernment and under our strong people, it will be a most 
 important addition. Just what its place in our sys- 
 tem is, or is to be, is not a question for me to determine ; 
 that is left to the wisdom of the Congress and the 
 government. As naval officers, our only politics is de- 
 votion to country and the belief that our government 
 is always right. 
 
 19* 
 
HENEY C. POTTER 
 
 (BISHOP OF NEW YORK) 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO REAR-ADMIRAL SCHLEY, 
 NOVEMBER 26, 1898 
 
 THE president of the club has remarked that this 
 is the first time that he has welcomed me as a 
 guest. Let me say that I have before been the guest 
 of this organization. I never heard it described by 
 that political term, but the memory of that occasion 
 constrains me to say to you what I otherwise should 
 not have said. I will venture to say that, more 
 years ago than your young president will probably 
 remember, Mr. Whitelaw Reid, whose portrait I see 
 here on the wall, was president of the Lotos Club, and 
 the club, according to its habit of entertaining dis- 
 tinguished foreigners, gave a dinner and afterward a 
 reception to Mr. Charles Kingsley. I was not able to 
 be present at the dinner, but came in afterward to the 
 reception. As I ascended the steps leading to the hall 
 of the club-room, which was then near Fourth Avenue, 
 on the east side of Union Square, I was greeted by 
 Mr. Reid, who said: "We are now having a speech 
 by Mr. John G. Saxe, and we will call next upon 
 you.'' I had just come to the city, and the grav- 
 ity of the occasion bewildered me. Mr. Saxe was 
 talking earnestly, and every now and then he illus- 
 trated his remarks by an anecdote. As soon as my 
 
 294 
 
HENRY C. POTTER 295 
 
 turn came I took up tlie thread of his discourse and re- 
 called an anecdote which had been told me by Mr. 
 George William Curtis. Mr. Curtis had been walking 
 to and fro waiting for his train on the station plat- 
 form of a town where he had lectured. An elderly 
 female approached him and, peering into his face, 
 said, ''Will you check my trunk?" Mr. Curtis said, 
 ''Madam, the baggage-master will check your trunk." 
 Looking at him again, she said, "Why, are n't you the 
 baggage-master?" A cold chill ran down his spine 
 at that unusual identity. As the train was late, after 
 a little while he approached her and said, "Madam, 
 will you mind telling me why you thought I was the 
 baggage-master?" "Because," she replied, "you have 
 got the big nose." I detected the full significance of 
 it, and after a while I felt my way to Canon Kingsley's 
 presence and saw his nose. 
 
 I have been able to see only one side of Admiral 
 Schley's face. Nobody knows how much I admire Ad- 
 miral Schley's distinguished features, and how much 
 I recognize the distinguished service which he has per- 
 formed. In referring to this I am at a still further 
 disadvantage. Opposite to me— for what reason I 
 know not— there has been placed a row of distinguished 
 divines— Rev. Dr. Savage, Rev. Dr. Slicer, Rev. Dr. 
 IngersoU, and the pastor of "The Sun," the Rev. Dr. 
 Lord. Clergymen are apt to be extremely critical. A 
 preacher I knew was asked what he thought of a lecture 
 which he had heard. "I was thinking all the time," 
 said he, "how much better I could do it myself." 
 That is the habit of the clerical mind. One of my 
 cloth, on one occasion, went to preach a sermon on 
 
296 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 Sunday afternoon in an insane-asylum near Chicago, 
 and, having arrived there, he was met by the super- 
 intendent and was asked what he was going to preach 
 about. He said, "I have written a sermon on the 
 blessings of the gospel to the insane." The superin- 
 tendent said, ''Why, you cannot preach that here; 
 everybody in this place is insane. ' ' The preacher said, 
 ''I can't preach anything else because I have got only 
 this sermon with me, and I cannot preach without a 
 manuscript." "Is n't there any other subject that 
 you could talk on?" inquired the superintendent. 
 ''Nothing else," said the preacher, "except a sermon 
 which I preached this morning on foreign missions." 
 "You must preach the sermon on foreign missions, 
 then," said the superintendent. He did so. He was 
 very much impressed by the apparent intelligence of 
 his hearers and by the close attention which they gave 
 to his sermon. When he had finished one man from the 
 audience came up to my clerical friend, who said to 
 him : " I saw, sir, that you appeared to be interested in 
 my discourse. Will you tell me what particular part 
 of it you liked best?" "Yes," said the man; "when 
 you described about the mothers in India flinging their 
 babes beneath the wheels of the Juggernaut I wondered 
 why, when you were a baby, your mother had n't 
 flung you there." That speculation, sir, is occupying 
 these clerical minds at present. 
 
 I am very sensible of the kind hospitality of the 
 club, and I have an unmixed delight in doing my 
 homage to the distinguished sailor who sits on my left. 
 I shall have most grateful remembrance of the cordial 
 welcome which I have found to-night. 
 
WALLACE F. RANDOLPH 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO REAR-ADMIRAL SCHLEY, 
 NOVEMBER 26, 1898 
 
 IT is a chronic fact that I never could and cannot 
 still make a speech. I have not been gifted in that 
 line. It is a thing I think which should be referred to 
 the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. 
 Of course I cannot refrain from answering such a 
 flattering call as that to speak of the service to which 
 I belong, and to which I have belonged for nearly 
 thirty-eight years. At the same time, I must call at- 
 tention, also, to the fact that this is not by any means 
 an army night. This is a navy night, and it should 
 be, and I look in vain for some sustaining eye or voice 
 of the military profession, and find that I am deluged 
 with a cataract of salt water. I see naval stripes all 
 around me, and, what is worse, naval heroes. I played 
 such a very insignificant part in the recent contest 
 that were it not for the fact that there is no one here 
 but myself to speak of the army, I should ask to be 
 excused. What is more, my grandfather was a sailor, 
 my father was rather sailorish, and I ran away so often 
 from home and was always courting a boat to such an 
 extent that I may be said to have inherited all their 
 proclivities. 
 
 297 
 
298 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 Some years ago Captain Evans— Captain "Bob" 
 Evans— came to me with a brutal invitation to go to 
 Europe. He knew how easily I was tempted, and how 
 readily I would fall. I went. Captain Evans said 
 that he started out with the idea that he commanded 
 the frigate Saratoga. After eight hours at sea he said 
 he was mighty glad to be allowed a decent resting-place 
 on board that boat. It seemed to him that he had ab- 
 sorbed all the functions, and was simply a passenger. 
 It goes without saying that we had a very nice time. 
 I went to General Sherman upon that occasion and 
 said, ''General Sherman, I should like to go to Eu- 
 rope." He said, "What do you want to go to Europe 
 for?" I said, "I have an invitation from Captain 
 Evans to sail upon the frigate Saratoga, and I don't 
 believe I shall ever have money enough to go to Europe 
 in any other way; besides, I hear that the vessel is to 
 visit the majority of the northern ports of the Mediter- 
 ranean, and I feel that much valuable professional in- 
 formation can be obtained." He said, "What do you 
 want ? I will give you leave of absence. " " Oh, no ! " 
 said I, "I don't want that." "Why?" asked General 
 Sherman. "Because that puts me on half pay. I 
 should like to have an order to go." "No, you don't," 
 said he; ''you want mileage." General Sherman was 
 right, but I did n't like to put it as plainly as that. 
 He said, "I wish you would embody those remarks 
 about professional information in a letter. ' ' I thought 
 it over for a long time, and have not yet given General 
 Sherman that letter. 
 
 It is no use talking about it, there is a bond between 
 the army and the navy which, when we get into a 
 
WALLACE F. RANDOLPH 299 
 
 tight place, we must acknowledge. When we want to 
 make a landing we must be covered, and if it is a dan- 
 gerous landing it must be made safe. They did this 
 for us in Cuba, and after we got ashore the safety 
 ceased. The landing was all right, and for a mile or 
 two the beautiful tropical verdure of Cuba was all 
 that had been represented, and more. As long as the 
 skies were blue and the sun was yellow it was all 
 right. As long as we did not find what we went to 
 find it was beautiful; but the very moment that we 
 got up on those hills and some vile Dago discovered 
 our presence and announced it by shooting an officer 
 of the First Cavalry, the beautiful aspect disappeared. 
 The shot pierced him through his liver and his spleen 
 and his kidneys and his backbone. Then we felt that 
 they were no longer unaware of our presence. It 
 went on that way; they grew ''wusser and wusser." 
 Finally there came the ruction which has appeared in 
 the papers, and all that sort of thing. Then there 
 came one of those drizzles, every drop of which was as 
 big as a water-bucket, and it continued to drizzle all 
 night and all the next day, and it did n't stop for 
 four more days and nights; and when I tell you, gen- 
 tlemen, that it took me twenty-four hours to take two 
 caissons, with ten horses to each one, a little over three 
 miles, you may imagine what the difficulties were. We 
 did n't have a nice time then, and I have n't found 
 anybody who has the hardihood to say that we did. 
 After that the fever began, and Delmonico's seemed 
 more than a million miles away, and the only fellow 
 that did n't complain of hardtack was the man who 
 had a cracker in his trousers and had fallen into the 
 
300 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 river. If we did n't shake with fear we did with 
 ague, and when we were not cold with the rain we 
 were boiling hot with the fever. 
 
 But we always felt that we had friends on the out- 
 side. They tell me persons in the Tombs are affected 
 with that same feeling. And certainly, while we 
 were not in the Tombs, we were on the verge of the 
 grave very often. It was a most beautiful sight for a 
 while. It was more so after the surrender. There 
 are few of you here who can appreciate the conditions 
 down there. They were simply these : The fever, which 
 is due to the heat, was beyond anything that I ever 
 knew in my life. During the Civil War I had chills 
 and fever. I was sitting out there and they remarked 
 how well I was looking for a man of my physique and 
 habits, and how well I stood the racket there. I saw 
 them drinking boiled water and eating hardtack and 
 bacon, and they were gradually getting to look like the 
 inside of a cantaloup, and they got as seedy also, and 
 the first thing I knew they were shaking, and they 
 asked me what I thought of the situation. I was play- 
 ing the strong man until, one dreadful evening, I too 
 was taken with the ''shiver de freeze." As you cannot 
 break up the habits of a lifetime in a minute, I drank 
 some brandy and took some quinine, with the result 
 that I had no fever whatever; but I broke out and 
 sweated like a nigger under oath in a court. The next 
 morning I had no more legs than a mermaid. So I 
 took great care of myself for three or four days— an 
 unusual circumstance— and I was all right again. The 
 next time I came down for about seventeen days. 
 
 Now, as they say, peace has its victories as well as 
 
WALLACE F. RANDOLPH 301 
 
 war. While the navy people were pounding guns we 
 were chewing quinine ; and I tell you one thing, when- 
 ever we heard one of those old explosions from the 
 outside we felt that they were with us. The louder 
 they got, the more we thought they were with us ; and, 
 what is more, we would have given our eye-teeth to 
 be with them. You know not even a naval surgeon 
 has ever been able to discover malaria on the ocean 
 blue, and they had distilled water, too. They had their 
 own condensing plants, and I understand they even in- 
 dulged in eggs, fresh meat, or something of that kind. 
 What is more, I have heard that it is against the navy 
 regulations to dig a sink on a vessel. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, I will be more merciful than your 
 president, who called on me to make a few remarks. 
 I know that this prolonged agony can only result in 
 dissolution after a while, and I see so many gentlemen 
 who have the habit of giving pleasure to their friends, 
 that I won't detain you any further than to thank you 
 for the pleasure and the honor which you have given 
 to me by calling me to be with Admiral Schley to- 
 night, and to be the guest of your most hospitable club. 
 
EGBERT e. INdERSOLL 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO REAR-ADMIRAL SCHLEY, 
 NOVEMBER 26, 1898 
 
 I CONGRATULATE all of you to-night, and I con- 
 gratulate myself, and I will tell you why. In the 
 first place, we were all well born, and we were all born 
 rich. We belong to a great race. That is something; 
 that is having a start, to feel that in your veins flows 
 heroic blood— blood that has accomplished great things 
 and has planted the flag of victory on the field of war. 
 It is a great thing to belong to a great race. 
 
 I congratulate you and myself on another thing— 
 we were born in a great nation. You can't be much 
 of a man without having a nation behind you, with 
 you. Just think about it! What would Shakespeare 
 have been if he had been born in Labrador? I used 
 to know an old lawyer in southern Illinois, a smart old 
 chap, who used to mourn his unfortunate surround- 
 ings. He lived in Pinckneyville, and sometimes he 
 drank a little too freely of Illinois wine, and when in 
 his cups he sometimes grew philosophic and egotistical. 
 He said one day, *'Boys, I have got more brains than 
 you have— I have, but I never had a chance. I want 
 you to just think of it. What would Daniel Webster 
 have been if he had settled in Pinckneyville ? ' ' 
 
 So I congratulate you all that you were born in a 
 302 
 
Robert G. Ingersoll 
 
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL 303 
 
 great nation, born rich. And why do I say rich ? Be- 
 cause you fell heirs to a great, expressive, flexible lan- 
 guage; that is one thing. What could a man do who 
 speaks a poor language— a language of a few words 
 that you could almost count on your fingers? What 
 could he do? You were born heirs to a great litera- 
 ture—the greatest in the world— in all the world. All 
 the literature of Greece and Rome would not make one 
 act of "Hamlet." All the literature of the ancient 
 world added to all of the modern world, except Eng- 
 land, would not equal the literature that we have. We 
 were born to it, heirs to that vast intellectual pos- 
 session. 
 
 So I say you were all born rich— all. And then you 
 were very fortunate in being born in this country, 
 where people have some rights— not as many as they 
 should have, not as many as they would have if it 
 were not for the preachers, maybe, but where we have 
 some— and no man yet ever was great unless a great 
 drama was being played on some great stage and he 
 got a part. Nature deals you a hand, and all she 
 asks is for you to have the sense to play it. If no 
 hand is dealt to you, you win no money. You must 
 have the opportunity, must be on the stage, and some 
 great drama must be there. Take it in our own coun- 
 try. The Revolutionary War was a drama, and a few 
 great actors appeared; the War of 1812 was another, 
 and a few appeared; the Civil War another. Where 
 would have been the heroes whose brows we have 
 crowned with laurel had there been no Civil War? 
 What would have become of Lincoln, a lawyer in a 
 country town? What would have become of Grant? 
 
304 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 He would have been covered over with the mantle of 
 absolute obscurity, tucked in at all the edges, his name 
 never heard of by any human being not related to him. 
 
 Now, you have got to have the chance, and you can- 
 not create it. I heard a gentleman say here a few mo- 
 ments ago that this war could have been averted. That 
 is not true. I am not doubting his veracity, but rather 
 his philosophy. Nothing ever happened beneath the 
 dome of heaven that could have been avoided. Every- 
 thing that is possible happens. That may not suit all 
 the creeds, but it is true. And everything that is pos- 
 sible will continue to happen. The war could not have 
 been averted, and the thing that makes me glad and 
 proud is that it was not averted. I will tell you why. 
 It was the first war in the history of this world that 
 was waged unselfishly for the good of others— the 
 first war. Almost anybody will fight for himself; a 
 great many people will fight for their country, their 
 fellow-men, their fellow- citizens ; but it requires some- 
 thing besides courage to fight for the rights of aliens— 
 it requires not only courage, but principle and the 
 highest morality. This war was waged to compel 
 Spain to take her bloody hands from the throat of 
 Cuba. That is exactly what it was waged for. An- 
 other great drama was put upon the boards, another 
 play was advertised, and the actors had their oppor- 
 tunity. Had there been no such war, many of the 
 actors we never should have heard of. 
 
 But the thing is to take advantage of the occasion 
 when it arrives. In this war we added to the great- 
 ness and the glory of our history. That is another 
 thing that we all fell heirs to— the history of our peo- 
 
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL 305 
 
 pie, the history of our nation. We fell heirs to all 
 the great and grand things that had been accomplished, 
 to all the great deeds, to the splendid achievements 
 either in the realm of mind or on the field of battle. 
 
 Then there was another great drama. The first thing 
 we knew, a man in the far Pacific, a gentleman from 
 Vermont, sailed one May morning into the bay of Ma- 
 nila, and the next news was that the Spanish fleet had 
 been beached, burned, destroyed, and nothing had hap- 
 pened to him. I have read a little history, not much, 
 and a good deal that I have read was not true. I have 
 read something of our own navy, not much. I recollect, 
 when I was a small boy, my hero was Paul Jones— he 
 covered the ocean— and afterward I knew of Hull, and 
 Perry and Decatur and Bainbridge, and a good many 
 others that I don't remember now. And then came 
 the Civil War, and I remember a little about Farragut, 
 a great admiral— as great as ever trod a deck, in my 
 judgment. And I have also read about the admirals 
 and the sailors all over the world. I knew something of 
 Drake, and I have read the life of Nelson and several 
 other sea dogs ; but when I got the news from Manila 
 I said, ** There is the most wonderful victory ever won 
 on the sea," and I did n't think it ever would be 
 paralleled. I thought such things came one in a box. 
 But a little while afterward another of Spain's fleets 
 was heard from. Oh, those Spaniards! They have 
 got the courage of passion, but that is not the highest 
 courage. They have got plenty of that ; but it is neces- 
 sary to be cool, courageous, and to have the brain work- 
 ing with the accuracy of an engine— courageous, I 
 don't care how mad you get, but there must not be a 
 
 20 
 
306 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 cloud in the heaven of your judgment. That is Anglo- 
 Saxon courage, and there is no higher type. The 
 Spaniards sprinkled the holy water on their guns, then 
 banged away, and left it to the Holy Ghost to direct 
 the rest. 
 
 Another fleet, at Santiago, ventured out one day, and 
 another great victory was won by the American navy. 
 I don't know which victory was the more wonderful, 
 that at Manila Bay or that at Santiago. The Spanish 
 ships were, some of them, of the best class and type, 
 and had fine guns, yet in a few moments they were 
 wrecks on the shore of defeat, gone, lost. 
 
 Admiral Schley has added not only to our wealth, 
 but to the wealth of the children yet unborn that are 
 going to come into the great heritage not only of 
 wealth, but of the highest possible riches, glory, honor, 
 achievement. That is the reason I congratulate all of 
 you to-night. And I congratulate you on another 
 thing, that this country has entered upon the great 
 highway, I believe, of progress. I believe that. This 
 great nation has the sentiment, the feeling of growth. 
 The successful farmer wants to buy the land adjoining 
 him ; the great nation loves to see its territory increase. 
 And what has been our history? Why, when we 
 bought Louisiana from Napoleon, in 1803, thousands 
 of people were opposed to ** imperialism," to expan- 
 sion — those poor old moss-backs were opposed to it. 
 When we bought Florida it was the same. When we 
 took the vast West from Mexico in 1848 it was the 
 same. When we took Alaska it was the same. Now is 
 anybody in favor of giving away any of those pos- 
 sessions ? 
 
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL 307 
 
 We have annexed Hawaii, and we have got the big- 
 gest volcano in the business. A man I know visited 
 that volcano some years ago, and came back and told 
 me about his visit. He said that at the little hotel 
 there they had a guest-book in which the people wrote 
 their feelings on seeing the volcano in action. ^ ' Now, ' ' 
 he said, ''I will tell you this so that you may know 
 how you are spreading out yourself. One man 
 had written in that book, ^If Bob IngersoU were 
 here I think he would change his notion about 
 hell.' " 
 
 I want that volcano— I want the Philippines. It 
 would be simply infamous to hand those people back to 
 the brutality of Spain. Spain has been Christianiz- 
 ing them for about four hundred years. The first 
 thing the poor devils did was to sign a petition for 
 the expulsion of the priests. That was their idea of 
 the commencement of liberty. They are not quite as 
 savage as some people imagine. I want those islands; 
 I want all of them, and I don't know that I disagree 
 with the Rev. Mr. Slicer as to the use we can put 
 them to. I don't know that they will be of any use, but 
 I want them; they might come handy. And I wanted 
 to pick up the small change, the Ladrones and the 
 Carolines. I am glad we have got Porto Rico. I don't 
 know that it will be of any use, but there 's no harm in 
 having the title. I want Cuba whenever Cuba wants 
 us, and I favor the idea of getting her in the notion 
 of wanting us. I want it in the interest, as I believe, 
 of humanity, of progress— in other words, of human 
 liberty. That is what the war was waged for, and the 
 fact that it was waged for that gives an additional glory 
 
308 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 to these naval officers and to the officers in the army. 
 They fought in the first righteous war— I mean right- 
 eous in the sense that they fought for the liberty of 
 others. I congratulate you that you belong to this 
 race, to this nation, and that you are equal heirs in 
 the glory of the great Republic. 
 
WHITELAW REID^ 
 
 AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, FEBRUARY 11, 1899 
 
 I CANNOT express, and I shall not attempt to ex- 
 press, the emotions with which I have been filled by 
 this kindly welcome, by these too generous words, by 
 the sight of all these friends, and the associations 
 of the past score of years, which have come back with 
 a rush as I sat at this table and listened to this ad- 
 dress. It would be idle, however, to assume that the 
 greeting of the dear old club is due entirely or mainly to 
 the old cause— that constant good will, which followed 
 me during the fourteen years of presidency here, with 
 which you honored me, and ever since. The present 
 occasion has obviously more than merely a personal 
 meaning. 
 
 It was my good fortune, through the friendly par- 
 tiality of the President of the United States, to be 
 associated in a great work, at a foreign capital, in 
 which you took a patriotic interest, and over the rati- 
 fication of which you use this means of expressing 
 your satisfaction. It was a happy thing for us to be 
 able to bring back peace to our own land, and a hap- 
 pier one to find that our treaty is accepted by the 
 Senate and the people as one that guards the honor 
 
 1 This speech was the first public utterance by any one of the Peace 
 Commissioners after the ra,tification of the treaty. 
 20* 309 
 
310 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 and protects the interests of the country. Only so 
 should a nation like ours make peace at all. 
 
 " Come Peace, not like a mourner bowed 
 For honor lost and dear ones wasted ', 
 But proud, to meet a people proud, 
 With eyes that tell of triumph tasted. " 
 
 I shall make no apology— now that the Senate has 
 unsealed our lips— for speaking briefly of this work 
 just happily completed. 
 
 The only complaint one hears about it is that y/e 
 did our duty too well— that, in fact, we made peace on 
 terms too favorable to our own country. In all the 
 pending discussion there seems to be no other fault 
 found. On no other point is the treaty said by any 
 one to be seriously defective. 
 
 It loyally carried out the attitude of Congress as to 
 Cuba. It enforced the renunciation of Spanish sover- 
 eignty there, but, in spite of the most earnest Spanish 
 efforts, it refused to accept American sovereignty. It 
 loaded neither ourselves nor the Cubans with the so- 
 called Cuban debts, incurred by Spain in the efforts 
 to subdue them. It involved us in no complications, 
 either in the West Indies or in the East, as to contracts 
 or claims or religious establishments. It dealt liber- 
 ally with a fallen foe, giving him a generous lump sum 
 that more than covered any legitimate debts or expen- 
 ditures for pacific improvements ; assuming the burden 
 of just claims against him by our own people; carry- 
 ing back the armies surrendered on the other side of 
 the world at our own cost; returning their arms; even 
 
WHITELAW REID 311 
 
 restoring them their artillery, including heavy ord- 
 nance in field fortifications, munitions of war, and the 
 very cattle that dragged their caissons. It secured 
 alike for Cubans and Filipinos the release of political 
 prisoners. It scrupulously reserved for Congress the 
 power of determining the political status of the in- 
 habitants of our new possessions. It declared on be- 
 half of the most protectionist country in the world for 
 the policy of the open door within the Asiatic sphere 
 of its influence. 
 
 "With all this the Senate and the country seemed 
 content. But the treaty refused to return to Spanish 
 rule one foot of territory over which that rule had 
 been broken by the triumphs of our arms. 
 
 Were we to be reproached for that? Should the 
 Senate have told us, ''You overdid this business; you 
 looked after the interests of your own country too thor- 
 oughly. You ought to have abandoned the great ar- 
 chipelago which the fortunes of war had placed at 
 your country's disposal. You are not exactly unfaith- 
 ful servants; you are too blindly, unswervingly faith- 
 ful. You have n't seized an opportunity to run away 
 from some distant results of the war into which Con- 
 gress plunged the country before dreaming how far it 
 might spread. You have n't dodged for us the re- 
 sponsibilities we incurred." 
 
 That is true. When Admiral Dewey sunk the Span- 
 ish fleet, and General Merritt captured the Spanish 
 army that alone maintained the Spanish hold on the 
 Philippines, the Spanish power there was gone; and 
 the civilization and the common-sense and the Chris- 
 tianity of the world looked to the power that sue- 
 
312 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 ceeded it to accept its responsibilities. So we took the 
 Philippines. How could men representing this coun- 
 try, jealous of its honor, or with an adequate compre- 
 hension either of its duty or its rights, do otherwise? 
 
 A nation at war over a disputed boundary or some 
 other material interest might properly stop when that 
 interest was secured, and give back to the enemy all 
 else that had been taken from him. But this was not 
 a war for any material interest. It was a war to put 
 down a rule over an alien people, which we declared 
 so wicked and barbarous that we could no longer tol- 
 erate it. How could we consent to secure peace, after 
 we had broken down this wicked and barbarous rule in 
 two archipelagos, by agreeing that one of them should 
 be forced back under it? 
 
 There was certainly another alternative. After de- 
 stroying the only organized government in the archi- 
 pelago, the only security for life and property, native 
 and foreign, in great commercial centers like Manila, 
 Iloilo, and Cebu, against hordes of uncivilized pagans 
 and Mohammedan Malays, should we then scuttle out 
 and leave them to their fate? A band of old-time 
 Norse pirates, used to swooping down on a capital, 
 capturing its rulers, seizing its treasure, burning the 
 town, abandoning the people to domestic disorder and 
 foreign spoliation, and promptly sailing off for another 
 piratical foray— a band of pirates, used to that sort of 
 thing, might, no doubt, have left Manila to be sacked 
 by the insurgents, while it fled from the Philippines. 
 We did not think a self-respecting, civilized, respon- 
 sible Christian power could. 
 
 There was another side to it. In a conflict to which 
 
WHITELAW REID 313 
 
 fifty years of steadily increasing provocation had 
 driven us we had lost two hundred and sixty-six sail- 
 ors, treacherously murdered on the Maine, had lost at 
 Santiago and elsewhere uncounted victims of Spanish 
 guns and tropical climates, and had spent in this war 
 over $240,000,000, without counting the pensions that 
 must still accrue under laws existing when it began. 
 Where was the indemnity which under such circum- 
 stances it is the duty of the victorious nation to exact, 
 not only in its own interest, but in the interest of a 
 Christian civilization and the tendencies of modern 
 international law, which require that a nation provok- 
 ing unjust war shall smart for it, not merely while it 
 lasts, but by paying the cost when it is ended? Spain 
 had no money even to pay her own soldiers. No in- 
 demnity was possible, save in territory. Well, we once 
 wanted to buy Cuba, before it had been desolated by 
 twelve years of war and decimated by the barbarism 
 of Weyler; yet our uttermost offer for it, our highest 
 valuation even then, was $125,000,000— less than half 
 the cost of our war. But now we were precluded from 
 taking Cuba. Porto Rico, immeasurably less impor- 
 tant to us, and eight hundred miles further away from 
 our coast, is only one twelfth the size of Cuba. Were 
 the representatives of the United States, charged with 
 the duty of protecting not only its honor, but its in- 
 terests, in arranging terms of peace, to content them- 
 selves mth little Porto Rico away off, a third of the 
 way to Spain, plus the petty reef of Guam, in the mid- 
 dle of the Pacific, as indemnity for an unprovoked 
 war that had cost and was to cost their country 
 $300,000,000? 
 
314 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 But, some one exclaims, the Philippines are already 
 giving us more trouble than they are worth. It is 
 natural to say so just now, and it is partly true. 
 What they are worth and likely to be worth to this 
 country in the race for commercial supremacy on the 
 Pacific, — that is to say for supremacy in the great de- 
 velopment of trade in the twentieth century,— is a 
 question too large to be so summarily decided, or to be 
 entered on at the close of a dinner, and under the 
 irritation of a Malay half-breed's folly. But nobody 
 ever doubted that they would give us trouble. That is 
 the price nations must pay for going to war, even in a 
 just cause. I was not one of those who were eager to 
 begin this war with Spain; but I protest against any 
 attempt to evade our just responsibility in the position 
 in which it has left us. We shall have trouble in 
 the Philippines. So we shall have trouble in Cuba 
 and in Porto Eico. If we dawdle and hesitate, and 
 lead them to think we fear them and fear trouble, our 
 trouble will be great. If, on the other hand, we grasp 
 this nettle danger, if we act promptly, with inexorable 
 vigor, and with justice, it may be slight. But the 
 graver the crisis the plainer our path. God give us 
 the courage to purify our politics and strengthen our 
 government to meet these new and grave duties ! 
 
ST. CLAIR McKELWAY 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO WHITELAW REID, FEBRUARY 11, 1899 
 
 I HAVE a voice which can be relied on to empty 
 the largest hall in either city, but to-night it is 
 with difficulty that, either with eyes or tongue, I can 
 get onto your curves. In front of me is the original 
 territory of the Lotos Club. On my right are the 
 colonial acquisitions. If I desired to speak upon the 
 present, in its aspects of peace, I should but supplement 
 what a man of the study or of the sanctum has said. If 
 I should forecast the future and sprinkle the front of 
 it with blood, I should supplement what an apostle of 
 ''Peace on earth and good will to men" has said. I 
 shall therefore adhere to neither rule. On an occasion 
 like this mechanical aid to the memory should not be 
 neglected. If I tell off on my fingers the words, ''Lotos 
 Club," "newspaper dinners," "Minister to France," 
 "candidate for Vice-President," "special envoy to 
 Great Britain," "Peace Commissioner," and "The 
 New- York Tribune, ' ' my speech is at my fingers ' ends, 
 and the rest is mere and sheer amplification. 
 
 Now, I always speak at dinners to newspaper men in 
 the Lotos Club. I notice then that you honor them in 
 succession, and that is because the problem of getting 
 them all at once into a room would be so difficult that 
 
 315 
 
316 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 the effort to make them all keep the peace at the same 
 time at the same table would become impossible. 
 
 Now I, by a side-borough environment, am entirely 
 too minor and have been too long in this business to 
 form enmities. Consequently, I come to you in the 
 double character of the metaphorical olive branch, and 
 as a possible substitute for a policeman ; and no news- 
 paper man's dinner of the Lotos Club is complete with- 
 out me. This is not my thought. It is the thought of 
 John Elderkin and Chester Lord. If they deny it, the 
 truth is not in them, and that absolution of Dr. Mac- 
 Arthur which has the certainty of human endorsement 
 and the possibility of divine favor will be denied to 
 them. 
 
 I was here at the dinner to Sir Edwin Arnold of 
 Japan and of the ' ' London Telegraph. ' ' He left behind 
 him the original manuscript of a poem which is to be 
 found in full in the archives of the Lotos Club. It 
 describes what Mme. Bernhardt calls ''the pathetic 
 story of Mme. Potiphair and les miserable Jo-seph!" 
 It was written not necessarily for publication, but as a 
 guarantee of good faith. I was here at the dinner to 
 Murat Halstead, occasionally of Cuba, not infrequently 
 of the "Journal," and traditionally of Brooklyn and 
 of the ' ' Standard Union. ' ' I was here at a memorable 
 dinner to Charles A. Dana, the Nestor of our pro- 
 fession, the most vigorous and the most versatile and 
 the most stimulating of all newspaper men, and easily 
 the most sardonic being that the profession has ever had. 
 
 This brings me in stately procession to the guest of 
 the evening. I was here at the dinner to Mr. Reid on 
 his return from France. I was at the Ohio Society 
 
ST. CLAIR McKELWAY 317 
 
 dinner at which they similarly honored him. At that 
 table sat Mark Hanna, William L. Strong, the late 
 Calvin S. Brice, and Mr. Reid, as well as then plain 
 William McKinley. I predicted for all of them dis- 
 tinction, the distinction which the action of a party 
 from which I sincerely differ, but for most of the can- 
 didates of which I have had to vote of late years, 
 would bestow upon them. I did not predict that be- 
 cause of their Ohioism, but because of their meekness. 
 ''The meek shall inherit the earth." The Ohio man 
 asks no more. 
 
 But in what character do we welcome our guest to- 
 night? Recognition of his presidency of the Lotos 
 Club has gone to the limit. How you kept him for four- 
 teen years is one of the Eleusinian mysteries, and will 
 be without parallel in the world until his successor, Mr. 
 Lawrence, exceeds his limit. It is not in his character 
 as Minister to France, because that has been duly and 
 appropriately honored. We all of us regret that his ef- 
 fort to negotiate the entrance of the American hog into 
 France did not secure the permanent exclusion of that 
 animal from vehicles of conveyance in Manhattan. 
 Nor is this occasion a tribute to the late Vice-Presi- 
 dential nomination, great as that honor was. Nor is 
 it a tribute to the position of Special Envoy and Am- 
 bassador to Great Britain on the occasion of the jubilee, 
 plus ten years, of Queen Victoria. But then and there 
 and in Paris were laid the foundations of knowledge, 
 were presented the lessons of opportunity which were 
 duly improved and which made him a forceful factor 
 in the latest but not the last honor that befell him— 
 membership of the Commission of Peace. 
 
318 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 I wish to extend the development of the subject upon 
 which Mr. Eeid has enlarged. I wish to say that be- 
 fore he was appointed commissioner, and when he did 
 not know that he would be appointed, he wrote out 
 and "The Century Magazine" published a conclusive 
 argument, to my mind, that we should and would ac- 
 quire the Philippines, and acquire all of them. He was 
 appointed on that commission by the prescience of the 
 President of the United States. He was a minority of 
 one against four upon that proposition. I do not say 
 that he converted his colleagues to his view; I do say 
 that all of them, in the eventual result, sided with him, 
 probably from their experience with the Spanish com- 
 missioners themselves, probably from their study of 
 the situation under the favoring perspective of foreign 
 distance, possibly because they saw that any other solu- 
 tion would be unjust to Spain herself, unfair to the 
 United States, and perilous to the peace of the world. 
 Anyway, what was written was written, and what was 
 written was published, and, gentlemen, the brief of 
 your guest to-night in the periodical to which I refer 
 became the case of his country in the tribunal in which, 
 with his distinguished colleagues, he well represented 
 our nation. 
 
 Gentlemen, I am among those who believe that we 
 should have taken, as we did take, all the Philippines. 
 The reasons advanced by Mr. Reid are, to me, an ade- 
 quate justification for that opinion. I think that we 
 went there, as John Hay said on a certain occasion 
 and in view of another subject, ''under the imposition 
 of unseen hands." I think we went there as the con- 
 stables of humanity and commerce and civilization. 
 I think we went there under that almost holy trinity of 
 
ST. CLAIR McKELWAY 319 
 
 transforming forces, and I believe that the end will 
 vindicate the work. 
 
 The peculiar honor of Whitelaw Reid will be that he 
 was always sufficient unto all the things that have been 
 assigned to him by his government or that have been 
 assigned to him in the trusts of the profession which he 
 adorns and strengthens. He has always stood for fair 
 play in politics. He has always kept on the clean side of 
 issues within his own party. He has always avoided 
 all avoidable controversies in his profession. He sig- 
 nalized his advent here by a statement that the '* Tri- 
 bune" was through with editing other papers than 
 itself; that he was not holding controversies on per- 
 sonal grounds with his contemporaries; that he would 
 not open a quarrel in the columns of his journal against 
 any antagonist under the impression that personal 
 abuse of others was of interest to a self-respecting con- 
 stituency. And I to-night, as a newspaper man speak- 
 ing to him, a newspaper man, confess my obligation to 
 that initial utterance. When it was made I was earn- 
 ing an uncomfortably small salary in fighting the bat- 
 tles of men whose feuds I had not made, to w^hose quar- 
 rels I had no relation, and on whose account it ought 
 to have been unnecessary for me to engage in warfare. 
 It occurred to me that journalism had a larger pur- 
 pose, that it would have a nobler and broader outlook, 
 that it would have more respectability and more sol- 
 vency in the world if it, in the first instance, were 
 divorced from personalities, and, in the second in- 
 stance, from servile party control, and were placed in 
 sympathy with the best influences in both parties, so 
 that the country might suffer no evil by the success of 
 either. 
 
CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 
 
 AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, MARCH 11, 1899 
 
 (Upon Ms election to the Senate of the United States.) 
 
 I DO not know whether it is better for a man to 
 achieve fame or to have fame frescoed upon him 
 by the eloquent words of the president of this club. 
 A man would be insensible to ambition, to its results 
 and its gratifications, if he did not feel proud when his 
 fellow- citizens had selected him in their interests for 
 a position of great trust and great responsibility. But 
 there is about this greeting something beyond that 
 which comes from the gratification of having been ap- 
 pointed or elected to a great place. 
 
 The situation is illustrated most happily in a per- 
 sonal incident— and by your favor this is a personal 
 night. Away back ages ago, when I was a youth, 
 there came to the old homestead up in Peekskill one 
 night the returns of an election in which I had been 
 successful as the candidate at the head of the Repub- 
 lican ticket for Secretary of State. Within a few 
 minutes the old homestead was surrounded by a multi- 
 tude of neighbors mth brass bands and banners and 
 fireworks. My sturdy old democratic Dutch father 
 had been too good a Democrat to vote for me, but he 
 was too good a father not to rejoice in the success of 
 his son. As a Democrat, he had no words which would 
 
 320 
 
CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 321 
 
 express his feelings on the occasion, mixed as they 
 were, and so he simply threw his arms about his boy 
 and wept. Those tears made that night more memora- 
 ble, more dear, more tender, more deep in the chords 
 that they touched than all the votes that made the event 
 possible. And such is true of to-night. 
 
 Some of the great composers of the oratorios which 
 have become famous in the operatic world have re- 
 vealed the processes of their preparation. One has 
 said that his genius could never be moved unless he 
 had a cat upon his shoulder; and as we listen to his 
 symphonies those of us who have been born in the 
 country recognize the orchestra which we have often 
 heard upon the backyard fence on a summer's night. 
 One of world-wide fame has said that his genius could 
 only be stirred at the billiard table, and through his 
 symphonies we hear the rattling of the ivory balls. 
 Another has said that he could only write his score 
 when he was walking in the woods, when he was com- 
 muning with nature, and so he has transferred to the 
 orchestra, to the tenor, to the soprano, and to the chorus 
 the sublime secrets of creation. 
 
 Now, when a man is elected to a place which grati- 
 fies his fellow-citizens, when he is a man of many clubs, 
 of many associations, of many attachments, he is some- 
 thing like these composers in the narrowness or broad- 
 ness and in the environment which calls forth the 
 world-wide sympathy of the greeting which is extended 
 to him. For instance, his political club is wild with 
 the enthusiasm of the success of the party and the 
 success of a party candidate. But there is a fly in the 
 amber. It is that it is necessary for all political clubs 
 
 21 
 
322 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 and all political parties to have two factions. The fac- 
 tion with which the successful gentleman has pre- 
 viously acted limit their enthusiasm somewhat because 
 he has been too cordial with their enemies, and the 
 kickers among the independents recognize that there is 
 a distinct flaw in the candidate because of his previous 
 associations. Between the two is an arctic circle, and to 
 cross it and bring them together requires a genius and a 
 warmth which Kane never had when he tried to reach 
 the North Pole in his ship, and Nansen never had when 
 he tried to cross the Arctic Sea on his sled, and Andree 
 never had in his balloon, so far as any one knows. And 
 when you come to the social club and they say, ''We 
 will extend to you our cordiality and our greeting," 
 you find that they cannot do it with unanimity because 
 the social club is divided into cliques formed from asso- 
 ciations, birth, or fortune. When you come to the 
 purely artistic club each man stands in the egotistic 
 isolation of himself, which is best illustrated by that 
 well-known story of Whistler, according to which a 
 man who wished to pay him the greatest compliment 
 in the world said : ' * The two greatest portrait painters 
 of all ages were Yelasquez and Whistler," and Whis- 
 tler immediately asked, ''Why Yelasquez?" 
 
 But if we are to find a party spirit without partisan- 
 ship or bigotry, if we are to find art without isolation, 
 if we are to find the workaday fellows in the fields or 
 professions all upon a common democratic plane, all 
 feeling that they are brothers in the same broad spirit 
 of humanity which characterizes the association, we 
 must look to Bohemia. It is only among the Bohe- 
 mians that Democrats are Republicans, that Republi- 
 
CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 323 
 
 cans are Democrats, that Populists are monopolists, 
 and monopolists are Populists. It is only in Bohemia 
 that journalists recognize the brotherhood of the craft, 
 and that artists recognize the glory of their profession 
 without regard to the distinction of the individual, 
 whether the art be with the chisel, with the pencil, or 
 upon the lyric or upon the dramatic stage. It is that, 
 gentlemen, brethren of the Lotos Club, that makes the 
 honor which the Lotos confers upon the guest whom it 
 distinguishes a recognition without a drawback, a gem 
 without a flaw, as that gem of purest ray serene which 
 has been plucked from the depth of the ocean and 
 is hidden there no longer, and in its luminous rays 
 there is the joy of those who give and the ecstasy of 
 him who participates. 
 
 New York has been represented in the United States 
 Senate in the course of its history, and is represented 
 to-day, by men who have been distinguished for their 
 eloquence, have been distinguished for their states- 
 manship, have been distinguished by their skill as poli- 
 ticians, have been distinguished by their ability to leg- 
 islate for the benefit of their constituencies, men who 
 have conferred great distinction not only upon our 
 great commonwealth but upon our country. But none 
 of us remembers a United States Senator in the United 
 States Senate who represented in his person, in his 
 association, in his life, and in his characteristics the 
 associations, the life, and the characteristics of that 
 which makes up a New-Yorker of this grand old city of 
 New York. The New-Yorker is different from any 
 other human being of any part of this country or any 
 other part of the world. It is very rare, if ever, that 
 
324 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 he is born here. It is very difficult for a man to be 
 born in New York and be a New-Yorker. Somehow or 
 other it narrows him. But the genuine New-Yorkers 
 have come in that ever-surging crowd who are elbow- 
 ing their way through the gates of this great city day 
 and night to make their mark, to acquire fortunes, and 
 to win their spurs. Many of them fall by the way- 
 side and are never heard of. Many of them have 
 strength enough to get back to their country home. 
 Some of them come here with the pride of success in 
 rural neighborhoods and bring in cash all that they 
 have accumulated, for the purpose of cleaning out the 
 dudes of Wall street. They go back to the places 
 where they originated, and spend their lives in philip- 
 pics against the sharks of money who hibernate here. 
 The men we know have come from the granite hills 
 of New England, they have come from rural New York, 
 they have come from the farms of the West, they have 
 come from the plantations of the South, they have 
 come from abroad, with grit enough to get here and 
 with energy enough to get on. They have displayed 
 the American grit and pluck and faculty which enable 
 a man, when once his feet are planted upon our pave- 
 ment, to retain a positive foothold, and their brains 
 have been sharpened upon the New York curb. Those 
 men do not differ in their rural characteristics of ordi- 
 nary life from their neighbors in any part of this coun- 
 try; they are about the same in the family, in the 
 church, and in business. But there the resemblance 
 ceases. Beyond that they are the men of the clubs, 
 and many of them. They are the men of broad liber- 
 ality in politics; they are the men of the theatres and 
 
CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 325 
 
 the first nights; they are the men of the operas, when 
 they are good ; they are the men who are interested in 
 all that goes to interest people in a great metropolis— 
 in its literature, in its athletics, in everything. They 
 are men about town. They are metropolitans and cos- 
 mopolitans of this most unique and first of the cities 
 of this world. 
 
 Now, after I have been twenty-five years living in 
 this life, having these associations, going about this 
 town at all times of the day and night in order to be a 
 New-Yorker ; living here with no place, no association, 
 no environment that does not know me ; if, when I get 
 to Washington as a senator and during those six years 
 the millions of men and women who make New York 
 what it is— the metropolis of this western continent, 
 and rapidly becoming the greatest center of thought 
 in the world— recognize me as a man whom they know 
 and who knows them, then the cup of my senatorial 
 happiness will be full. 
 
 And nothing better illustrates the broad catholicity 
 of the sentiment which calls us together here to-night, 
 and the broad catholicity of the sentiment which has 
 made me so happy in my election, than the fact that 
 among the guests who are here is one of the statesmen 
 of the Democratic party, one of the ablest Democrats 
 that the Democracy of this State has ever known, the 
 most formidable as well as the most chivalrous of f oes— 
 David B. Hill. 
 
 Now, my friends, our politics have been more often 
 dull than lively, more often uninteresting than other- 
 wise. There were periods in the fifties when there was 
 a deadly dullness in American politics, and there were 
 
 21* 
 
326 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 also deadly dull days from 1880 to 1896. Certainly 
 during those times business and the professions offered 
 infinitely better incentives and attractions in the way 
 of progress and development and the achievement of 
 fame than did any position in the public life of the 
 United States. In 1896 the acute question of the cur- 
 rency and of American credit furnished an incentive 
 to American study and American thought. We lifted 
 our politics into an interesting period; and the events 
 which have occurred during the last year have lifted 
 our politics upon a still higher plane of thought and 
 upon a still higher plane for the exercise of the best 
 qualities of American statesmanship. 
 
 There are two lines of Tennyson which always strike 
 me as peculiarly applicable to our American conditions 
 and our American life. One is, ''Better fifty years of 
 Europe than a cycle of Cathay." The poet laureate 
 had in his mind when he wrote that line the splendors 
 of the literature of the nineteenth century compared 
 with the deadly dullness of Asia and of Africa. But 
 that line is peculiarly applicable, Mr. President, to 
 American conditions, not on the literary side, but in 
 the era of the activities which we have experienced in 
 the closing years of the nineteenth century. 
 
 The idea embodied in the other line of Tennyson is 
 that we are the heirs of all the ages in the foremost 
 files of time. Tennyson had in his thoughts that we 
 are the heirs of the literature and the art of the an- 
 cients, of the literature and the art of the medieval 
 period, the heirs of Bacon, Milton, Dante, and Shake- 
 speare. We are the heirs of still more. We are the 
 heirs of the conditions which the principles of liberty 
 have evolved in this Western Hemisphere. 
 
CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 327 
 
 Gentlemen of the Lotos Club, if to-night I have been 
 tempted to assume a little touch of the senator you will 
 forgive me. I have behind me the twenty-five years of 
 my membership in this club, and my tender, affection- 
 ate, and glorious recollection of the memorable nights 
 which have been passed here when we have given our 
 entertainments to men of the greatest genius in every 
 department of literature and of art from all the world. 
 
THEODOEE EOOSEYELT 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW, MARCH 11, 1899 
 
 I AM glad to have the chance to be one of those 
 who join in honoring Senator Depew to-night. It 
 has seemed to me to speak well for our politics that we 
 should send to the Senate, in his person, a man who has 
 won his place fairly and squarely by years of long 
 service in the political arena— service given disinter- 
 estedly, because the man deemed that he should give 
 expression to the faith that was in him, should fight for 
 the principles in which he believed. 
 
 I am glad that we shall have in the Senate a man 
 whom we don't have to explain, of whom we don't have 
 to say when asked who the man is, "Why, he is the 
 senator from New York," instead of saying, "He is 
 Chauncey Depew!" And we can all the more count 
 upon the political service to which we are entitled from 
 our representative at "Washington because he is a man 
 who has already won his spurs in the political arena; 
 because, gentlemen, though he is a New-Yorker, he is 
 even more, for he is an American. 
 
 Now, I am glad that you should have as guests at 
 your table to-night with the newly elected senator of 
 the State, representatives of one of the two branches 
 of a service, the welfare of which should be closest to 
 the hearts of all Americans, because no American has 
 
 328 
 
THEODORE ROOSEVELT 329 
 
 any local or pecuniary interest in their welfare— the 
 army and the navy. 
 
 As you know, I am an expansionist; and I am an 
 expansionist because I believe that this people must 
 play the part of a great people; because I believe it 
 must do its share in the hard work of the world; be- 
 cause I don't think it is good for a nation, any more 
 than for an individual, to spend all the time intro- 
 spectively in the affairs of its own household merely. 
 It will manage them all the better if it has outside 
 interests. It must manage those interests from a dou- 
 ble standpoint. It is bound to manage them from the 
 standpoint of the honor of America and from the 
 standpoint of the interests of the people governed. 
 
 Now, we can't do our duty, we can't do the task to 
 which we have put our hands, if we don't set about it 
 with a sober realization of what the task is. In other 
 words, if we don 't have in the national Legislature men 
 who remember that greater than any debt that they 
 owe to any locality is the debt they owe all America; 
 that greater than any one interest is the interest of 
 all the people. I have the utmost confidence in our 
 people, but I regret to state that I believe that at times 
 we slumber. And he is a poor patriot who fails to 
 point out where we come short, in order that we may 
 remedy the shortcoming. 
 
 Did you see a little item the other day to the effect 
 that one of the towns in Alaska had expressed its de- 
 sire to shift from under the flag of the United States, 
 because it had never been worth while for the people 
 of this country to try to give Alaska a really good 
 government? I do not know whether the item was 
 
330 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 true; but we have, as a people, been guilty in the past 
 about Alaska. Not another session of Congress should 
 go by without our giving to Alaska the kind of gov- 
 ernment to which any dependency, colony, territory- 
 whatever you choose to call it— is entitled; until we 
 have made it an object of pride to an Alaskan to be 
 an American, not to wish to become something else. 
 
 Now, why has n't Alaska received the proper govern- 
 ment? Because it is in nobody's district. If Alaska 
 had been a public building, had been a post-office, there 
 would have been fifty congressmen striving to build it 
 up ! I thank our good fortune that we have in Senator 
 Depew a man who will be sensitive to the honor of the 
 flag, will realize what the real interest of America is, 
 and will do his part in making it impossible hereafter 
 for such a thing to occur as that which has come to 
 light concerning that Alaskan town. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, you listened to General Merritt to- 
 night, and you heard what many of us knew, that there 
 were times in the summer of 1898 when we were within 
 measurable distance of a conflict with some foe far more 
 formidable than Spain. I earnestly hope that we shall 
 have peace for all time with every nation ; but I know, 
 as you know, that peace comes to the strong man armed, 
 and not to the weakling. Should at any time peace 
 be broken, should there be a war five or six years 
 hence, every man in the Senate of the United States 
 who two weeks ago refused, upon any plea whatsoever, 
 to give us the ships to which we were entitled must 
 bear his share of responsibility for the danger that may 
 come upon us, for the disgrace to which we may be 
 exposed. A year ago I was in the Navy Department 
 
THEODORE ROOSEVELT 331 
 
 at the time of the outbreak of war with a power en- 
 tirely inferior to us as regards its navy, and I saw 
 then the panic into which our coast was thrown by the 
 threat of war with Spain. I listened to the deputa- 
 tions from city after city all along the coast, who came 
 to explain that some warship must be anchored off 
 their particular town. I listened to the panic— for 
 a panic it was— that found utterance in a nervous 
 grasping after so much as the semblance of protection. 
 It has all gone off now. People forget its existence. 
 It did not have any cause to exist then, but there may 
 be genuine cause for such a panic in the future if 
 we get into war with some great nation, if we find our- 
 selves face to face with an issue where we have either 
 to court national disgrace by backing down or to stand 
 up and try the wager of battle. It is the duty of every 
 patriotic American to see that the United States is 
 armed to meet such a crisis, to see that it has a navy 
 fit for its work, and to see that it has an army fit for 
 its work. 
 
 Last July it was my good fortune to Listen to the 
 thunder of General Randolph's guns at Santiago; and 
 because General Randolph fought so weU and because 
 the men under him fought so well, these guns served 
 their purpose. But how do you feel, as Americans, 
 for having furnished General Randolph with guns that 
 used black powder, which made every gun, immedi- 
 ately after its discharge, the target for every Spaniard 
 within a mile and a quarter; which left us inferior to 
 the most backward nation of Europe (the nation 
 against which we were pitted) in the quality of the 
 powder used in our guns? Was that creditable to 
 
 ^^ 
 
332 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 Americans as a patriotic and business people ? I think 
 not. 
 
 Furthermore, in times past we were economical about 
 our gunners, and did n't let them have much target 
 practice. We wanted to economize cartridges. This 
 great wealthy people could not pay for cartridges to 
 be used in training its men to shoot ! Now, Americans 
 do make splendid soldiers. They shoot w^ell naturally. 
 But they have got to be helped by training, or their 
 natural capacity will count for nothing. Go out and 
 try the experiment yourself —some of you use the rifle 
 —try to reach the target by the light of original reason, 
 without practice, and see how far you will get in the 
 experiment. Although the regular army men are very 
 good men, they are only men after all. You have got 
 to give them the right tools, and you have got to give 
 them a chance to practise with those tools. We must 
 have our navy exercised in fleets, our army exercised 
 in great field evolutions as an army. 
 
 We need an army, we need a navy, because we have 
 got to work out a great destiny ; and we have a right to 
 demand that this country, when it meets its great des- 
 tiny, shall be so fitted, so armed, so equipped that it 
 can make a record which shall be a source of pride 
 to each and every American within its borders. If we 
 do not prepare thoroughly in advance we can never 
 make such a record, and then shame will cover us, and 
 we ourselves, who fail to prepare, will be responsible 
 for the shame. 
 
GEORGE H. DANIELS 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW, MARCH 11, 1899 
 
 IT seems to me a most fitting thing that, after a long 
 period of senseless prejudice against men connected 
 with transportation lines, the great state of New York 
 takes the lead in electing the most prominent railroad 
 man upon this continent to the Senate of the United 
 States. In doing that, however, we stand side by side 
 with the most absolute monarchy on the earth, and 
 with the foremost among the nations of Europe. The 
 Czar of Russia has for his chosen advisers two railroad 
 men. One, Prince Hilkoff, the Imperial Minister of 
 Railways of Russia, when a prince and in full posses- 
 sion of his title, left his home and came to the United 
 States and learned the trade of a mechanical engineer. 
 He went back to Russia, passed through all the grades 
 of the railroad service, from fireman to the manage- 
 ment of the most important railroad in Russia, and 
 now he sits in the cabinet of the Czar, the nearest man 
 to the youngest monarch on the earth. The other is 
 M. De Witte, the Imperial Minister of Finance. Six- 
 teen years ago he was a station agent at a small station 
 on a Polish railway. These two men are the special 
 advisers of the Czar, and when the Russian budget 
 was prepared for this year it was seen that the amount 
 which the Czar proposed to spend for the extension of 
 
 333 
 
334 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 their railways was greater than the total amount pro- 
 vided for the army and navy together. 
 
 The same week and almost the same day that the 
 Legislature of New York elected Chauncey M. Depew 
 Senator of the United States the Emperor of Germany 
 read from the throne his speech to the German Reich- 
 stag, and he asked that body to vote a larger amount 
 for the extension of the railways and the canals of Ger- 
 many than he did for both the army and navy. You 
 will thus see that railways and railway men are coming 
 to the front. It may not be amiss in this connection 
 to observe that the United States senator we are honor- 
 ing to-night is one of the members of the Lotos Club, 
 and that from our membership was selected the pres- 
 ent ambassador of the United States to France. We 
 feel that this club, if called upon, could furnish not 
 only a President of the United States, but the entire 
 Cabinet and all the foreign ministers; and if this 
 should be necessary, and these gentlemen were all ab- 
 sent attending to their duties elsewhere, this club could 
 still entertain the princes of the earth in a princely 
 manner. 
 
SIR HENEY lEYINa 
 
 AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, OCTOBER 28, 1899 
 
 IT is with no ordinary feeling of pleasure and hap- 
 piness that I find myself your guest to-night; and 
 it is to me a most inspiring occasion to see these eager 
 and noble faces full of such kindness and such regard. 
 Since we last met I have had what was for me a new 
 experience, an enforced rest ; and I am sure, as Ameri- 
 cans, you know— you who never rest— that an enforced 
 rest is not always pleasant for a man who likes and 
 loves his work. And I rejoice once more to clasp your 
 hands, the hands of friends who have been to me so 
 stanch and so true. 
 
 I cannot forget what our esteemed chairman has told 
 US; I cannot forget that when I first came to your 
 country, to these friendly and hospitable shores, in 
 1883, it was in your club that I received the first 
 stirring welcome to America. Since then some of us 
 are a little older, but as I look around this table I 
 see signs, extraordinary signs, of unabating vigor. 
 
 Our chairman has touched very closely something 
 that was in my heart, and is, I believe, in your hearts. 
 Since I first came here there has been a great develop- 
 ment of that brotherhood and good will which I be- 
 lieve all Englishmen and Americans who understand 
 one another as we do have always been anxious to see 
 
 335 
 
336 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 established between the two nations. If you will allow 
 me, gentlemen, I will tell you of a little incident which 
 occurred to me in your great navy yard on the Dela- 
 ware in 1895. I remember the day very well. The 
 yard was closed. It was a general holiday; in fact, it 
 was on Christmas morning. I was, I believe, the only 
 visitor on that occasion in the yard. The officer in 
 charge was sitting on a gun. He told me he was a 
 little invalided, and had been left in charge of the 
 yard, and he most kindly and courteously asked me 
 to share with him his Christmas dinner. Then he very 
 kindly and graciously pointed out to me many inter- 
 esting objects in the yard. I admired, as one could 
 not help admiring, a magnificent battle-ship— I forget 
 its name— which was lying on the river. While we 
 were talking and I was wondering at her mighty power 
 the officer said to me: *'Yes, yes; she is a great crea- 
 ture, is n't she?" **Yes," said I, ''she certainly is." 
 "And yet," he continued, "I am sorry to say that at 
 times even her power has its limits." "Indeed?" 
 said L "Its limits? How 's that?" "Well," he 
 said, "you know she sometimes has to go long dis- 
 tances. She can only go so many miles before she has 
 to be coaled, and we can't always coal her." "Oh!" 
 said I. "You can't always coal her, eh? But surely 
 that 's no limit." "How 's that?" he asked. "I 
 think it is." "Oh, no," said L "There ought to be 
 no difficulty about that. Why can't we coal together?" 
 Well, gentlemen and friends and brothers, perhaps 
 we never shall, but it seems to me that it would be no 
 unnatural thing if we ever do. Has n't your noble 
 hero, Admiral Dewey, given an honored British name 
 
SIR HENRY IRVING 337 
 
 to that lion cub, which we suppose in England is al- 
 ways his inseparable companion? I sincerely hope 
 that he will like it just as well when it grows up. Gen- 
 tlemen, if I may say so, I believe with all my heart 
 that there is a fellow-feeling, now manifested toward 
 us and from us to you, respecting the heavy respon- 
 sibility which England is now discharging, which, mis- 
 judged as it may be in Europe, will not be misjudged 
 in America. I do not pretend to be and am in no 
 way a politician, but I know this, that when the civil- 
 ized world passes judgment upon us, the good opinion 
 of your great Republic is the only opinion that we 
 shall value. 
 
 Gentlemen, I have no words with which to thank my 
 friend, if I may say so, Mr. Lawrence, for his, in your 
 behalf, more than affectionate and heart-moving greet- 
 ing; and I have no words to thank you for the proof 
 which this gathering has given me of your undimmed 
 regard, a regard which I feel goes out in a large mea- 
 sure to my dear friend Ellen Terry. She shares with 
 me the deep satisfaction of renewing our old ties with 
 a gracious, most gracious section of the American pub- 
 lic, and our hearts are full of gratitude and delight. 
 With a grateful remembrance of the loving cup which 
 this club presented to me, and which I keep as one of 
 the dearest mementoes of good-fellowship with which 
 I have been honored in this country— and which my 
 boy Laurence wiU possess after me— I can only say, 
 with my hand on my heart and my heart covered by 
 the two flags which, flown together, insure liberty to 
 the human race, God bless you, God bless you, my dear, 
 my constant friends, and God bless your great country. 
 
 22 
 
DAVID H. aEEEE 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO SIR HENRY IRVING, OCTOBER 28, 1899 
 
 WHO shall speak after the king ? It is with great 
 regret that I cannot find the words nor com- 
 mand the speech to express for yon and myself the sat- 
 isfaction that we both have in this memorable occasion. 
 I did not know until a moment ago that I was ex- 
 pected to say anything, but your president, with his 
 characteristic disposition to put people in a 'Ox, in- 
 formed me a few moments since that I was expected to 
 say something. And yet, after all, there is an appro- 
 priateness perhaps in calling upon me to say some- 
 thing, not because of what I am in myself— for in that 
 respect I am all too unworthy— but because of my office 
 as a clergyman it is fitting that I should say an ap- 
 proving word of the drama and the stage. 
 
 The religious instinct has always been, historically 
 and philosophically, intimately associated with the dra- 
 matic instinct. The theatre is as old as civilization. 
 When first it appears in civilization it appears in con- 
 nection with religion. So it was in classic Greece. So 
 it was in continental Europe. So it was in England. 
 The first plays were the miracle plays ; the first theatres 
 were the churches ; the first performers were the clergy- 
 men. By and by the theatre got from the church into 
 the churchyard; then it got upon wheels and moved 
 
 338 
 
DAVID H. GREER 339 
 
 about the country; then the professional actors came, 
 and humor and wit and merriment came to lash the 
 foibles of folly. But human life is something more 
 than a laugh. It has its hates and loves. It has its 
 strong passions. It has its deep tragedies; and com- 
 edy was merged into tragedy until the histrionic art 
 touched aU. the phases and forms of human life and 
 blossomed out into its beautiful bloom in the Eliza- 
 bethan period. It is an art that has its defects, like 
 every art. It is an art which has its noble quali- 
 ties. Those noble qualities have more and more been 
 coming out, and will continue to come out. Why? be- 
 cause the good is always stronger than the evil and the 
 bad. It only needs a chance. That is all it asks. Let 
 it have room and the good in every art will overcome 
 the evil. It is a biological fact, recently brought to 
 light, that the ultimate biological germ is composed of 
 two parts, of two halves— one the unselfish half, the 
 other the selfish half— the good and the bad in con- 
 flict and in struggle ; and because the good was stronger 
 than the bad the whole upward course of our evolu- 
 tion and our civilization has come. 
 
 This noble art, with its noble representatives, than 
 whom I venture to say— not speaking in the language 
 of exaggerated utterance— there is none nobler than he 
 who sits at our table to-night, wdll continue to become 
 more and more exalted. It will flourish more and 
 more until at last it shall become— I think it is Lord 
 Lytton who says something like this— "Not the resort 
 of the vicious and the vulgar, but the great and effec- 
 tive instrument by means of which the loftiest ideals, 
 the most heroic types of character, will be depicted 
 
340 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 and portrayed to the unfolding and responsive imagi- 
 nation of the people." It will reach that point. It 
 is hastening toward that consummation, and it will be 
 largely due to the genius of one who belongs neither 
 to England nor to America, but to the great Anglo- 
 Saxon race— the distinguished guest whom we have at 
 our board to-night. So far as it in me lies, if not in 
 the name of the State, then in the name of the Church 
 I welcome Sir Henry Irving to our shores. 
 
CHAELES WILLIAM STUBBS 
 
 (DEAN OF ELY) 
 AT THE DINNER TO SIR HENRY IRVING, OCTOBER 28, 1899 
 
 IN this atmosphere of resistless eloquence and wit 
 and humor and good-fellowship and comradeship 
 and eulogy, I confess I find myself somewhat embar- 
 rassed—embarrassed by the generosity of your kind 
 feeling toward me, expressed by your president, but 
 embarrassed especially because he has treated me with 
 not even that amount of generosity which he extended 
 to the gentleman who spoke last, and who needed no 
 such generosity. I have not even had the twenty min- 
 utes to compose any impromptu humorous remarks. 
 What, then, can I do ? I think it was one of your own 
 prophets— shall I say one of your own poets?— one of 
 the greatest of your literary men, an ambassador to 
 England, whom I am always glad to think was a per- 
 sonal friend of mine, Mr. James RusseU Lowell, who 
 once said that an after-dinner speech should consist 
 of an anecdote, a commonplace, and a quotation. Now, 
 how can I fulfil those canons of speech to-night? 
 
 As to an anecdote ; I am reminded, partly by the frank 
 comradeship of this meeting to-night, and partly, also, 
 by the rapidity with which the time is passing by, that 
 I am staying with one of the clergy of this city who 
 is not very well known to me as yet, although I find 
 
 22* 341 
 
342 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 that to know almost any American is to love him as a 
 friend. I do not, however, quite know how I shall be 
 received to-night if I return toward the small hours, 
 as would seem to be my prospect. 
 
 That suggests to me an incident which I remember, 
 a good many years ago, in my Cambridge life, when I 
 was present at a banquet given in the hall of St. Peter 's 
 College, Cambridge, in honor of its six hundredth anni- 
 versary. There were many speeches and many illus- 
 trious members of the college present. I remember 
 that it was half -past eleven o'clock at night when Sir 
 Edward Eandall, the brother of the judge, was called 
 upon to respond to "The Toast of the Applied Sci- 
 ences. ' ' He said something of this kind : ' ' Gentlemen, 
 I could have conceived of occasions when it would have 
 been delightful to me to expatiate upon such a subject, 
 but at this hour of the night the only application of 
 science that appears to me to be appropriate to the 
 moment is the application of the domestic Lucifer to 
 the bedroom candle." Whereupon your ambassador, 
 Mr. Lowell, with that happy genius, that quick power 
 of composition, and that delightful grace which were 
 always his own, wrote on the back of his menu and 
 tossed across the table these lines : 
 
 '' Oh, brief Sir Edward, 
 
 Who thy wit could catch, 
 Hold thee a candle 
 Or find thy match ? " 
 
 Now, gentlemen, I feel that after quoting to you 
 that incident I must justify the lesson I learned from 
 Mr. Lowell by being brief ; but I cannot sit down with- 
 
CHARLES WILLIAM STUBBS 343 
 
 out saying what a pleasure it has been to me to-night 
 to be a guest of this club. It is merely by accident, 
 as far as I am concerned, but it has been a delight to 
 me to take part in doing honor to our greatest English 
 actor. 
 
 It is true, I think, as the Rev. Dr. Greer hinted, that 
 the church and the stage have not always been perhaps 
 in such close contact as two of their representatives, at 
 least, are to-night. I think I have heard that in old 
 days, even in America, very few persons attended the 
 theatre. I think I was told that at one time in Boston 
 a very small number of respectable people were to be 
 found at the theatre, and people were persuaded to 
 attend the plays only by an ingenious device of a the- 
 atrical manager, who painted over the door of his 
 theatre the words ** Lecture Room. " I trust those days 
 have gone by forever. I know quite well that it is 
 true, as Dr. Greer said, that in the old days the stage 
 was the child, in one sense, of the church. 
 
 In the last few years, living, as it has been my privi- 
 lege to do, in that old city of Ely, and living almost, 
 as I feel that I do, in the thirteenth and fourteenth 
 centuries, Edward III and some of his contemporaries 
 seem to me almost as much my friends as some people 
 of the present day. Studying some of the old works 
 of the monastery, it was very interesting to come across 
 an entry in one of the records of the chamberlain which 
 read like this : 
 
 '^ Paid to John Smith of Spaulding for playing 
 the character of the Devil in the ' Mystery Play ' 
 1/4 1-2, and his keep at the friar's table." 
 
344 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 Now, gentlemen, I won't detain you mucli longer. I 
 am glad, as I have said, to be present here to-night to 
 do honor, in some measure, to Sir Henry Irving, and, 
 through him, to the drama. It was a great pleasure to 
 me to be asked to preach what was called the "Birth- 
 day Sermon" in Shakespeare's Church last April; and 
 never have I preached with more enthusiasm or with 
 a stronger feeling that I was doing honor to my reli- 
 gion and my Master than when I was able to hold up, 
 as it seems to me, the character of Shakespeare as one 
 of the noblest religious interpreters of national life 
 and character to the English people. There is one 
 thing that always has struck me about the character of 
 Shakespeare himself, and it is this: many of you will 
 remember that beautiful passage of Ruskin's in which 
 he says that Shakespeare in his plays has no heroes, 
 only heroines. He points out that in almost every 
 play there is a noble woman who saves the situation 
 when it appears to have been lost through the folly of 
 some man. And Ruskin appears to think that that 
 implies that women are nobler, more unselfish, more 
 self-sacrificing than it is possible for men to be. I 
 confess that that does n't strike me as quite the right 
 deduction to draw; but evidently Shakespeare himself 
 thought so. It is a remarkable thing that that rever- 
 ence for noble womanhood which many a man affects 
 to lose in his teens was kept by the man of the world 
 par excellence, by the merry-minded Shakespeare, to 
 the end of his days. He was always, even at fifty years 
 of age, like a lover in his first love when in the pres- 
 ence of his heroines. 
 You will think that I have got eventually to the third 
 
CHARLES WILLIAM STUBBS 345 
 
 head of my speech. Anecdote, commonplace, quota- 
 tion. Well, what shall the quotation be? To-night 
 my heart, as an Englishman, has been much touched 
 by the evident cordiality, the evident delight, which 
 all Americans seem to feel in that good-fellowship and 
 friendship which now, thank God, exist between the 
 two nations. As Sir Henry has said, whatever criti- 
 cism England may receive during the present war from 
 the continental nations, she knows at least that Amer- 
 ica gives to her all her sympathy. Gentlemen, war 
 must always be a terrible thing. But there are more 
 terrible things than war, and I cannot help thinking 
 and feeling that Shakespeare was right when he said 
 that 
 
 '' Naught shall make us rue 
 If England to itself do rest but true." 
 
 True that is, not only to her lower self in the desire 
 for greed and national aggrandizement, but true to her 
 nobler self as the mother of liberty and righteousness 
 and national justice. 
 
EDWARD C. JAMES 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO SIR HENRY IRVING, OCTOBER 28, 1899 
 
 TO-NIGHT the words of your president have sum- 
 moned to my mind, as they have to yours, that 
 commanding presence, that genial face, that charming 
 voice which filled these rooms with such a spell the 
 last time we heard him that we lingered into the small 
 hours of the morning to hear the glorious tribute 
 which he paid to Admiral Schley. His eloquent voice 
 is forever stilled. We never shall take him by the 
 hand again. We never shall see that bright illumina- 
 tion of the eye that filled our hearts with joy to meet 
 him. But the dead die never utterly. They linger in 
 the deepest recesses of busy minds and loving hearts, 
 to be wakened into life again on some sweet occasion 
 when a dear remembrance recalls their past. 
 
 Our friend Colonel Ingersoll has entered into that 
 place which he so eloquently termed ^'the windowless 
 palace of rest." Those mysteries which puzzled him 
 and perplexed his acute and penetrating mind have 
 all been solved; and let us believe that it is well for 
 him. It is a sweet and a dear office of friendship to 
 recall such a man. I had the honor of making him a 
 member of this club. I gave him his introduction 
 here; and of all the service I have ever been able to 
 render to the Lotos Club, with which I am so closely 
 identified and which I love so dearly, I feel that I have 
 
 346 
 
EDWARD C. JAMES 347 
 
 never done anything better than to propose as a mem- 
 ber our dear friend, now passed away, Colonel Robert 
 G. IngersoU. 
 
 But on this joyous occasion, gentlemen, I would turn 
 to subjects which are more near to the purpose of our 
 festival. Sir Henry, we welcome you again to-night 
 with a glad hand and a loving heart. It is the delight 
 of the members of this club to have you with us, and 
 I believe that you, sir, are the only man in all this wide 
 world who so repeatedly and with so much joy on our 
 part has been welcomed as our guest. And in this 
 connection let me say to you that, although it is not 
 our privilege to welcome here that sweet and gracious 
 lady (Ellen Terry) who has added so much splendor 
 to your own achievements, I think I voice the senti- 
 ments of this club when I ask you to convey to her our 
 salutations and our welcome. 
 
 We have attended those intellectual feasts which 
 you have spread before us here in our metropolitan 
 city with a delighted sense that we learned from you 
 the very form and body of the age w^hich you portray, 
 that we saw in you the martyred Charles, and that 
 with you we faced the buried majesty of Denmark. We 
 have wandered with you through the sacred aisles of 
 Canterbury, and we have dropped tears as we saw you 
 in the glorious part of King Arthur when the terrible 
 disaster of his life came upon him, and he exclaimed 
 in those pathetic words : ' ' How can I, with Winter in 
 my heart, plead with the ruined Summer for its rose ? ' ' 
 
 But you come to us to-night doubly welcome. We 
 not only welcome you as our old friend, as the greatest 
 living master and portrayer of the dramatic art, but 
 
348 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 we welcome you as a guest from that dear mother coun- 
 try to which our hearts have turned in love and grati- 
 tude for her gracious sympathy and magnificent aid 
 in the time when we needed her comfort and her power. 
 I remember, in those dark days of the summer of 1898, 
 when the Spanish fleet was upon our coast, when it was 
 questionable whether there would be interference by 
 the foreign powers or not, and whether the old royal 
 house of Spain could summon to its aid such impe- 
 rial intervention as would restrain this Eepublic in 
 its purpose regarding the liberation of Cuba. We were 
 told that France and Germany and Russia would not 
 interfere because Christianity was on our side. Was 
 it because of any sense of the justness of our pur- 
 pose that those powers were restrained? No. Do you 
 ask the answ^er to the question, what held them back? 
 Read it in the glorious red standard of England, and 
 in the declaration of her purpose to stand by her 
 daughter in the West. 
 
 I am reminded now, having read in the daily papers 
 of those splendid feats of valor accomplished by the 
 English soldiery in the field, such as the charge of the 
 Highlanders at Elandslaagte and that magnificent bat- 
 tle at Mafeking and the one at Dundee, that if the 
 Anglo-Saxon people of this earth stand together the 
 cause of human progress and human liberty is secure. 
 In stirring verses, written many years ago. Lord Ten- 
 nyson, with an almost prophetic mind, looked forward 
 to the close of the century and to this situation. 
 
 '^ Gigantic daughter of the West, 
 
 We drink to thee across the flood. 
 We love thee most who know thee best j 
 For art thou not of British blood 1 
 
EDWARD C. JAMES 349 
 
 ^* Should war's mad blast again be blown, 
 Permit not thou the tyrant powers 
 To fight thy mother here alone, 
 But let thy broadsides roar with ours." 
 
 I must, in conclusion— for if I am to believe the pre- 
 cepts of Dean Stubbs, it is necessary that an after- 
 dinner speech should always contain a story— refer to 
 my first visit to your beautiful village of Stratford. I 
 had had as a companion on the ocean steamer a gen- 
 tleman whose business in New York was the manufac- 
 ture of ornamental iron, and he had given much more 
 attention to that subject than to either poetry or the 
 drama. He had accompanied me through Scotland 
 and England, and was with me in the church at Strat- 
 ford when I first stood by that famous stone which con- 
 tains that impressive and, I may say, appalling verse : 
 
 ^' Good frend for lesus sake forbeare 
 To digg the dust encloased heare : 
 Blest be ye man yt spares thes stones, 
 And curst be he yt moves my bones." 
 
 As I stood there reflecting as well as I was able upon 
 what Shakespeare was and that that poor handful of 
 dust beneath that stone was all that remained on earth 
 of the body of that illustrious man, I heard a tinkling 
 sound up in the chancel, and saw that my friend was 
 rapping on the chancel rail with the back of his knife. 
 "Joe," said I, ''what are you doing up there?" 
 ''Colonel," said he, "I 'm trying to find out whether 
 they cast these things solid or 'holler.' They waste 
 enough iron here in England to set a man up in busi- 
 ness in New York." 
 
350 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 I said to him: ''Have n't you any respect for tliis 
 place? Don't you know that under this stone lies all 
 that was mortal of William Shakespeare ? ' ' 
 
 ''Oh, well, that 's all right," said he; ''but just 
 because a man happened to write 'Damon and Pythias' 
 and 'The Lady of Lyons' it 's no reason why you 
 should go crazy over him." 
 
 When I got back to New York I told a literary lady 
 this story, and she remarked, with a great deal of seri- 
 ousness, that there were some people who had no ap- 
 preciation of Shakespeare's plays. 
 
ANDREW CARNEaiE 
 
 AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, JANUARY 27, 1900 
 
 AMONG the many admirable arrangements whicli 
 i\ distinguish, this club I think this must be held as 
 one, that the guest of honor is called upon to speak 
 after the chairman, and is not compelled to sit and lis- 
 ten to those highly eulogistic effusions which men are 
 pardoned for delivering after dinner— much to the 
 confusion of the embarrassed guest. 
 
 As I sat listening to the chairman I was reminded 
 of an incident that happened across the table. It re- 
 minded me of that small but powerful body in art 
 which holds that, in painting a portrait, the first thing 
 to keep in mind by the great artist, such as our fel- 
 low-member Mr. Eastman Johnson over there, is to 
 make a work of art, and the last thing is to make a 
 likeness. I recognize in your distinguished president, 
 from the picture he has just painted of me for your 
 admiration as a work of art, one of the leaders of that 
 small but powerful school. 
 
 You have spoken, sir, of my use of surplus wealth. 
 Well, it is a very dangerous subject to touch upon. I 
 went the other night to speak to the young men of the 
 Baptist Union, at the request of a young multi-mil- 
 lionaire, the son of the richest man in the world, who 
 has shown that he lives laborious days and spends his 
 
 351 
 
352 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 time trying to do good to his poorer, and therefore less 
 burdened and more fortunate, associates. Well, the 
 reporter present took a few of the more striking words 
 of my address, and I scarcely recognized myself in 
 print the next day. Public speakers have to beware 
 of the epigrammatic. The published sketch of my re- 
 marks reminds me very forcibly of my portrait as just 
 painted by the president. 
 
 The first article that I wrote, under the title of ^'The 
 Gospel of Wealth," was republished by the editor of 
 the '^Pall Mali" of London. The proprietor of the 
 ^* North American Review" came to me and said: ''Mr. 
 Carnegie, I have the manuscript of that article you 
 sent down which you call 'Wealth,' and I have the 
 greatest desire to hear the author read it. Will you 
 read it?" 
 
 I read it. I think Mrs. Browning has said that 
 authors never read their poetry with proper effect. 
 This was not poetry; it was good, solid sense. When 
 I came to that passage, "Of every thousand dollars 
 spent thus in so-called charity, nine hundred of it had 
 better be thrown into the sea," he said, "Carnegie, 
 make that nine hundred and fifty. ' ' And you will find 
 it so fixed in the article. 
 
 I spoke to the Baptist Union upon the use of wealth 
 by individuals. I hold that the inert, the hopeless, 
 the lazy, drunken men, the professional beggar, the 
 alms-taker, should be the care of the State, and not of 
 the individual; that they should, being human, be 
 housed, fed, clothed, and bathed, and should receive 
 proper instruction, but should be isolated and not al- 
 lowed to marry. I was soon taught this by my experi- 
 
Andrew Carnegie 
 
■^/p/iytt^C /i S^, -^^ 2?<«^^<x»c/.^'3<' 
 
ANDREW CARNEGIE 353 
 
 ence in this city ; and for the many foolish things I did 
 in the name of sacred charity may I be forgiven! I 
 distributed charity indiscriminately, to some extent. 
 Perhaps the greatest evil I have ever done in my life 
 was in that direction. But I soon found that indis- 
 criminate charity increased the evil we fain would ex- 
 terminate. "We talk of the division of property. Well, 
 let the millionaire go down to the slums and say, ' ' Here, 
 the distribution of wealth is all wrong; you have not 
 got your share. I will distribute among you. ' ' In the 
 morning, we will say, he makes his distribution. Let 
 him return at night to see the good of his philanthropic 
 act. What will he find? Happiness? No; pandemo- 
 nium. Let him repeat it day after day until his wealth 
 is exhausted. Let him try a month of it, and by that 
 time I am sure you would aU feel like saying to him: 
 '*Down on your knees, and crawl for pardon! You 
 have done more injury in a month than you can do 
 good in all your life!" The circle of pauperism is 
 increased and widened. The millionaire has not bene- 
 fited the swimming tenth that keeps its head proudly 
 above water, not those who live self-respecting lives and 
 who should be the recipients of this foolish millionaire 's 
 gifts. 
 
 I tell you the name philanthropist is a very dubious 
 one to bestow upon any man, and I did n't quite like 
 it when you applied it to me. The philanthropist is 
 generally a man with a great deal more money than 
 good sense. I seek not popularity, applause, or anything 
 of that kind. I seek not to encourage, to support, to 
 sustain the ill-doing, the submerged tenth. My sym- 
 pathies go forth to those who help themselves. I have 
 
 23 
 
354 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 never known a man to make a very great success in 
 boosting another up a ladder unless the other man 
 did some of the climbing himself. This may seem 
 harsh doctrine, perhaps not popular; but I am not 
 concerned about popularity; I know I am right. 
 
 Gentlemen, I have been receiving some compliments 
 from young engineers of our membership to-night 
 about what we have done in the manufacture of steel 
 and other things. Well, I wish now just to say that 
 1 do not deserve one tithe of the credit that these 
 young men seem to attribute to me. I will tell you 
 why it was that I struck the right line in that matter. 
 I was fortunate enough in early life to travel a great 
 deal around the world, and good fortune led me to 
 spend a summer in the Highlands of Scotland; and I 
 have always gone back. I became acquainted with 
 Britain. She was the pioneer. I bought rails in 
 Great Britain, and laid down American railways. I 
 bought boiler plate. I saw what Britain had done 
 and was doing. Of course it was easy for me to see 
 what we had to do here. I found the grandest de- 
 posits of raw materials in the known world. I found 
 the American workmen were the best workmen, the 
 most versatile, the most sober, the most intelligent, 
 the most placable, the most fair-minded workmen in 
 the whole world. And for twenty years I have been 
 telling my associates in Britain that one American, 
 as a workman, was worth two Britons any day— 
 and he is. Then it was an easy matter for me to 
 see that this country was growing. I am one of those 
 who have never lost faith in the Eepublic; and 
 I have n't lost a particle of it yet, either. She has 
 gone a little off sometimes in her history, but she 
 
ANDREW CARNEGIE 355 
 
 has never failed to come back. The result is that this 
 is the country that is to supply the world with steel. 
 And the nation that supplies the Avorld with steel sup- 
 plies it with most other things. Steel is the chief com- 
 ponent of most things that you can mention in the name 
 of manufactures, from a needle to a ship ; and the na- 
 tion that manufactures steel is to manufacture almost 
 everything in the world. Mark my words, as has been 
 said of the English-speaking race, its home is not to 
 be found on the Thames or the Tweed, but on the 
 Hudson and the Mississippi; so I say that the home 
 of ship-building, the home of the manufacture of all 
 kinds of things, from a needle to a ship, is not to be 
 found on the Tyne and the Clyde, but on the Atlantic 
 coast of the United States. 
 
 You have spoken, sir, of books that I have inflicted 
 upon a long-suffering public. Well, I do not deserve 
 the compliments you have paid me in regard to my 
 writing; but this I do want to say: I have never writ- 
 ten a word that I did not believe to be true. I have 
 never advocated a cause which I did not believe to be 
 right; and I have never hesitated for a moment to 
 stand and declare my views, whether they commanded 
 general assent or the majority differed entirely from 
 them. 
 
 Perhaps these things are out of place here, but I 
 think that the most valuable citizen of the Republic is 
 not the man who follows public opinion and courts 
 publicity, which any man can achieve when the pas- 
 sions of war are aroused, but the man who stands up 
 when they are all mad and preaches to them the great 
 and sacred blessings of peace. 
 
 I thank you, fellow members of the Lotos Club, for 
 
356 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 the high honor conferred by this complimentary dinner 
 and excessively kind reception accorded to me. I have 
 not hitherto done much toward deserving this tribute, 
 but I am none the less grateful for it. My future I 
 shall hope, more than my past, will justify at least in 
 some degree the honor now paid by you so generously 
 in advance. 
 
ROBEET STUART MacARTHUR 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO ANDREW CARNEGIE, JANUARY 27, 1900 
 
 I HAVE been greatly instructed by the remarks 
 made by President Lawrence, by Mr. Carnegie, and 
 by the other two gentlemen who have spoken. I have 
 been questioning constantly as to how Andrew Car- 
 negie came to be the sort of man he is. He will par- 
 don me, I trust, if I touch one element in his life 
 which I know is very near to his heart, and is not 
 far from my heart. In one respect, at least, I stand 
 in very close relations to him, for we both had High- 
 land Scotch mothers; and what he is to-day is due in 
 no small part to the inspiring influence, lofty instruc- 
 tion, and exalted example of that beautiful Highland 
 Scotch woman who was his mother. Often when I saw 
 Mr. Carnegie and his mother together, and observed 
 the light of love in her eyes as she gazed upon him, 
 and the wealth of affection with which he responded 
 to her maternal regard, I never knew whether I ad- 
 mired the mother or the son the more, so beautiful was 
 the affection of each toward the other. 
 
 But I want to press a little further the inquiry as 
 to how he came to be the man he is. I suppose 
 that all musicians will tell us that in every great ora- 
 torio there is a diapason, a concordant, dominant, per- 
 vasive, and unitive note. Those who study music 
 with sufficient intelligence are able to discover the pres- 
 
 23* 357 
 
358 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 ence of that note, even when it is little heard by the 
 ordinary listener to the music. I suppose that, if I 
 were sufficient of a musician, I could stand by Niagara 
 Falls, listen to its thunderous music, and then write the 
 score of the matchless song sung by this glorious choir. 
 I suppose that, if I were sufficient of a musician, I 
 could stand by a singing, dancing, glancing rill, and 
 then write the score of the song which that brook 
 is singing. Now, if I enlarge that thought it will 
 cover a very wide sphere of life. What is true of the 
 oratorio, of Niagara, and of the brook, is true of the 
 great nations of the earth ; it is true also of all the great 
 periods of time. When we look back in history we 
 see that there were three great ruling nations— the 
 Roman, the Greek, and the Hebrew— and in the song 
 which each nation sang there was the dominant note, 
 the pervasive element, the unitive thought, the distinct 
 diapason. The Roman stood for law, the Greek for art, 
 the Hebrew for religion. The Hebrew had a genius 
 for religion. It is a very remarkable fact that these 
 three great nations were represented in the three lan- 
 guages in which the superscription was written on the 
 Cross of the great Master; for that inscription, you 
 will remember, was written in Hebrew and Greek and 
 Latin. Now, the Romans, standing for law, lacked the 
 lofty artistic ideal of the Greek; the Greek, standing 
 for art, lacked the marked practicality of the Roman; 
 and the Hebrew, standing for religion par excellence, 
 lacked, to some degree, the artistic ideal of the Greek 
 and the practicality of the Roman: in each case there 
 was the distinctive note. 
 
 I am quite sure that if we bring our thought down 
 to the study of men, we shall discover in every 
 
ROBERT STUART MacARTHUR 359 
 
 man's life a nnitive note, a concordant purpose, a 
 dominant motive— in a word, a diapason. What is the 
 nnitive note, the concordant purpose, the dominant 
 motive of the life of Andrew Carnegie? It is this 
 dominant motive which has given the unity to his en- 
 tire life; which made him heroic when he was a poor 
 boy; which made him ambitious with a noble and 
 lofty ambition when he was struggling from poverty 
 into competence ; and which makes him a large-hearted 
 and benevolent citizen, now that he has acquired wealth. 
 
 I quite agree that it is far more difficult to distribute 
 money properly than to acquire it. I think all of us 
 know that it is a far easier matter for the average 
 millionaire to acquire money rapidly than to distribute 
 it wisely. In one respect he may succeed, while in the 
 other he may fail. I think the one word which gives 
 this dominant purpose to the life of Mr. Andrew Car- 
 negie is character! character! character! The Greek 
 verb from which the word comes means to cut, to 
 engrave; character is the resultant of the influences, 
 thoughts and acts of life as they have engraved them- 
 selves on the soul. Character in Mr. Carnegie's case 
 includes such qualities as honesty, industry, economy, 
 enterprise, and perseverance. A man's reputation is 
 one thing ; his character is quite another. I care very 
 little about reputation, as compared with character. 
 Reputation is seeming ; character is being. Reputation 
 is what men think we are ; character is what God knows 
 we are. Reputation is the breath of man ; character is 
 the inbreathing of the eternal God. Reputation is 
 temporal ; character is eternal. Reputation is acciden- 
 tal; character is essential. Character makes the man. 
 
 Now, as I look over history I discover illustrations 
 
360 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 of the truth of the proposition that I am endeavoring 
 to lay down. I have often studied with great interest 
 the life of William Pitt. I am an ardent admirer of 
 Pitt. He belonged to a remarkable period of British 
 history. Pitt, you know, was a delicate boy, not able 
 to go to school, as did most other boys of his time and 
 social position. But at fourteen, in 1773, he was pre- 
 pared for a university career, and went then to Cam- 
 bridge. He was even then in varied learning a grown 
 man. At seventeen he closed that career with his 
 master's degree. For four years after he read Greek 
 with his tutor. When he was twenty-one he was the 
 finest Creek scholar for his age in all Great Brit- 
 ain; and at twenty-one he was also a member of Par- 
 liament. How marvelous was Pitt's maiden speech! 
 He was speaking to one of Burke's great questions 
 of Economical Eeform, and near him sat Fox, who 
 was his rival in politics. Near him, also, sat Burke, 
 whom he greatly admired and often supported. And 
 when Pitt, that beautiful youth of twenty-one, with 
 his clear thought and sonorous voice, was making his 
 maiden speech and rolling out his magnificent sen- 
 tences, Fox leaned over and whispered to Burke that 
 he was a chip of the old block ; and Burke replied, * ' He 
 is the old block himself ! ' ' Before he was twenty-seven 
 he was Prime Minister of Great Britain, and he ruled 
 Britain by his voice, his thought, and his character. 
 Fox was envious of Pitt's popularity. Dr. Price, in 
 1782, in a Fast day sermon, when Fox was confidently 
 expecting to be made prime minister, asked: ''Can you 
 imagine that a spendthrift in his own concerns will 
 make an economist in managing the affairs of others? 
 that a wild gamester will take due care of the state of a 
 
ROBERT STUxiRT MacARTHUR 361 
 
 kingdom?" It was evident that a man who spent his 
 nights in drinking and gaming was not to be trusted 
 with the high office of Prime Minister of Great Britain. 
 It was the lack of character in Fox, as compared 
 with Pitt, that made him less popular than the latter. 
 You will remember that Pitt said, after the battle of 
 Austerlitz: ''You may as well roll up the map of 
 Europe; we shall not want it for at least ten years." 
 And the battle of Waterloo came in about ten years 
 after that time. Pitt died, as Bishop Wilberforce said, 
 of the Austerlitz fever. One of the touching couplets 
 in Scott's ''Marmion" refers to Pitt and Fox. They 
 are buried in Westminster Abbey, so near each other 
 that Scott says : 
 
 '' Shed upon Fox's grave the tear; 
 'Twill trickle to his rival's bier." 
 
 It is character that tells in the la"v\^er, in the mer- 
 chant, in the politician, in the author, as well as in 
 the man who stands in the pulpit to preach the gospel 
 of God and man. I have often thought, and I thought 
 to-night, of that wonderful introduction given to the 
 riotous French populace by Lamartine, in 1848, when 
 he said, in presenting De la Eure: ''Citizens, listen! 
 Sixty years of a pure life are now about to address 
 you." And when Mr. Andrew Carnegie stood here to- 
 night it was his pure life, his varied ability, and his 
 noble character that gave him his power before this 
 audience, and before America and the world. 
 
 You remember — I will relieve your patience in a 
 moment— the sentence of Emerson when he said: 
 "What care I for what you say, when what you do 
 stands over my head and thunders so loud that I can- 
 
362 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 not hear what you say. ' ' It is what men do and what 
 men are that will always give them power or the re- 
 verse. So behind Mr. Carnegie's book, behind Mr. 
 Carnegie's various articles, behind his great gifts, is 
 Andrew Carnegie. And it is the man behind the works, 
 behind the book, behind the political speech, behind the 
 sermon, behind the poem, behind everything ; it is their 
 noble manhood which makes men mighty before God 
 and among their fellow-men. 
 
 So back of all that Andrew Carnegie has done, gen- 
 tlemen, I to-night see the gracious, gentle, queenly 
 Highland Scotch mother, the music of whose voice I 
 loved to hear, for it was the music that sung me to 
 sleep in my cradle from the lips of another Highland 
 Scotch mother, and behind all I see that gracious na- 
 ture that helped to make Andrew Carnegie. God help 
 him and make him a still greater blessing ! I have not 
 always had the honor of agreeing with Mr. Carnegie. 
 (Turning to Mr. Carnegie.) But you are so sure that 
 you are right that it makes little difference to you 
 whether others agree with you or not. (Mr. Carnegie : 
 *'Yes, sir!") That is one of the things I like about 
 Mr. Carnegie. We all may often differ as to policies, 
 even when we agree as to principles; but let us re- 
 spect one another's motives, even when we cannot agree 
 as to one another's methods. Let us go on side by side 
 in honesty, patriotism, and love for God and man, 
 knowing that truth will triumph. 
 
 ^^ For right is right, since God is God, 
 And right the day must win ; 
 To doubt would be disloyalty. 
 To falter would be sin." 
 
WILLIAM H. Mcelroy 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO ANDREW CARNEGIE, JANUARY 27, 1900 
 
 WHEN Dr. Mac Arthur was telling us the differ- 
 ence between reputation and character I re- 
 called a story that Edward Everett Hale told me of 
 his friends James Freeman Clarke and Starr King. 
 They were spending a little time at Pigeon Cove, and 
 one day Clarke said to King : ''Do you know the differ- 
 ence between you and me?" ''What is it?" asked 
 King. ' ' Well, ' ' said Clarke, ' ' you have got reputation, 
 and I have got character." "Of course," replied 
 King. ' ' You have got a bad character, and I have got 
 a good reputation." And then the incident was de- 
 clared closed. 
 
 I am greatly tempted to tell a story at the expense 
 of my distinguished friend, the president of Columbia 
 College. Yes, I believe I will tell it. Some years ago 
 I enjoyed the hospitality of this club at a great dinner, 
 which we all remember, given to Sir Edwin Arnold. 
 President Low, who was then the Mayor of Brooklyn, 
 made one of his characteristically graceful and in- 
 cisive speeches, in the course of which he said: "Sir 
 Edwin Arnold has not only been a poet, but, at a 
 certain stage of his career, he was a journalist." 
 And then he wickedly added: "I don't know why he 
 
 363 
 
364 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 should not pursue both of these vocations, since the 
 imagination has so much to do with both." After 
 him came St. Clair McKelway, and Mr. McKelway, 
 bent upon standing up for the honor of his profession, 
 said: ''Yes, Mr. Mayor; and if the journalists of 
 Brooklyn had n't let their imaginations loose I doubt 
 if you ever would have been elected." 
 
 I salute the guest of honor of this high feast. The 
 Lotos Club always serves its liquid hospitably in 
 magnums. So Mr. Carnegie serves his benefactions. 
 Do you suppose that when Leigh Hunt wrote the 
 lines upon Abou Ben Adhem he was thinking of some 
 concrete Ben Adhem of those days, or was he looking 
 down the century, with the prevision of a seer, and 
 thinking of Andrew Carnegie? If we cannot find out 
 in any other way, let us mandamus ancient history, 
 place Abou Ben Adhem beside Mr. Carnegie, and see 
 whose name stands the higher in the "Book of Gold." 
 
 Just a word more. Somebody said of Lady Macbeth 
 that she might have been a lady, but she could n't 
 prove it by her conduct. I love to see a philanthropist, 
 like Mr. Carnegie, who can prove his philanthropy by 
 his conduct. Somebody has defined philanthropy as 
 being Tom's idea that Dick ought to do something for 
 Harry. That has never been Mr. Carnegie 's conception 
 of the term. He has "put his creed into his deed," 
 and his creed has been one of whole-hearted benefi- 
 cence. Besides, he not only has given most generously, 
 but with a wisdom which goes hand in hand with his 
 prodigality. I take it that "our best society" in any 
 age is composed of the great souls whose writings in- 
 spire, instruct, and entertain, and he who gives a 
 
WILLIAM H. Mcelroy 365 
 
 library to a community provides it with the best society 
 —and a society open to all except those who love dark- 
 ness rather than light. Who, bent upon serving his 
 fellow-men, can do better than that? 
 
 The other day, if he was reported correctly, he said 
 that when he came to shuffle off his mortal coil he ex- 
 pected to be a poor man. I say to him to-night that, 
 with all his sagacity, he has gone to work in the wrong 
 direction to accomplish that object. May the day be 
 long distant when he turns his face to the wall; but 
 when that day comes he will find that, although he may 
 be poor in mere worldly goods, he has largely accumu- 
 lated the most precious of riches— the regard and honor 
 of humanity, which goes so far to make the valley and 
 the shadow vanish and the delectable mountains and 
 the perfect day appear. 
 
WALTEE S. LOGAN 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO ANDREW CARNEGIE, JANUARY 27, 1900 
 
 IF we were to classify mankind, we might differen- 
 tiate between one people and another on various 
 lines. We might differentiate on the ground of geog- 
 raphy, and divide them up according to where they 
 live ; but steam and electricity have made geographical 
 distances of little importance in modern times, and we 
 should not make much progress in that way. We 
 might make racial distinctions, but the characteristics 
 of race disappear under changed environment. The 
 Celt and the Saxon have lived together side by side in 
 England for only a few generations, but now you can 
 tell the difference between them only by their speech 
 and the sound of their names. We might divide them 
 up according to their professions or position in life; 
 but these all pertain to one generation, and that would 
 be unsatisfactory, because the son of the hod-carrier 
 may sit in the House of Lords or become president of 
 Yale or Harvard. The only logical line of demarca- 
 tion is the line of language. 
 
 The rulers of the world to-day are not the Anglo- 
 Saxon race, but the English-speaking people of all 
 races. The tie that binds us together is not the tie of 
 race or blood or institutions, but the tie of a common 
 tongue; and the hope of the world is not in race or 
 
 366 
 
WALTER S. LOGAN 367 
 
 color or blood, but in the language that we speak and 
 the people that speak it. 
 
 I would welcome Mr. Carnegie here to-night, then, 
 not as an American, for his character is too broad for 
 any one country, and the mountain-tops of his native 
 land are not high enough to hide him from the rest of 
 the world; I would welcome him not as a Scotchman, 
 for Scotland is too small for such a man as Mr. Car- 
 negie; I would welcome him not as a millionaire, for 
 whatever possessions we started with to-night we left 
 in the coat-room outside, and here we stand only with 
 that character which we have made ourselves ; I would 
 welcome him not as an Anglo-Saxon, for I refuse to 
 regard racial distinctions ; I would welcome him simply 
 as a distinguished member of the English-speaking peo- 
 ple, as a man who would have been better known as 
 a speaker and writer of that language if his fame as a 
 sayer of things had not been cast in the shade by his 
 mightier fame as a doer of things. 
 
 At the commencement of the nineteenth century 
 English was spoken by less than fifteen million people 
 in all the world; now, at its close or at the beginning 
 of the next, it is spoken by one hundred and fifty mil- 
 lions. At the beginning of the century it stood fifth 
 on the list of European languages in the number of 
 people that spoke it; to-day it stands first on the list, 
 and is fifty millions ahead of the next. At the begin- 
 ning of the century laws were made in the English 
 language only for the people who spoke it; to-day the 
 laws of four hundred millions who never lisped a word 
 of English are written in the English language. At the 
 beginning of the century our institutions and ideas of 
 
368 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 government prevailed only in England and America, 
 where the language was spoken; at its close one hun- 
 dred and fifty millions who do not speak the language 
 and whose laws are not written in it have copied our 
 constitutions into their language and adapted our insti- 
 tutions to their conditions. 
 
 At the beginning of the century our ideas of govern- 
 ment and our language prevailed only on a few little 
 isles in the North Sea, scarcely larger than a pinhead 
 on the map of the world, and on a little fringe of At- 
 lantic coast on the seaboard of America. To-day those 
 institutions prevail all over the world, and our lan- 
 guage is spoken in every continent and inhabited island 
 in the world. It has in it the capacity to ingraft every- 
 thing that is of value in any language. It is the lan- 
 guage of a thoughtful people, and is adapted to ex- 
 press thought. If you see a man in Paris or Madrid 
 or Eome speak, you can tell by his facial expressions 
 and his muscular contortions very nearly what he is 
 saying. He has to make up for the deficiency of his 
 language by everything else that he has. If you see a 
 man in London or New York speak, you have to hear 
 the words he is speaking to know what he is talking 
 about. Ours is the language of people who have worked 
 out their own destiny and who have built the corner- 
 stone of their civilization upon the rock of self-re- 
 liance. It is the language of liberty and sturdy man- 
 hood throughout the world, and, sooner or later— I 
 think it won't be very long— it is to be the ruling lan- 
 guage of the world. 
 
FRANK E. LAWRENCE 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO SAMUEL L. CLEMENS (MARK TWAIN), 
 NOVEMBER 11, 1893 
 
 [This speech, is placed out of the chronological order. This and the following 
 speech are introductory addresses presenting the same guest to the same 
 audience at periods seven years apart. The address of Mr. Clemens on 
 November 11, 1893, is among the many which were not preserved with 
 sufficient fullness for publication.] 
 
 TO-NIGHT the old faces gather amid new surround- 
 ings. The place where last we met about the 
 table has vanished, and to-night we have our first Lotos 
 dinner in a home that is all our own. 
 
 It is peculiarly fitting that the board should now be 
 spread in honor of one who has been a member of the 
 club for a full score of years, and it is a happy augury 
 for the future that our fellow-member whom we assem- 
 ble to greet should be the bearer of a most distin- 
 guished name in the world of letters, for the Lotos 
 Club is ever at its best when paying homage to genius 
 in literature or in art. 
 
 Is there a civilized being who has not heard the name 
 of Mark Twain ? "We knew him long years ago, before 
 he came out of the boundless "West, brimful of wit and 
 eloquence, with no reverence for anything, and went 
 abroad to educate the untutored European in the sub- 
 tleties of the American joke. 
 
 The world has looked on and applauded while he has 
 
370 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 broken many images. He has led ns in imagination 
 all over the globe. With him as our guide, we have 
 traversed alike the Mississippi and the Sea of Galilee. 
 At his bidding we have laughed at a thousand absur- 
 dities. By laborious reasoning he has convinced us 
 that the Egyptian mummies are actually dead. He 
 has held us spellbound upon the plain at the foot of 
 the great Sphinx, and we have joined him in weeping 
 bitter tears at the tomb of Adam. 
 
 To-night we greet him in the flesh. 
 
 What name is there in literature that can be likened 
 to his? Perhaps some of the distinguished gentlemen 
 about this table can tell us. But I know of none. 
 '' Himself his only parallel," it seems to me. 
 
 He is all our own— a ripe and perfect product of the 
 American soil. In no other country could he have been 
 born. By no previous age could he have been appre- 
 ciated as he is. We are, one and all, indebted to him 
 for many hours of laughter and many moments of more 
 serious thought. As he goes forward in that peculiar 
 field of literature of which he is the creator, and where 
 he is without a rival, we shall give him our applause, 
 and we to-night pledge him our kindest wishes for pros- 
 perity, happiness, and success. 
 
FRANK E. LAWEENCE 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO SAMUEL L. CLEMENS (MARK TWAIN), 
 NOVEMBER 10, 1900 
 
 OUR Lotos Club season opens very happily, for we 
 have just voted ourselves some years of prosper- 
 ity, and Mark Twain has come home. When in this 
 fortunate country we want good times we get them by 
 popular vote. But for the presence of Mark Twain we 
 depend upon a more uncertain caprice. 
 
 Seven years ago he returned from abroad, and was 
 entertained at dinner by this club, with the result that 
 he went straight back to Europe, and has remained 
 out of the United States ever since. 
 
 It has been suggested that the club assemble in his 
 honor regularly at similar intervals ; but it is felt that, 
 after a time, this would become a steady habit, and 
 steady habits could never be made popular here. 
 
 We welcome him home as one of the stanchest and 
 truest members of the club, and we remember that he 
 was one of those who, with Reid and Brougham and 
 Florence and Bromley and a score of kindred spirits, 
 made the club sparkling and attractive in its early 
 days, and laid broad and deep the foundation of all its 
 later years of merriment and good-fellowship. 
 
 Our guest became a member of the club when it was 
 only three years old, and now that it has seen more 
 
 371 
 
372 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 than ten times that number of years, he remains faith- 
 ful to its principles, or at least he would be faithful 
 to its principles if it had any, and that amounts to the 
 same thing. The principles might be pernicious, but 
 it would n't matter; he would be faithful to them all 
 the same. 
 
 Well, he has been away, and he has been gone a 
 long time, and I believe he has been around the world, 
 and what he has been doing we only know in part. 
 
 He says that he has been "Following the Equator." 
 What a fortunate thing it is that he did not, as the 
 climax to a somewhat revolutionary career, induce the 
 equator to follow him! Had that occurred, the equa- 
 tor would probably have passed the remainder of its 
 days in Hartford, Connecticut, or some weird or lit- 
 erary portion of the globe, and its reputation for con- 
 stancy would have been forever blasted. 
 
 Some things about him we do know. We know tha,t 
 while away from us he has kept up a steady stream of 
 work, furnishing to the world an abundance both of 
 instruction and of amusement, and increasing his old 
 reputation as one who, while he writes in fun, yet ever 
 thinks in earnest. We hail him, as we have done be- 
 fore, as a master of letters, as the pioneer in a new 
 and original field, as the possessor of a quaint and 
 peculiar genius which has discovered unsuspected pos- 
 sibilities of language and of thought, and whose works, 
 from the earliest to the latest, from the lightest to the 
 most serious, have always commanded the widest audi- 
 ence and been received the world over with unbounded 
 applause. 
 
 We hail him, too, as one who has borne great burdens 
 
FRANK R. LAWRENCE 373 
 
 with manliness and courage, who has emerged from 
 great struggles victorious ; and in welcoming him back 
 to-night to his old place, first taken at the Lotos board 
 nearly twenty-seven years ago, we greet him with all 
 friendship and in all kindliness, and hope that his life 
 may be happy and prosperous, whether here or abroad. 
 
SAMUEL L. CLEMENS 
 
 (MARK TWAIN) 
 AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, NOVEMBER 10, 1900 
 
 I THANK you all out of my heart for this fraternal 
 welcome, and it seems almost too fine, almost too 
 magnificent, for a humble Missourian such as I am, 
 far from his native haunts on the banks of the Missis- 
 sippi; and yet my modesty is in a degree fortified by 
 observing that I am not the only Missourian who has 
 been honored here to-night, for I see at this very table 
 — here is a Missourian (indicating Mr. McKelway) , and 
 there is a Missourian (indicating Mr. Depew), and 
 there is another Missourian— and Hendrix and Clem- 
 ens, and last but not least, the greatest Missourian of 
 them all— here he sits— Tom Eeed, who has always 
 concealed his birth until now. And since I have been 
 away I know what has been happening in his case ; he 
 has deserted politics and now is leading a creditable 
 life. He has reformed, and God prosper him; and I 
 judge, by a remark which he made up-stairs awhile 
 ago, that he has found a new business that is utterly 
 suited to his make and constitution, and all he is doing 
 now is that he is around raising the average of per- 
 sonal beauty. 
 
 But I am grateful to the president for the kind 
 words which he has said of me, and it is not for me to 
 
 374 
 
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SAMUEL L. CLEMENS 375 
 
 say whether these praises were deserved or not. I 
 prefer to accept them just as they stand, without con- 
 cerning myself with the statistics upon which they 
 have been built, but only with that large matter, that 
 essential matter, the good-fellowship, the kindliness, 
 the magnanimity and generosity that prompted their 
 utterance. Well, many things have happened since 
 I sat here before, and, now that I think of it, the 
 president's reference to the debts which were left 
 by the bankrupt firm of Charles L. Webster & Co. 
 gives me an opportunity to say a word which I very 
 much wish to say, not for myself, but for ninety-five 
 men and women whom I shall always hold in high es- 
 teem and in pleasant remembrance— the creditors of 
 that firm. They treated me well; they treated me 
 handsomely. There were ninety-six of them, and by 
 not a finger's weight did ninety-five of them add to 
 the burden of that time for me. Ninety-five out of 
 the ninety-six— they did n't indicate by any word 
 or sign that they were anxious about their money. 
 They treated me well, and I shall not forget it; I 
 could not forget it if I wanted to. Many of them 
 said, ''Don't you worry, don't you hurry"; that 's 
 what they said. Why, if I could have that kind of 
 creditors always, and that experience, I would recog- 
 nize it as a personal loss to be out of debt. I owe 
 those ninety-five creditors a debt of homage, and I pay 
 it now in such measure as one may pay so fine a debt 
 in mere words. Yes, they said that very thing. I was 
 not personally acquainted with ten of them, and yet 
 they said, "Don't you worry, and don't you hurry." 
 I know that phrase by heart, and if all the other music 
 
376 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 should perish out of the world it would still sing to 
 me. I appreciate that; I am glad to say this word; 
 people say so much about me, and they forget those 
 creditors. They were handsomer than I was, or Tom 
 Eeed. 
 
 Oh, you have been doing many things in this time 
 that I have been absent; you have done lots of things, 
 some that are Avell worth remembering, too. Now, we 
 have fought a righteous war since I have been gone, 
 and that is rare in history— a righteous war is so rare 
 that it is almost unknown in history ; but by the grace 
 of that war we set Cuba free, and we joined her to 
 those three or four free nations that exist on this earth ; 
 and we started out to set those poor Filipinos free too, 
 and why, why, why that most righteous purpose of ours 
 has apparently miscarried I suppose I never shall 
 know. 
 
 But we have made a most creditable record in 
 China in these days— our sound and level-headed ad- 
 ministration has made a most creditable record over 
 there, and there are some of the Powers that cannot 
 say that by any means. The Yellow Terror is threat- 
 ening this world to-day. It is looming vast and 
 ominous on that distant horizon ; I do not know what 
 is going to be the result of that Yellow Terror, but our 
 government has had no hand in evoking it, and let 's 
 be happy in that and proud of it. 
 
 We have nursed free silver; we watched by its cra- 
 dle ; we have done the best we could to raise that child, 
 but those pestiferous Republicans have— well, they keep 
 giving it the measles every chance they get, and we 
 never shall raise that child. Well, that 's no matter— 
 
SAMUEL L. CLEMENS 377 
 
 there 's plenty of other things to do, and we must think 
 of something else. Well, we have tried a president 
 four years, criticized him and found fault with him 
 the whole time, and turned around a day or two ago 
 and elected him again with votes enough to spare to 
 elect another. Oh, consistency ! consistency ! thy name 
 —I don't know what thy name is— Thompson will 
 do, any name will do, but you see there is the fact; 
 there is the consistency. Then we have tried for gov- 
 ernor an illustrious Rough Eider, and we liked him so 
 much in that great office that now we have made him 
 Vice-President; not in order that that office shall give 
 him distinction, but that he may confer distinction 
 upon the office. And it 's needed, too— it 's needed. 
 And now, for a while anyway, we shall not be stam- 
 mering and embarrassed when a stranger asks us, 
 "What is the name of the Vice-President?" This one 
 is known ; this one is pretty well known, pretty widely 
 known, and in some quarters favorably. I am not ac- 
 customed to dealing in these fulsome compliments, and 
 I am probably overdoing it a little; but, well, my old 
 affectionate admiration for Governor Roosevelt has 
 probably betrayed me into this complimentary excess ; 
 but I know him, and you know him; and if you give 
 him rope enough— I mean if— oh, yes, he will justify 
 that compliment; leave it just as it is. And now we 
 have put in his place Mr. Odell, another Rough Rider, 
 I suppose ; all the fat things go to that profession now. 
 AVhy, I could have been a Rough Rider myself if I had 
 known that this political Klondike was going to open 
 up, and I would have been a Rough Rider if I could 
 have gone to war on an automobile— but not on a horse ! 
 
378 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 No, I know the horse too well ; I have known the horse 
 in war and in peace, and there is no place where a horse 
 is comfortable. The horse has too many caprices, and 
 he is too much given to initiative. He invents too 
 many new ideas; no, I don't want anything to do with 
 the horse. 
 
 And then we have taken Chauncey Depew out of a 
 useful and active life and made him a senator— em- 
 balmed him, corked him up. And I am not grieving. 
 That man has said many a true thing about me in his 
 time, and I always said something would happen to 
 him. Look at that (pointing to Mr. Depew) gilded 
 mummy! He has made my life a sorrow to me at 
 many a banquet on both sides of the ocean, and now he 
 has got it. Perish the hand that pulls that cork ! 
 
 All these things have happened, all of these things have 
 come to pass, while I have been away, and it just shows 
 how little a Mugwump can be missed in a cold, unfeel- 
 ing world, even when he is the last one that is left— a 
 Grand Old Party all by himself. And there is another 
 thing that has happened, perhaps the most imposing 
 event of them all ; the institution called the Daughters 
 of the Crown — the Daughters of the Royal Crown — has 
 established itself and gone into business. Now, there 's 
 an American idea for you; there 's an ideal born of 
 God knows what kind of specialized insanity, but not 
 softening of the brain— you cannot soften a thing that 
 does n't exist— the Daughters of the Royal Crown! 
 Nobody eligible but American descendants of Charles 
 the Second. Dear me, how the fancy product of that 
 old harem still holds out! 
 
 Well, I am truly glad to foregather with you again, 
 
SAMUEL L. CLEMENS 379 
 
 and partake of the bread and salt of this hospitable 
 house once more. Seven years ago, when I was your 
 guest here, when I was old and despondent, you gave 
 me the grip and the word that lift a man up and make 
 him glad to be alive; and now I come back from my 
 exile young again, fresh and alive, and ready to begin 
 life once more, and your welcome puts the finishing 
 touch upon my restored youth and makes it real to me, 
 and not a gracious dream that must vanish with the 
 morning. I thank you. 
 
THOMAS B. EEED 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO SAMUEL L. CLEMENS (MARK TWAIN), 
 NOVEMBER 10, 1900 
 
 I THINK I realize more than most people the hope- 
 lessness of the task which we have set before our- 
 selves to-night. We have come here for the purpose 
 of saying to Mr, Clemens what we think about him, 
 and expressing our appreciation of what he has done ; 
 but we shall do nothing that will not seem to him abso- 
 lutely inadequate. When we have got through he will 
 go home to his couch, and there think over the invalu- 
 able nature of the services which he has rendered to 
 mankind, and will feel how inadequate has been our 
 statement. Therefore, we must take a proper position 
 upon this occasion. We must so act toward him that he 
 will say that ''the boys meant well, and if they had 
 known exactly what they were talking about they 
 w^ould have stated the thing in a proper and adequate 
 form"; and he will forgive us and add the necessary 
 percentage to bring it up to the par of his ideas. 
 
 I am afraid that some of the things that I shall say 
 will require the percentage that is to be added to be con- 
 siderably increased, because I am going to wreak upon 
 him, not a lifelong feeling, but a feeling extending over 
 more than seven years, for something that he said 
 about me. 
 
 380 
 
THOMAS B. REED 381 
 
 He came over to Washington with a lot of writers 
 and other literary fellows who were generally much 
 puffed out about themselves. They came over there 
 for the purpose of getting what they thought was their 
 property, and I had occasion to explain to him that he 
 was then, while I was talking with him, sitting under 
 the effulgence of the political intellects which compre- 
 hend all things. And what we intended was to give 
 him some portion of his property— that portion which 
 seemed to us to be for the good of mankind that he 
 should have. I explained to him at length that while 
 he seemed to himself to be a ''good man," yet in real- 
 ity, compared with us, he was utterly incapable of self- 
 government, and that what we intended to do with him 
 was to benevolently assimilate most of his property. 
 I am bound to say that, notwithstanding all my vio- 
 lence, he apparently behaved with considerable good- 
 ness of disposition. He did n't say a word to me, but 
 he afterward went about, as I have been informed, and 
 explained to his friends the various things that he 
 would have said to me if he had n't been scared. Now, 
 these speeches which have been reported to me have 
 rankled in my mind, and I have always felt, when an 
 opportunity occurred and he did n't have a chance to 
 reply, that I would say over some things to him. 
 
 One thing I want to comment upon a bit, and that 
 is in one of his writings he says— he actually had the 
 face to say— that he was named for the prophet Samuel. 
 I have read the succinct statement which he made of 
 this with a great deal of care. He says that he remem- 
 bers he was lying in his cradle and looking at the clock 
 and thinking that in five minutes he would be a day 
 
382 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 old, and that he heard his venerated father proposing 
 to his mother various names like Zerubbabel and Habak- 
 kuk, either of which in my judgment would have been 
 perfectly appropriate, and that finally his father sug- 
 gested the name Samuel, and thereupon, gathering his 
 tiny shoes in his hand, he arose on the edge of the 
 cradle and said, ' ' Father, I cannot be named Samuel, ' ' 
 and he said, ''Why not?" and he answered, ''Because 
 Samuel had to be called by the Lord twice before he 
 would come. " " Then, ' ' said he, "I stepped forth from 
 the cradle, and twenty-four hours after that my father 
 overtook me, and I acquired the name of Samuel and a 
 sound thrashing." Now, I want to say to you that I 
 believe implicitly the statement that at the age of one 
 day he climbed from the cradle and started forth, and 
 kept it up for twenty-four hours, but I don't believe 
 the story about the old gentleman's overtaking him; 
 because from the very nature of things nobody ever 
 overtook him in this world. On general principles, 
 also, I repudiate the story. I believe that if he and 
 the prophet Samuel were to meet neither would recog- 
 nize the other, unless the oriental style of garment be- 
 trayed Samuel the elder to Samuel the younger. 
 
 But I feel very much interested in Mr. Clemens, 
 because he is to me the greatest example of the system 
 of education of which I am perhaps the only able-bodied 
 advocate, and that is the Wellerian System of Educa- 
 tion. What is that ? you ignorantly ask. You will find 
 it in the first interview which Pickwick had with the 
 father of Samuel Weller, for whom perhaps our friend 
 is more likely to have been named than for the Bible 
 Samuel. The first time they met the old man Weller 
 
THOMAS B. REED 383 
 
 said to Pickwick, ''I hope that my son satisfies you," 
 and he said, ''Yes, he does." And says he, "I hope 
 so," and he says, ''I have given him the best educa- 
 tion anybody ever had. I let him loose in the streets 
 of London, young, to shift for himself," and every- 
 body knows how thoroughly educated a man Samuel 
 "Weller was. When our friend says, ''next to being 
 born in Missouri"— he makes an awful bad start; I 
 don't believe that any person having full possession of 
 his senses would have permitted himself to have been 
 born in Missouri, because it is a hot country— too sug- 
 gestive—it is not pleasant ; the place to have been born 
 in was the State of Maine— no other place in the world. 
 But I tell you, notwithstanding all this, he had the best 
 education there ever was. Why, he began life on the 
 Mississippi Eiver in a pilot-house. That was a great 
 life ! You cannot appreciate the luxury and delight 
 I had in London in 1883 in picking up his book "On 
 the Mississippi. ' ' Oh, it ^s a great old life on that big 
 river ; I tell you there is no place where language flows 
 as it does there, the wealth of language there is supe- 
 rior—am I not telling the truth? (Mark Twain: 
 "Yes, sir.")— is superior to the flood of the Missis- 
 sippi at the time when he and I were there. I remem- 
 ber the magnificent picture of the full river— what a 
 gorgeous freedom from limitation was there. What 
 a vocabulary old Sam Tubbs had, and how gener- 
 ous he was with it! I never shall forget his descrip- 
 tion of the time General EUet went down the Mis- 
 souri to Yicksburg and stuck the noses of his gunboats 
 up against the river bank ; I would n't like to repeat it; 
 I don 't think it would suit even this assembly. I don 't 
 
384 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 Imow that it was accurate; I don't know that he told 
 the truth, but I do know that the thing was picturesque 
 beyond all human description, and whenever you are 
 reading Mark Twain just remember what a wealth of 
 vocabulary he had a chance to have recourse to in his 
 early life. He not only graduated from that college, 
 but he went to a law school, as it were, and that was at 
 Washoe, where nothing was good, but everything was 
 beautifully descriptive and touching. At that time, 
 when he was there, I came very near going to Washoe, 
 but I am sorry to say that I did not go, and therefore 
 my education lacks very much of what he has had ; but 
 he has had it, and he stands to-day the best represen- 
 tative of that system of education, which I believe is 
 the soundest in the world. I owe too many hours of 
 pleasure not to be glad to be here and join you in your 
 most vociferous welcome. 
 
CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO SAMUEL L. CLEMENS (MARK TWAIN), 
 NOVEMBER 10, 1900 
 
 OUR friend Mark Twain owes his distinction among 
 us and all over the world to that faculty which is 
 so much abused in business and in politics— the faculty 
 of humor. Every man who has made any real success 
 in business has been handicapped if he was a joker, 
 and many a man who has made a success of politics 
 has found a barrier raised because people would not 
 take him as a serious person. I never yet met a man 
 who had made a fortune who could tell a story or get 
 off a witticism worth listening to. I never yet saw a 
 man who could make a million dollars a year who, on 
 any occasion, whether it was a marriage or a funeral, 
 would not get on to the ''shop" in five minutes, be- 
 cause no man can make a million dollars if he is funny. 
 (I have found that out.) There is no fun in a million 
 —it 's a serious business. Now, that is nothing against 
 the million dollars or the man who makes it. It only 
 shows the different avenues in life. Some of us choose 
 one, some of us take another. 
 
 In the "Evening Post" of to-night, that journal 
 which does so much on Saturday evening, when it 
 comments on any one, to promote that feeling of grace- 
 ful resignation which prepares him for to-morrow, 
 
 25 385 
 
386 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 there is a leading article on the two most distinguished 
 living citizens of America ; one recently died— Bryan— 
 and myself. Of the late lamented Bryan it remarks 
 (but I am not responsible for what I quote) that he 
 lost the opportunity to be President, and that he never 
 will be President, because in his speeches he lowered 
 himself to the average of the common people, and the 
 common people look for a President to a man who is 
 above their average. And then it says: ''So far as 
 Depew is concerned, no man who jests will ever be 
 President of the United States." Now, having fol- 
 lowed Bryan through his canvass, I never expected to 
 be bracketed with him, but if his chances and mine are 
 the same I will take them. 
 
 I believe there is a great deal of truth in the criti- 
 cism of the "Evening Post." When a man has once 
 got to be President of the United States, if he is a 
 raconteur of rare merit, if he is a mt, if he is a hu- 
 morist, or has genius in any line of that sort, it adds 
 enormously to his distinction, but he will never get 
 there if it is known beforehand. Abraham Lincoln 
 was almost unknown outside of the State of Illinois 
 when he ran for President. We knew of him only by 
 an elaborate address which he made here and which 
 had in it not a ray of humor. When he got to be 
 President, what he wanted the plain people to know 
 he illustrated by humor, and he became our greatest 
 factor in American politics. I never shall forget, as 
 a young man, a young Secretary of State, being clos- 
 eted with him. When we had turned everybody out 
 he lay down on the lounge, and, gathering those long 
 legs of his in his arms and slowly rocking back and 
 
CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 387 
 
 forth, he told me twelve stories, none of which I will 
 repeat here to-night, but each having a marvelous ap- 
 plication, and then said, in that deep cadence of his, 
 ''Depew, I know that they say that I lower the dig- 
 nity of the presidential office and that I do not rise to 
 the heights that the people expect from the great posi- 
 tion which I occupy; but I have found, young man, 
 I have found, in the course of a long and varied expe- 
 rience, that plain people, plain people, take them as 
 they run, are more easily influenced through the me- 
 dium of a broad and humorous illustration than in 
 any other way, and what the hypercritical few may 
 say I don't care." That 's Lincoln's manner, and 
 that 's Lincoln's method. Now, we have a brilliant 
 idea of what is necessary to be President of the United 
 States, and what is necessary to occupy a place in an 
 impressive manner in the hearts and minds of every- 
 body who thinks well and readily in the messages of 
 the Presidents of the United States, which have been 
 advertised so widely through the editorial columns of 
 the New York "Sun" and in the works of Oliver "Wen- 
 dell Holmes, James Russell Lowell, and Mark Twain— 
 who would exchange the one for the other? I would 
 rather be one of those who will be read one hundred 
 years from now than to be any one of the Polks or 
 Pierces or Buchanans or any of them that can be 
 mentioned in an evening like this. If I followed the 
 rule and advice of the * ' Evening Post, ' ' and was a can- 
 didate, which I am not and never shall be, for Presi- 
 dent of the United States— standing here to-night as a 
 senator of New York, looking forward to 1904, I would 
 not make the speech I am making now ; I should say : 
 
388 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 Mr. President, and Gentlemen of the Lotos Club : It 
 affords me great pleasure to be present in a gathering 
 which I understand comprises so much of the journal- 
 istic, the artistic, and the Bohemian element of our 
 great American life. I am pleased that you have hon- 
 ored me with an invitation to join with you in a just 
 tribute to our guest. I think that he illustrates in his 
 career the manhood and principles of American lib- 
 erty. He began life, if I understand rightly his ori- 
 gin, in a very humble sphere ; but this has been charac- 
 teristic of all men who have risen to political distinc- 
 tion in our great and glorious country. He became 
 at one time connected with that element of American 
 progress and development known as the transportation 
 interests of the country. If he had continued in that 
 useful sphere he might at some time have reached the 
 lofty position of president of one of the great carrying 
 companies of the country, whether on the rail or on 
 the water. He began, it is true, in a humble capacity, 
 but I have it from members of Congress whom I have 
 met who knew him then that as pilot of a steamboat 
 on the Mississippi Eiver he had the respect of the 
 passengers and the confidence of the owners of the 
 boat. I am not sure— I am not sure, and still— some 
 gentlemen may disagree with me, and if they do I bow 
 with the greatest respect to their judgment— I am not 
 sure but that he made a mistake when he left this 
 great and useful part of our American progress and 
 development for the paths of literature. His genius 
 is unique, it is alone to himself, and it has secured him 
 recognition on both sides of the Atlantic, and for that, 
 as an American citizen, I thank him. But stiU I think 
 
CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 389 
 
 that if he had abandoned the humorous, the light, 
 which contributes in our moments of restfulness to our 
 pleasure, and taken to the higher walks of literature, 
 as did Plato and Aristotle, I am not sure but he would 
 have won a distinction much greater than this evanes- 
 cent form which has given us so much pleasure, and 
 would have added so much to his fame. 
 
 That 's the candidate for President, which I am not. 
 I trust the ''Evening Post" will at least accord me the 
 credit of being equal to the job if I should undertake 
 it. Now, Mark Twain showed his distinguishing char- 
 acteristic, which is a knowledge of human nature, which 
 is when you are on a public platform like this where 
 you want people to be agreeable and make people 
 happy, by rubbing them up and then rubbing them 
 down, when he praised Reed, and then the Cuban War, 
 and then, advancing to the Filipinos, he struck Reed 
 in the solar plexus. I remember an English gentle- 
 man, not John Hare, coming to my house to dine one 
 night, and he said on the way over, ' ' I met a singular 
 countryman of yours, who was not as acute as I under- 
 stand you all are over here." Then he said: ''You 
 charge us with being obtuse, but really I think that 
 some of your countrymen are direct descendants from 
 the kind of Englishmen you are constantly making fun 
 of." I asked him, "How 's that?" and he said: 
 "There was a man on the steamer, sat at my table, 
 rather an agreeable man, an odd-looking person, and I 
 said to him one day, 'You have been in England?' and 
 he said, 'Several times; was in London this year; 
 spent six weeks there,' and I asked him, 'Did you go 
 to Westminster Abbey?' and he said, 'No, to the Lang- 
 
 25* 
 
390 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 ham.' " And, said he, ''I had to explain to him that 
 Westminster Abbey was n't a hotel." Then I said, 
 ^'What was this man's name?" and he said, "Clemens 
 —Samuel L. Clemens." ''Why, Great Scott, man," I 
 said, 'Hhat 's Mark Twain!" ''What! Mark Twain, 
 the great humorist?" I said, "Yes, the greatest in the 
 world," and he said, "That 's the best joke I ever 
 heard in my life." You know the moment I men- 
 tioned his name it created a crevasse in his cranium. 
 
 Some years ago I was at Homburg, where Mark 
 Twain was masquerading as a tramp abroad. I made 
 known his presence to some of the royalties and aris- 
 tocrats who were congregated there. The next morn- 
 ing Mark was introduced to His Koyal Highness the 
 Prince of Wales, always very agreeable and charming 
 to Americans, and while his walk at Homburg is usu- 
 ally about fifteen minutes, Mark made himself so agree- 
 able during the whole length of the tour that the royal 
 walk extended to an hour and a half, and the next 
 night I met Mark at the royal table. A few nights 
 before I had been dining there, and in the discursive 
 and extensive incidents of table life at Homburg, being 
 called upon for a story, I unearthed a weird story 
 which I had created and thought it might go in an 
 English crowd. But it did n't. But two nights after- 
 ward, when Mark was there, and as the situation be- 
 came more human and companionable, he started in 
 to enliven the table himself, and he told the same story. 
 It was received with such hilarity and bursts of laugh- 
 ter and applause that it brought Mark out as "the 
 only humorist in the world, and the best story-teller," 
 and he "never was so brilliant," and the effect has 
 
CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 391 
 
 been that I can't go to England now and tell a story 
 without their saying, ''That 's one of Mark Twain's." 
 Well, my friends, those are not the only occasions 
 upon which Mark and I have met. A few years ago 
 I met him at the dinner in London that Mr. Hare 
 spoke of. Pinero was there with an elaborate essay 
 on the drama, and he sat alongside of me. Well, Mark 
 got up and responded to the drama, and delivered one 
 of the most unique, picturesque, and graphic descrip- 
 tions I ever heard in my life of the eccentricities of his 
 Newfoundland dog. Pinero 's manuscript faded page 
 by page as the dog pranced. And at that time Mark 
 Twain was not himself. He was laboring under a 
 gigantic load of debt. He was resisting it as best he 
 could, and as a man of grit and a man of humor only 
 can resist a catastrophe like that. I don't care what 
 misfortunes may come to a man; I don't care what 
 sorrows may fall upon him— there is nothing that 
 presses him and crushes him like an apparently inex- 
 tricable load of debt. Members of his family whom 
 he deeply loves may drop away, and the sorrow of it 
 may be just as deep as the tenderest heart and the 
 most marvelous affection can picture, but that can be 
 met ; there are solutions for it, and if he is a Christian 
 there is the hope of meeting in the other world; but 
 when a load of debt comes from no fault of your own, 
 and it presses you down, I know of nothing equal to 
 that. I have been there myself. So I knew what 
 Mark felt that night. I knew that the whole world 
 knew it and was sympathizing. I knew that the Lon- 
 don papers were full of it, and were saying, ''Let us 
 bear your burdens"; that the creditors were extending 
 
392 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 to him their full forgiveness of what he owed; and I 
 saw beneath this crushing of genius the determination 
 to surmount it. "When I met him next it was last year 
 in London; we had heard of him in the meantime in 
 Australia, in Van Diemen's Land, in Victoria, and all 
 over the interesting parts of the earth, lecturing here, 
 speaking there, received everywhere by English-speak- 
 ing people with the gratitude of English-speaking peo- 
 ple because he made them laugh, laugh in their sor- 
 rows, laugh in their pleasures, laugh in their homes, 
 until he is a household memory as well as a household 
 member of every English-speaking family this world 
 over. When I met him again it was the old Mark 
 Twain that we have here to-night— sorrow gone, de- 
 pression gone, all that crushing, all that tremendous 
 tragedy gone ; the genius that had broken through and 
 rescued him was making him himself again. Out of 
 all those years of darkness had come here a novel, and 
 there a story, and out of it all had come that best book 
 of fiction and the historical novel of this generation, 
 that most picturesque character— we have her spirit 
 and her life, we never knew what she did or what she 
 was until Mark Twain wrote about her— Joan of Arc. 
 Now, the century opened with a tragedy just like that 
 of Mark Twain's; the Wizard of the North, the great- 
 est genius of English literature, Sir Walter Scott, 
 found himself crushed under a similar load of debt 
 and he worked out of it, and in working out of it gave 
 to the world those marvelous ' ' Waverley Novels. ' ' That 
 was at the beginning of the century ; and the English- 
 speaking races and the literary men of all races every- 
 where have never supposed that it could be repeated. 
 
CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 393 
 
 But at the close of the century another man, in an- 
 other country, laboring under a similar misfortune, 
 but with a like world-wide fame, met the same crisis, 
 met it in the same way and with the same genius and 
 Avith the same courage; and while Walter Scott died 
 under the burden of grief and labor, thank God Mark 
 Twain, having redeemed his credit and redeemed the 
 honor of his life by this supreme exertion, stands with 
 us to-day just as fresh and just as young, and with 
 just as beautiful years before him as before the tragedy 
 came. It is the difference between the old world and 
 the new, the difference between the first of the century 
 and the end of the century; it is the difference be- 
 tween hope and opportunity, and its best illustration 
 is because with tragedy is coupled humor, that he is 
 our guest at dinner. 
 
WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO SAMUEL L. CLEMENS (MARK TWAIN), 
 NOVEMBER 10, 1900 
 
 IF you meet a humorist on his own ground the 
 chances are that you will be thrown down. Unless 
 you are a very great joker, he will probably out joke 
 you, or, if he does n't, people will think he does, which 
 is quite as bad. The only way is to take him seriously, 
 and then if you praise him he will be apt to think you 
 are in earnest. That is why I am going to be serious 
 in the very little I have to say about our great and good 
 friend to-night, though we have now arrived at that 
 happy stage of a complimentary dinner when the guest, 
 unless he is a person of extraordinary perspicacity, 
 does not know whether you are praising him or not. 
 He is so thickly buttered by this time that he thinks 
 everything offered him is butter, and in a lordly dish. 
 If you get out your little hammer and drive your little 
 nail into his skull, he smiles blandly when it reaches his 
 gray matter, and comes round, at the end of the dinner, 
 with the head of the nail sticking out, to say, '* Thank 
 you, old fellow, that was very nice of you ; I hope you 
 won 't have it too much on your conscience. ' ' 
 
 Like every one else here, I am glad to have Mr. 
 Clemens among us again, because, for one thing, I 
 hated to see him having such a good time abroad. We 
 
 394 
 
WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS 395 
 
 always suspect a fellow-citizen who has a good time 
 abroad; we are afraid that there must be something 
 wrong about him. We feel that he never could have 
 been what we thought him if other people think so too. 
 We are jealous of his fame if it is universal ; we should 
 have liked to keep it to ourselves. Many a time, in the 
 course of the last nine years, my heart has been sad- 
 dened by the acceptance of our friend in France, Ger- 
 many, Austria, and England as one of the first humor- 
 ists of all times, and I have done what little I could to 
 set the matter right among those who loved him as I did 
 by whispering around that they were overdoing it. 
 But now that we have got him back I am not so sure 
 that they were overdoing it. At any rate, I wish to 
 lift my voice in welcoming him home, and to be one of 
 the very first publicly to announce that I forgive him. 
 I realize that he was not to blame because other peo- 
 ples have appreciated him in their poor, unintelligent 
 way, and told him so in languages which are difficult for 
 any true American to understand. We ought to forgive 
 him in our own interest, if for no other reason, for no 
 one else has been more fully in the joke of us, or known 
 better how to interpret us to ourselves ; and at no other 
 period of our national life have we been a greater joke 
 or more needed interpretation. He has probably ar- 
 rived by a happy instinct to tell us just what we mean, 
 and to declare how about it, when we are ourselves 
 most in the dark. He is, at any rate, a humorist of 
 continental dimensions, and he could not be the great 
 humorist he is without being vastly better— if there is 
 anything better ; if it is really better to be a sagacious 
 reader of contemporary history, a generous and com- 
 
396 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 passionate observer of one's kind, a philosopher with- 
 out theory, a poet whose broad-winged imagination 
 transcends the bounds of verse. Perhaps it takes all 
 these to make up the sum of a great humorist. At 
 least we find them all summed up in the humorist whom 
 we amusingly suppose ourselves to be honoring to- 
 night, when he is so obviously honoring us. Why, in 
 a manner, he has invented us, and more than any other 
 man has made us the component parts of the great 
 American joke which we all realize ourselves to be 
 when we are serious. More than any other he has dis- 
 covered us to ourselves, he has determined our modern 
 mental attitude, fixed our point of view, and he could 
 not have done this without being vitally of the material 
 he worked in. He has invented us, but then we in- 
 vented him, to begin with, and that is where I think 
 we have reason to be proud. Before us no people had 
 a humorist with nothing cruel but everything kindly 
 in his smile, who never laughed with the strong against 
 the weak, or found anything droll in suffering or de- 
 formity. When we look back over literature, and see 
 what savage and stupid and pitiless things have passed 
 for humor, and then open his page, we seem not only 
 to have invented the only true humorist, but to have 
 invented humor itself. We do not know by what mys- 
 tery his talent sprang up from our soil and flowered in 
 our air, but we know that no such talent has been 
 known to any other; and if we set any bounds to our 
 joy in him it must be from that innate American mod- 
 esty, not always perceptible to the alien eye, which for- 
 bids us to keep throwing bouquets at ourselves. 
 
ST. CLAIR MoKELWAY 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO SAMUEL L. CLEMENS (MARK TWAIN), 
 NOVEMBER 10, 1900 
 
 A FEW minutes ago a Reed shaken by the wind un- 
 dertook to declare that Missouri merit was out- 
 classed by constant looking for the Maine chance. I 
 leave him to the tender mercies of Mark Twain, who 
 is preparing his views of his intimate enemies— to be 
 published an hundred years hence ! They will be read 
 with intense interest by the successors of the present 
 members of the Lotos Club. Now, if I might for a 
 moment use metaphor as a minister to motive, I would 
 say that some years ago we met here sympathetically 
 to hold up Mark Twain's hands. Now we all feel like 
 holding up our own in congratulation of him and of 
 ourselves. Cf him because his warfare is accomplished. 
 Of ourselves because he has returned to our company. 
 If it was a pleasure to know him then, it is a privilege 
 and an honor to know him now. He has fought the 
 good fight. He has kept the faith. He is ready to 
 be offered up, but we are not ready to have him offered 
 up. For we want the Indian summer of his life to be 
 long, and that to be followed by a genial winter, which, 
 if it be as frosty as his hair, shall also be as kindly as 
 his heart. 
 
 He has enough excess and versatility of ability to 
 
 397 
 
398 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 be a genius. He has enough quality and quantity of 
 virtues to be a saint. But he has honorably trans- 
 muted his genius into work, whereby it has been 
 brought into relations with literature and with life. 
 And he has preferred warm fellowship to cold perfec- 
 tion, so that sinners love him and saints are content to 
 wait for him. May they wait long ! 
 
 I think he is entitled to be regarded as the Dean of 
 America's humor; that he is entitled to the distinction 
 of being the greatest humorist this nation ever had. 
 I say this with a fair knowledge of the chiefs of the 
 entire corps, from Francis Hopkinson and the author 
 of ''Hasty Pudding" down to Bill Nye and Dooley. 
 None of them would I depreciate. I would greatly 
 prefer to honor and hail them all for the singular fit- 
 ness of their gifts to the needs of the nation in their 
 times. Hopkinson and Joel Barlow lightened the woes 
 of the Revolution by the touch of nature which makes 
 the whole world grin. Seba Smith relieved the Yankee 
 tension under the impact of Jacksonian roughness by 
 tickling its ribs with a quill. Lieutenant Derby turned 
 the searchlight of fun on the stiff formalities of army 
 posts, on the raw conditions of alkali journalism, and 
 on the solemn humbugs of frontier politics. James 
 Russell Lowell used dialect for dynamite to blow the 
 front off hypocrisy, or to shatter the cotton commer- 
 cialism in which the New England conscience was en- 
 cysted. Robert H. Newell, mirthmaker and mystic, 
 satirized military ignorance and pinchbeck bluster to 
 an immortality of contempt. Bret Harte in verse and 
 story touched the parallels of tragedy and of comedy, 
 of pathos, of bathos, and of humor, which love of life 
 
ST. CLAIR McKELWAY 399 
 
 and lust of gold opened up amid the unapprehended 
 grandeur and the coveted treasures of primeval nature. 
 Charles F. Browne made Artemus Ward as well known 
 as Abraham Lincoln in the time the two divided the 
 attention of the world. Bill Nye singed the shams of 
 his day, and Dooley dissects for ''Hinnisy" the shams 
 of our own. Nor should we forget Eugene Field, the 
 beatifier of childhood, or Joel Chandler Harris, the 
 fabulist of the plantation, or Ruth McEnery Stuart, 
 the coronal singer of the joys and hopes, the loves and 
 the dreams, of the images of Grod in ebony in the old 
 South, ere it leaped and hardened to the new. 
 
 To these love and honor. But to this man honor's 
 crown of honor, for he has made a mark none of the 
 others has reached. Few of them have diversified the 
 delights to be drawn from our fugitive humor. They 
 have, as humorists, in distinction to the work of moral- 
 ists, novelists, orators, and poets, in which the rarest 
 among them shine, they have as humorists, in the main, 
 worked a single vein. And some of them were humor- 
 ists for a purpose, a dreary grind that, and some of 
 them were only humorists for a period as well as for a 
 purpose. The purpose served, the period passed, the 
 humor that was of their life a thing apart ceased. 
 'T is Clemens 's whole existence! 
 
 As Bacon made all learning his province, so Mark 
 Twain has made all life and history his quarry, from 
 the ^'Jumping Frog" to "The Yankee at Arthur's 
 Court"; from the incrusted petrifaction that died of 
 protracted exposure to the present parliament of Aus- 
 tria; from the grave of Adam to the mysteries of the 
 Adamless Eden known as the League of Professional 
 
400 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 AYomen; from Mulberry Sellers to Joan of Arc, and 
 from Edward the Sixth to "Puddin'head Wilson," who 
 wanted to kill his half of a deathless dog. 
 
 Nevada is forgiven its decay because he flashed the 
 oddities of its zenith life on pages that endure. Cali- 
 fornia is worth more than its gold, because he showed 
 to men the heart under its swagger. He annexed the 
 Sandwich Islands to the fun of the nation long before 
 they were put under its flag. Because of him the Mis- 
 souri and the Mississippi go now unvexed to the sea, for 
 they ripple with laughter as they recall Tom Sawyer, 
 Huckleberry Finn, poor Jim, and the Duke. Europe, 
 Asia Minor, and Palestine are open doors to the world, 
 thanks to this pilgrim's progress with his "Innocents 
 Abroad." Purity, piety, and pity shine out from 
 ' ' Prince and Pauper ' ' like the eyes of a wondering deer 
 on a torch-lighted night from a wooded fringe of moun- 
 tain and of lake. 
 
 But enough of what I fear is already too much. In 
 expressing my debt to him I hope I express somewhat, 
 at least, of yours. I cannot repay him in kind any 
 more than I could rival him. None of us can. But 
 we can render to him a return he would like. With 
 him we can get on our way to reality and burn off 
 pretense as acid eats its way to the denuded plate of 
 the engraver. We can strip the veneer of convention 
 from style and strengthen our thought in his Anglo- 
 Saxon well of English undefiled. We can drop seem- 
 ing for sincerity. We can be relentless toward hypoc- 
 risy and tender to humanity. We can rejoice in the 
 love of laughter, without ever once letting it lead us to 
 libertinism of fancy. We can reach through humor the 
 
ST. CLAIR McKELWAY 401 
 
 heart of man. We can make exaggeration the scourge 
 of meanness and the magnifier of truth on the broad 
 screen of life. By study of him the nothing new under 
 the sun can be made fresh and fragrant, by the su- 
 preme art of putting things. Though none of us can 
 handle his wand, all of us can be transformed by it 
 into something higher and finer than our dull selves. 
 That is our delight, that is our debt, both due to him, 
 and long may he remain with us to brighten, to broaden, 
 and to better our souls with the magic mirth and with 
 the mirthful magic of his incomparable spell. 
 
 26 
 
WU TING FANO 
 
 (CHINESE MINISTER) 
 AT THE DINNER IN HIS HONOR, DECEMBER 15, 1900 
 
 I AM doubly sensible of the honor you have done me 
 to-night in the shape of this splendid banquet, and 
 I am grateful for the cordial manner in which you have 
 received the kind words spoken of me by the president. 
 I rejoiced to hear the cheers in which you expressed 
 yourselves a-s to this toast in my honor, because they 
 were not only complimentary to me, but because I was 
 convinced that in those cheers there rang the senti- 
 ments of good will toward my country. 
 
 Gentlemen, this is an unexpected honor, and I shall 
 never, as long as I live, forget this memorable occasion. 
 When the vice-president of this club and the chairman 
 of the committee came the other day to Washington to 
 tender me this invitation, I did not understand the rea- 
 son of the honor tendered to me ; but when I heard the 
 name of this club I gladly accepted, because I thought 
 that there was a connecting link between it and my- 
 self. Of all the plants in China, the lotos is the one 
 we appreciate on account of its purity. I asked a gen- 
 tleman sitting next to me this evening why that name 
 was chosen for this club. He was good enough to ex- 
 plain to me that Lotos is a place for recreation, for 
 rest; and as the club is intended as a place for gen- 
 
 402 
 
WU TING FANG 403 
 
 tlemen to come and rest it is an appropriate name. I 
 bow to his word, and of course he knows better than I 
 do, but I will say this, that in China, as I have just 
 said, the lotos is a flower that we appreciate because 
 we not only eat it, but if you dip it into water it will 
 straighten up again, the mud does not stick to it, and 
 it is as fresh and clean as ever. 
 
 For this reason, gentlemen, we call the lotos a supe- 
 rior one among the plants; and in China the learned 
 men, the good men, and the men of science we generally 
 call "Lotos," for that reason; and associations are 
 formed under that name. So, therefore, gentlemen, 
 you understand the reasons for my accepting this invi- 
 tation, because I wish to be in your company, by dining 
 with the superior men of the United States. 
 
 Your president has been good enough to pay me a 
 flattering compliment in referring to the crisis which 
 occurred last summer. I must say that it was a sum- 
 mer full of anxiety and worry to me, and for many a 
 day I could hardly sleep; but then it was my duty; 
 I did no more than my duty to my government and my 
 country. The time was important, and it was necessary 
 for me to take some step to prevent the crisis, if possible, 
 from coming on. I found that at that time the people 
 of this country, and also all the people in Europe, were 
 so excited that they would believe anything that was 
 telegraphed from the East, especially from my coun- 
 try; and all I could do wa^ to urge that the people of 
 this country should not hastily believe what was tele- 
 graphed until authentic news could come. And it was 
 gratifying to me to find that the administration and 
 the officials of this country, and the press and the 
 
404 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 people generally, were moderate and conservative in 
 their views ; and when I was fortunate enough to obtain 
 the first news from Pekin, from Mr. Conger, and lay it 
 before the State Department, it was gratifying to me 
 that, although people in Europe generally considered 
 it a forgery, the people of this country and the offi- 
 cials and the press generally believed it was true. But 
 I was very sorry to find that the press in Europe gen- 
 erally, and the people in Europe, all declared that it 
 was a fabrication on my part or on the part of my gov- 
 ernment, as if nobody Chinese was capable of telling a 
 single truth. 
 
 Gentlemen, from my boyhood I have learned in the 
 classics of Confucius that in your dealings with others 
 your words should be sincere. I can conscientiously 
 say that I have always acted up to that injunction. It 
 is sometimes said that a diplomatic representative is a 
 gentleman sent to lie abroad for the good of his country. 
 Perhaps that would do two or three centuries ago, but I 
 firmly believe that diplomats as well as men in other 
 professions should act straightforwardly and honestly, 
 because while the use of falsehood may temporarily 
 secure an advantage, sooner or later the truth will be 
 found out, and the consequences would be very serious. 
 So therefore I believe in the maxim ''Honesty is the 
 best policy." I might compare the profession of a 
 diplomat in a foreign country somewhat to that of a 
 lawyer pleading a case before a court. It would not 
 do for the lawyer in advocating the interest of his 
 client to quote an obsolete law or statutes which have 
 been repealed, or to distort facts with a view of de- 
 ceiving the court and the jury. No respectable law- 
 
WU TING FANG 405 
 
 yer, I am sure, would stoop to do such a thing. In 
 saying this, gentlemen, I do not insinuate that the 
 lawyers in this country are not honest. I believe 
 they are all honest. I would be the last man to 
 slander the legal profession, to which I have the 
 honor to belong. So a diplomat, although he is 
 acting for the interest of his country, should be 
 straightforward and do his best, and while doing his 
 best for the interests of his country he ought to be a 
 gentleman and act honestly; but without a just tribu- 
 nal, however able a lawyer may be, his case may be 
 defeated; but in my case it is with gratitude and 
 pleasure that I acknowledge that I have a fair and 
 just tribunal before whom I plead the interests of my 
 country. The potent, wise, and moderate policy of 
 your government, and the fairness and straightfor- 
 wardness of the administration, headed by your Presi- 
 dent, assisted in a great measure by your Secretary 
 of State— to them is due the credit, rather than to 
 me, for what has been done in the last summer; and 
 credit is also due to the press generally in this coun- 
 try, which shapes'^public opinion, and to the peo- 
 ple of this country, because as far as I can make out 
 they have almost unanimously endorsed the humane 
 and wise policy of the administration. Since the un- 
 fortunate occurrence I have been receiving from day 
 to day innumerable letters from persons, many of 
 whom I have not the pleasure of knowing, expressing 
 their sympathy for China. 
 
 There is a saying in our classics that the people 
 should be made to follow, but not be able to understand, 
 the reason of things. But I may say, in the case of the 
 
406 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 American people, this maxim of Confucius is inap- 
 plicable, because I find in every public question that 
 the people are very intelligent and lovers of fair 
 play. This indeed is a wonderful nation. Last 
 Wednesday the city of Washington celebrated its cen- 
 tennial, and I was fortunate enough to listen to the 
 exercises at the Capitol, and among the public ad- 
 dresses given by the congressmen and senators, there 
 is one speech I will not forget. It is the speech of Sen- 
 ator Daniel. In his opening address, if I remember 
 rightly, he said that ancient history has no precedent 
 for the United States of America, and modern history 
 has no parallel. That is a grand expression, but it is 
 nevertheless true. There is no ancient history for your 
 great country, but your country has been making his- 
 tory. American history dates from the life of Wash- 
 ington, and is enriched by the noble achievements of 
 Lincoln and Grant, and the many others whom it is 
 needless for me to enumerate, and of whom you know 
 more than I do. Coming to the present day, it is em- 
 bellished by such household words as the names of Miles 
 and Dewey, and last, but not the least, the name of 
 William McKinley. Yes, your history is rapidly filling 
 up with the noble deeds of your men. But we diplo- 
 mats, we foreign diplomats, do not understand your 
 politics. I am speaking of myself —perhaps I should be 
 going too far thus to refer to my colleagues, who are 
 more learned than I am; but, speaking for myself, I 
 do not understand your politics. Your politics are too 
 complicated for me. For instance, I have not been 
 able to master the intricacies of "sixteen to one" and 
 the "full dinner-pail." These things are too deep for 
 
WU TING FANG 407 
 
 my dull understanding. But I understand this, which- 
 ever political party may reign in the White House, the 
 glory of the Stars and Stripes will not in any event 
 grow dim. As long as you remain the people who 
 form this administration, headed by that noble, hu- 
 mane, and level-headed man who is now your President 
 —I say as long as you have such men at the head of 
 your government, your great nation will continue to 
 command the respect of all the other nations of the 
 world. 
 
 Gentlemen, I will not occupy your time much longer, 
 and in concluding I will say that Senator Daniel, in 
 concluding his speech, expressed the hope that the city 
 of Washington will be in course of time the capital of a 
 universal republic. When I heard this I could not un- 
 derstand, but when I came home I pondered over it, and 
 I think I have found out his deep meaning. The 
 meaning, if I am not mistaken, is this— that the posi- 
 tion, the high position, and the just policy of your 
 nation will be in course of time recognized and will pre- 
 vail among all different nations, so that the city of 
 Washington will become in the near future the seat of 
 universal peace, justice, and truth. When that day 
 comes, and I hope it will not be far distant, the supe- 
 rior men of this country, of which the members of this 
 club form an element, will have much to do, and will 
 take a prominent part in bringing about that happy 
 state of things. 
 
 Gentlemen, I thank you for your courtesy and the 
 honor you have done me. 
 
WAYNE McYEAGH 
 
 AT THE DINNER TO WU TING FANQ, DECEMBER 15, 1900 
 
 I AM bound to say to you that I think it is really 
 the first time in my life I ever felt seriously em- 
 barrassed after dinner. My theory of after-dinner 
 speaking has been singular in one respect, I think. I 
 never knew what I was to say until I was on my feet, 
 and everybody was kind enough to forget what I had 
 said as soon as I sat down. Indeed, I announced many 
 years ago that I was utterly irresponsible, and I was 
 proud of it, for anything I said after I sat down to 
 dinner. Up to that time, I have notified gentlemen 
 in both the warlike services, to whose representatives 
 we have listened, that I was amenable to any code 
 which existed among gentlemen, but that after I sat 
 down to dinner I would accept no challenge from any- 
 body. But to-night is a wholly different experience 
 from any I have ever had; I have always believed in 
 hilarity at a dinner-table and afterward. But we are 
 met upon a very remarkable occasion, and confronted 
 by a situation which to my mind does not quite lend 
 itself to amusement. His Excellency, the Chinese min- 
 ister, doubtless knows without my telling him that no 
 matter how long he stays in this country— and we all 
 hope he will stay very long— he will probably never 
 receive a more genuine American compliment than he 
 
 408 
 
WAYNE McVEAGH 409 
 
 enjoys in being the guest of a thoroughly representa- 
 tive American club. This is, gentlemen, a club in 
 which nobody stands on anything except that on which 
 Disraeli said he stood with pride when he stood for Par- 
 liament—on his head. There are other associations of 
 gentlemen selected for various social, political, and per- 
 sonal reasons, but this club has always stood for the 
 merit of the individual member, whether he was a 
 struggling artist or a struggling author, whether he 
 was a writer of editorials or in whatever department 
 of human activity, even in that miserable profession to 
 which I belong, and to which Mr. Wu belongs. If he 
 was a straightforward, honorable, earnest, and striving 
 man he was welcome to the Lotos Club, but not other- 
 wise. (Addressing the Chinese minister:) So this is 
 a very great compliment which you enjoy to-night. Of 
 course (looking at Mr. Carnegie) in every club men 
 get in who ought not to be there. There is a friend of 
 mine of many, many years' standing of whom I would 
 be unwilling to say an unkind word behind his back, 
 but I confess I was struck with astonishment to find 
 Andrew Carnegie here, and yet this club does not dis- 
 dain poverty. But nobody is perfect in his calling. I 
 heard once a very severe criticism passed upon General 
 Miles as a soldier. Another soldier, and a competent 
 judge of such matters, told me of a performance of 
 Miles 's which he said was grossly improper. He said 
 that Miles leaped his horse over some Confederate 
 breastworks and engaged in a desperate hand-to-hand 
 conflict with the enemy, which no general had a right 
 to do. 
 
 Well, now, as the gentleman who last addressed you 
 
410 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 with such force and directness said, we are, as Ameri- 
 cans and, I think I may not irreverently say, as pro- 
 fessing Christians, confronted with a situation which I 
 am sure the guest of the evening will permit me to treat 
 with absolute frankness. When I use the word Chris- 
 tian I do not mean it to apply to the new sect which 
 has so rapidly overspread the continent of Europe and 
 has made considerable inroads in this country— the 
 sect I call Mohammedan-Christians. We are con- 
 fronted with this serious conflict of two diverse civili- 
 zations, and while of course we are bound to treat the 
 civilization of every other people with the respect we 
 expect for our own, still the heart of this country has 
 been pained, the heart of the world has been pained, by 
 the misfortunes and the excesses which have happened 
 in the country which His Excellency represents here. 
 I have always held, and more than once expressed, the 
 opinion that any independent nation had a perfect 
 right to say to any other, '*We do not wish intercourse 
 with you; we do not wish to receive your ministers; 
 we do not wish to receive the missionaries of your 
 faith; we do not wish to receive your merchants, '^ 
 and if an independent nation, however small or weak, 
 says that to any other, however powerful or strong, 
 in my judgment she has a right to say it and to have 
 her isolation respected. I do not believe I have any 
 right to kill anybody to make him purchase my legal 
 opinion. I do not believe, as a nation, we have any 
 right to kill any other nation to make it buy our sur- 
 plus products. Not even of steel, and that is one of the 
 best of our surplus products. But if a nation, wisely 
 or unwisely, says to us, ''We will accept your min- 
 
WAYNE McVEAGH 411 
 
 ister; we will accept your missionaries; we will accept 
 your merchants," then at the bar of nations, and 
 nobody recognizes it more fully than His Excellency, 
 she must be responsible for their safety. I wish we 
 could ignore it, but we may not safely ignore it. We 
 have not treated the Chinese well in this country. It 
 is one of the blots on our national history that we have 
 treated them badly, but I think that that is no excuse 
 for their treating us badly on the other hand; and it 
 was a painful necessity which obliged us to send our 
 men and armed ships to rescue our own minister from 
 the danger to which he was unfortunately exposed. 
 We must not blink the facts, as they are; it does not 
 do anybody any good to do so. We did encounter that 
 necessity, and the only ray of hope that came to every 
 American in that moment, in those long days of anx- 
 iety, was the message His Excellency gave to us and the 
 world that our minister was safe. I was in Europe at 
 the time, and it was pitiful to witness the constant and 
 universal denunciation of that statement as a falsehood. 
 Nobody was willing to believe it, as he has said to- 
 night. Knowing him as I did, I believed it, and told 
 everybody who would listen to me that it would turn 
 out to be true. Because I knew he was absolutely in- 
 capable of telling a falsehood. 
 
 And that was the first turn of the tide ; that message 
 that he carried to Mr. Hay was the first ray of light 
 which the Western nations saw in their embarrassment. 
 We welcomed it and acted upon it, for which I am dou- 
 bly proud, as an American. I only wish that the other 
 nations of the world had done the same thing. And now 
 that the legations are safe, what Christian peoples mean 
 
412 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 by these punitive expeditions I cannot imagine. The 
 details of them from time to time make me sick at heart 
 and ashamed of my religion. We have no right, gen- 
 tlemen, no nation has any right, to be doing in China 
 what the other nations of the world are doing to-day, 
 and in my deliberate judgment, reading everything to 
 which I have had access, and letters which have been 
 published, I am afraid it will be proven that China at 
 this hour has suffered injfinitely more, infinitely worse, 
 at the hands of the Christian nations than we have all 
 together suffered at their hands. But it is something 
 of which we may be proud, as General Miles has said, 
 that while the valor of the American soldier and the 
 valor of the American sailor have remained untar- 
 nished, owing to the wisdom of the government whose 
 citizens we are, we have at least a record of which we 
 have no reason to be ashamed. If there shall be a set- 
 tlement creditable to civilization East and West of this 
 appalling calamity it will be largely due to the initia- 
 tive of our country, and to the wise, generous, and 
 conservative action of our President and of our Sec- 
 retary of State. 
 
FRANK E. LAWEENCE 
 
 AT THE YULE-TIDE DINNER, JANUARY 5, 1901 
 
 HAIL to the new century! No longer do we talk 
 of years with their brief span. 
 
 Who, said the ancients, having tasted nectar and 
 ambrosia, would return to the food of earth ! 
 
 Who, having seen a century, a whole hundred years, 
 elbowed and jostled aside and made to take flight all 
 in an instant, and disappear in outer darkness, can 
 ever take thought to the passage of a single year! 
 Henceforth we deal in centuries ! 
 
 In the last century we were born ; in this century we 
 shall die. Let us be happy ! 
 
 The dead century brought us being and conscious- 
 ness and memory. The living century will press to the 
 lips of each of us the Lotos draught of forgetfulness, 
 and we may not say it nay. Let us rejoice ! 
 
 Who that watched the death of the century one hun- 
 dred years ago could conceive the wonders or the splen- 
 dors of its successor ! Who that during the past week 
 has watched the birth of a new period can imagine its 
 possible glories! Let us not try! 
 
 Mere fleeting atoms as we are, whirled through space 
 by time, hurled into life, and all across it, and through 
 and out of it again, almost before we can pause for 
 
 413 
 
414 SPEECHES AT THE LOTOS CLUB 
 
 breath; let us not take ourselves too seriously. Let us 
 be merry! 
 
 As time goes on, as the young century climbs the hill 
 toward its meridian, let us meet here as often as we 
 may, broader in our friendships, more ready to lend a 
 helping hand one to another ; and though we cannot be 
 here to see another century, but must be content with 
 a small part of that which has now begun to pass, let 
 us yet hope that when another hundred years are gone 
 there may be merry-makers here in our stead, to cele- 
 brate the Yule-tide season as heartily, as happily, as 
 .thankfully, and with as much reason for thankfulness, 
 as we to-night. 
 
 409 91 
 

 
 
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