The Holland Society of New York - Yearbook (New York, NY)

Page 91 text:

65 Mr. Bergen then spoke, in substance, as follows: Fellow .lllbmbers of Zlze Holland 5062.661 .' With your Dutch good nature, I trust you will overlook the keen embarrassment I feel at this mo- ment in not being able to hand to my successor, Dr. Henry Van Dyke, in person, the symbols of this high office. Reams of papers filled with bursts of rhetorical admiration evoked by. his presence, must now be consigned to oblivion. With sadness I now send to the paper mills to be made into pulp my tons of extemporaneous manuscript. It is clear that Dr. Van Dyke, as our candidate for president, has 'run so well that he has run away. With his natural hesitation to speak in public, and the rhetorical humility of those men who make professional utterances from the pulpit, he has sent us a letter, the letter which has been read. I-Ie states that he is obliged to deliver a lec- ture this evening in some unknown part of Penn- sylvania. It is evident that he did not dare to deliver that lecture to us.' I have no doubt it is a lecture on the subject of building railroad bridges, or about new methods of applying electricity in the development of mechanical power. At least, I think that is what poets often do when called upon to deliver an address. We are sorry that the author of Little Rivers is not with us to-night. We might' duck him in one of those little rivers in honor of the occasion. I certainly have seen him partially under water in one of those little rivers, when in a burst of poetic license, he cried that he had hooked a trout. These poets catch a good many trout- on paper.

Page 93 text:

67 that Dr. Van Dyke will smash many a table with his vain efforts to drown your applause at his wit and eloquence. Since we last met at the election of this Society, the virtues and qualities of our ancestors have been exhibited again on another Held, by men who have the same blood in their veins which we have, in a way to startle the world. Without entering at all upon a discussion of the merits of the sad war in South Africa, where a great empire is writing with bloody fingers over the graves of men,-and women, too, who have died in the trenches, in defence of their convictions, For the sake of Brit- ish civilization, -I may say in your presence that the pluck and valor of the Dutch, as exhibited on many a hard fought field in Africa, have made them the heroes of the opening of the twentieth century. S Brothers of the Society, to be honored by the descendants of the men of New Netherland as you have honored me deserves more than passing thanks. But my vocabulary' of gratitude is not great enough to permit me 'to give you a proper expression of my feelings. All I can do in closing is to thank you from my heart for the pleasant favors and sweet honors you have bestowed ,upon me. It is a delightful duty to transfer themto one whose brilliant intellectual gifts will shed new lustre upon the name of our Society. On the motion of Judge Augustus Van Wyck the following resolution was unanimously adopted : Res0!z1ea', That the hearty thanks of The Holland Society of New York are hereby expressed to the Honorable Tunis G. Bergen, for his wise, able, and faithful administration of the