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

Page 176 text:

130 Harp that hung on Tara's walls shall no longer show its pristine splendor among the standards of the world, the centuries yet attest the patriotism of the Irish heart. Whatever other feasts may lack as guests, of Presidents, Governors, Mayors, and other dignitaries, St. Patrick has never failed for a hundred and twenty years to gather in of the highest on the seventeenth of March. y I am in- clined to think, however, that if Campbell had met with them at Delrnonico's he never would have sung :, There came to New York a poor exile of Erin, The dew on his thin robe was heavy and chill, For his country he sighed, when at twilight repairing To wander 'alone by the wind-beaten hill. Some of you may recall one part that Ireland had in saving Holland. You have heard of the ever memorable affair at Leyden, when William of Grange raised the siege by cutting the dikes, sailed his ships over the 'land, and brought de- liverance to the starving city. You recall that the invaders fled, leaving their breakfast of savory H udspot for the starving people. Well! the art of preparing.Hudspot had been learned by Castilians shipwrecked on the coast of Ireland, and, as we know, it was the genuine Irish Stew, and you can readily understand that if these Spaniards had not learned how to make Irish Stew, and had prepared their breakfast on that eventful Octo- ber third of Spanish olives, the famine-stricken Netherlanders would have starved I to death! Our. Dutchess County members who celebrate the raising. of the siege every Third October, make the H udspot the dish of honor as unfailingly as S610

Page 175 text:

is + 0 ' . H 'R C' AU 'K xl m 0 r xx xx 6 0 ll 5 4- wx U fi. N. R el t . rf, hw N V , , 4 0 .- M 4 X . A 'A 2- F3 ,.4X-YT f. 1- NF ,f --f'- R- -fs--. . N il, U 'J 0 U R ' v ffif A -.Y-1' K Riff- GUJ3 .1553 Wh ...X -'f f' Q! I N , - ,T Wffl , H :,:,:1-,,:1 - ,I 6 6 ,, U fi, u Q it 1 J 'Q .-f i' 7 my YY. if 'S' 'I xx i .5266 -I 2 EO E C G1 y Q A , 9 ,, ,..l .xxggfip It :X 3. i INTRODUCTORY' REMARKS BY PRESIDENT THEODORE M. BANTA. HE Holland Society warmly welcomes you W 1 .nul at our Nineteenth Annual gathering. We are happy to have you meet with us, share our bread and salt, and drink of the sparkling stream that flows over Croton Dam, reminding us of the frugal fare and significant nomenclature .of the land of our siresf H , We greet separately and particularly the rep- resentatives of our sister societies ,whose existence evidences the need of their several missions, in setting forth important objects, and incidentally fostering fellowship by eating an annual dinner at De1monico's or the Waldorf-Astoria. r We lift our cap first to venerable St. Andrews, father and forerunner of them all, who for an hundred and forty-seven years has sounded the pibroch, repeated the story of Bruce and Ban- nockburn, insisted upon it that a man's a man for a' that, and blessed with princely benefactions the needy Highlander and Lowlander, making a home across the sea, far from Scotia, stern and wild. One hundred thousand welcomes to the ever Friendly Sons 3 though fate decrees that the Q 129 F air Women and Brave M en: , E

Page 177 text:

1 31 our friends of St. AndreW's dignify the H aggis. We Would have made it the glory of this occasion, but Gscar declared his chef .declined to put it on the menu! fApplcmse.Q We clasp fraternal hands With St. George, With its one hundred and eighteen years, only less ancient than , St. AndreW's and St. Patrick's though We are not always quite sure Where We are at when We are With Englishmen! We strike up our National Anthem, but While our voices rise, singing, M y C owntry, '15 is of Thee! they shout in the same' tune, God Scwe the King! and with that pernicious acquisitiveness that leads them to claim everything in sight, they appear to think the hymn belonged to them ,before We had any country at all! ,And see hovvthey mix us up in studying Eng- lish history! Was 'King Egbert a Saxon or 'an Englishman? Was Canute, when the sea ,obeyed him Cor did he only give the order ?j an English- man or a Dane? Was William the Conqueror an Englishman or a Frenchman? Was William the Third an Englishman or a Dutchman? And is St. George, after all, only a branch of the Holland Society? We of the Holland Society have a special grievance against St. George for seeking to deteriorate Dutch blood! The distin- guishing provision of our constitution is that We trace our eligibility as members back through the male line to the Dutchman of 1675. ' But theSe Englishmen-and the New Englanders Were the Worst of the lot--laid traps for O111' fa-'UhG1'S and grandfathers and great-grandfathers, and in- veigled them into marrying British maids and Yankee girls, and even Widows, and- as a conse-