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

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156 Holland can be most fittingly celebrated in the New York, because it is the true child of Amsterdam, and inherits from its mother city those qualities of cosmopolitanism and commer- cialism which have made it so surpassingly great. I feel some embarrassment in attempting to justify in any manner to-night the very great com- pliment of your invitation. In the first place, Dr. Lorimer's scholarly address has already so elo- quently sounded the praises of your Dutch ancestry that little remains to be said. I am further embarrassed because to-night I am meta- phorically between Scylla and Charybdis, or shall I say the Urient and the Gccident ?i To follow the Minister of China is difficult. To precede the dis- tinguished Nebraskan, impossible. Qflpplauselj In this feastof reason and flow of soul, therefore, I oc- cupy the place to Which, in the play of the Ad- mfimble C richton, is given the suggestive name of Twenie, for I speak when your minds are still linger- ing With pleasure upon the thoughtful sentiments of the Chinese Minister or are about turning With pleasurable anticipation to those about to be ut- tered by the most eloquent of living Americans. Like his distinguished predecessor, the Chinese Minister has, With his American education, become Americanized. Indeed, I might define him as an accidental Occidental Griental. And so I feel, to quote the immortal poet if city of As when a Well graced actor leaves the stage, I All eyes are idly bent on him who enters neXt. , But my embarrassment is the greater in the thought that in every minute that I am occupied Wlth YOUT lndulgence, I am unreasonably postpon-

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' 157 y ing the pleasure which We all anticipate in listening to one Who has proved, in his remarkable career, that the age of the printing press has no more de- stroyed the age of oratory than the chromo has supplanted the oil painting. Cflpplausej I hope that my speech, in its poverty of thought and Wit, Will be but an appetizer to the feast of eloquence to Which We will soon be treated, and therefore I simply say to Mr. Bryan, in the Words of the courteous Prince of Denmark to Laertes, at the beginning of the fatal combat: n I 'll be your foil, Laertesg in mine ignorance I Your skill shall, like a star i' the darkest night, Stick fiery off indeed. QApplause.J Indeed, I should underfthe circumstances 'hesi- tate to speak at all, but the Chairman of the Committee has assigned to me a place on the pro- gramme, and I am very, much in the position of a phlegmatic Pennsylvania Dutch soldier of whom I once heard, Who fought on the Union side inthe Civil War. In the course of one of the battles he was captured by the Confederates. While they were taking him to the rear, he said, in a perfectly placid and unconcerned Way, Vat you going to do with me? They replied, jokingly, Why,we 're going to hang you, you d--d Yankee. Vell, he said calmly, vatever is the rule. CGreat lcmghtevxj It may be that in all these apologetic remarks I am unnecessarily borrowing trouble, but I have always found that with the Dutch trouble is the only thing you can borrow unless you have got good security. CLaughte1'.D You have been kind enough to assign to me a toast which is specially pertinent to the occasion,