attempted to marry into the aristocracy,
but the market for titles was a little dull that year and she came home.
She had lived there long enough to become an Anglomaniac. She met a
Dutchman in New York--I think he was a member of the Holland
Society--and she said: "Everything seems so remarkably commonplace here,
after getting back from England; I am sure you must admit that there is
nothing so romantic here as in England." The Dutchman remarked: "Well, I
don't know about that." She said: "I was stopping at a place in the
country, with one of the members of the aristocracy, and there was a
little piece of water--a sort of miniature lake, as it were--so sweet.
The waters were confined by little rustic walls, so to speak, and that
was called the 'Earl's Oath'; we have nothing so romantic in New York,
I'm sure." Said the Dutchman: "Oh, yes, here we have McComb's Dam."
[Laughter.]

But, Mr. President, I certainly am in earnest sympathy with the
patriotic sentiment expressed in the toast which you have been pleased
to assign to me to-night, saying, in effect, that the American is
composed of the best strains of Europe, and the American cannot be
worthy of his ancestors unless he aims to combine within himself the
good qualities of all. America has gained much by being the conglomerate
country that she is, made up of a commingling of the blood of other
races. It is a well-known fact in the crossing of breeds that the best
traits predominate in the result. We in this land, have gained much from
the purity of those bloods; we have suffered little from the taint.

It is well in this material age, when we are dwelling so much upon
posterity, not to be altogether oblivious to pedigree. It has been well
said that he who does not respect his ancestors will never be likely to
achieve anything for which his descendants will respect him. Man learns
but very little in this world from precept; he learns something from
experience; he learns much from example, and the "best teachers of
humanity are the lives of worthy men."

We have a great many admirable so-called foreign societies in New York,
and they are all doing good work--good work in collecting interesting
historical data in regard to the ancestors who begat them; in regard to
the lands from which they came--good work in the broad field of charity.
But it is the Holland Society which seems to be a little closer to us
than the others--more _our_ Society, even with those of us wh