d
opinions are outlawed. He revisited the country long after the
war--and he changed his mind about it. He thought a great deal
better of us; and we in turn found his letters a great deal
pleasanter reading. We like a man who can change his mind
[applause]; and if a bit of international frankness may be
permitted in the good-fellowship of this board, perhaps I may
venture to add that we particularly like to discover that trait in
an Englishman! [Applause and laughter.] We've changed our minds--at
least about some things. We've not only forgiven our countrymen;
whom our guest used to sympathize with; but we have put--and are
getting ready to put--the most of them into office! What we are
most anxious about just now is, whether they are going to forgive
us! Seriously, gentlemen, we are very glad to see Mr. Sala here
again. He was a veteran in the profession in which so many of you
are interested, worthily wearing the laurels won in many fields,
and enjoying the association, esteem, and trust of a great master
whose fame the world holds precious, when the most of us were
fledglings. We all know him as a wit, a man of letters, and a man
of the world. Some of us have known him also in that pleasanter
character of all clubmen described in the old phrase, 'a jolly
good fellow.' On the other side of the Atlantic the grasp he gives
an American hand is a warm one; and we do not mean that in New York
he shall feel away from home. I give you, gentlemen, 'The health
and prosperity of George Augustus Sala.'"]

MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE LOTOS CLUB: I am under the
deepest feeling of gratitude to Mr. Whitelaw Reid for having torn the
mask from the face of the stealthy conspirator, for having exposed the
wily plotter and insidious libeller, and defied the malignant
Copperhead. [Applause.] I thought that I had long ago been choked with
that venom; but no, it rises still and poisons all that belongs to his
otherwise happy condition. Gentlemen, I am indeed an enemy of the United
States. I am he who has come here to requite your hospitalities with
unfounded calumny and to bite the hand that has fed me. Unfortunately
there are so many hands that have fed me that it will take me from this
time until to-morrow morning to bite all the friendly hands.

With regard to events that took place twenty years ago and of whi