the grandfathers of my grandfathers, and I have sixty-four
great-grandmothers of the grandmothers of my grandmothers. There were
one hundred and twenty-eight of these people the day the "Mayflower"
sailed. There were one hundred and twenty-eight of them in England eager
to come over here, looking forward to this moment, gentlemen, when we
meet here at Delmonico's, and they were hoping and praying, every man of
them and every woman of them, that I might be here at this table
to-night [laughter], and they meant me to be; and every one of them
would have come here in the "Mayflower" but for Miles Standish, as I
will explain. The "Mayflower," you know, started from Holland. They had
to go to Holland first to learn the Dutch language. [Laughter.] They
started from Holland, and they came along the English Channel and
stopped at Plymouth in England. They stopped there to get the last
edition of the London "Times" for that day, in order that they might
bring over early copies to the New York "Tribune" and New York "World".
These ancestors of mine, the legend says, were all on the dock at
Plymouth waiting for them. It was a bad night, a very bad night. It
fogged as it can only fog in England. [Laughter.] They waited on the
wharf there two hours, as you wait at the Brooklyn and Jersey ferries,
for the "Mayflower" to come along. Methinks I see her now, the
"Mayflower" of a forlorn hope, freighted with the prospect of a fertile
State and bound across an unknown sea. Her dark and weather-beaten form
looms wearily from the deep, when the pilot brings her up at the
Plymouth dock, and a hundred and twenty-eight of my ancestors press
forward. They were handsome men and fair women. When they all pressed
forward, Miles Standish was on hand and met them. He was on board and
looked at them. He went back to the governor, and said, "Here are one
hundred and twenty-eight of as fine emigrants as I ever saw." "Well,"
Governor Carver said, "the capacity of the vessel, as prescribed in the
emigrant act, is already exceeded." Miles Standish said, "I think we
could let them in." The Governor said, "No, they cannot come in." Miles
Standish went back to the gangway, and said, "You are handsome men, but
you can't come in;" and they had to stand there, every man and every
woman of them. [Laughter.]

That is the unfortunate reason why I had no ancestors at the landing of
the Pilgrims. [Laughter.] But my ancestors looked westward still. They
stayed in Eng