am very glad that you
gentlemen have found room for the sisterhood to-day, and have found room
to place them so numerously here, and I must say that to my eyes the
banquet looks very much more cheerful than it would without them.
[Applause.] It looks to me as though it had all blossomed out under a
new social influence, and beside each dark stem I see a rose. [Laughter
and applause.] But I must say at once that I came here entirely
unprovided with a speech, and, not dreaming of one, yet I came provided
with something. I considered myself invited as a sort of
grandmother--indeed, I am, and I know a grandmother is usually expected
to have something in her pocket. [Laughter and applause.] And I have a
very modest tribute to the illustrious person whom we are met to-day to
honor. With your leave I will read it. [Applause.]

Thou metamorphic god!
Who mak'st the straight Olympus thy abode,
Hermes to subtle laughter moving,
Apollo with serener loving,
Thou demi-god also!
Who dost all the powers of healing know;
Thou hero who dost wield
The golden sword and shield,--
Shield of a comprehensive mind,
And sword to wound the foes of human kind;

Thou man of noble mould!
Whose metal grows not cold
Beneath the hammer of the hurrying years;
A fiery breath doth blow
Across its fervid glow,
And still its resonance delights our ears;

Loved of thy brilliant mates,
Relinquished to the fates,
Whose spirit music used to chime with thine,
Transfigured in our sight,
Not quenched in death's dark night,
They hold thee in companionship divine.

O autocratic muse!
Soul-rainbow of all hues,
Packed full of service are thy bygone years;
Thy winged steed doth fly
Across the starry sky,
Bearing the lowly burthens of thy tears.

I try this little leap,
Wishing that from the deep,
I might some pearl of song adventurous bring.
Despairing, here I stop,
And my poor offering drop,--
Why stammer I when thou art here to sing?

CLARK HOWELL

OUR REUNITED COUNTRY

[Speech of Clark Howell at the Peace Jubilee Banquet in Chicago, October
19, 1898, in response to the toast, "Our Reunited Country: North and
South."]

MR. TOASTMASTER, AND MY FELLOW COUNTRYMEN:--In the mountains of
my State, in a county remote from the quickening touch of commerce, and
railroads and telegraphs--so far removed that the sincerity of its