, to dispense their bounty. I do not desire
to disparage the generosity of the rich. Those of our land have done
much good, are now freely dispensing their wealth, and will continue to
do so; but we must remember that the fortune of Edwin was not inherited.
The walls within which we stand, the art, the library, and the comforts
that surround us, represent a life of toil and travel, sleepless nights,
tedious journeys and weary work; so that when he bestowed upon us this
Club it was not his wealth only, but it was himself that he gave.

But a few years ago he was (though rich in genius) poor in pocket. He
had been wealthy, and had seen the grand dramatic structure he had
reared taken from him and devastated. His reverse of fortune was from no
fault of his own, but from a confiding nature. When he again, by
arduous toil, accumulated wealth, one would have supposed that the
thoughts of his former reverses would have startled him and that he
would have clutched his newly-acquired gold and garnered it to himself,
fearful lest another stroke of ill-fortune should fall upon him. But
instead of making him a coward it gave him courage. It did not warp his
mind or steel his heart against humanity. No sterility settled upon him.
His wrongs seemed to have fertilized his generosity, and here we behold
the fruit.

When the stranger comes here and asks us for the monument of Edwin Booth
we can say: "Look around you." For some time past he had looked forward
calmly to his dissolution. One year ago to-night in this room, and at
this very hour, he said to me the memorable words: "They drink to my
health to-night, Joe. When they meet again, it will be to my memory."

Two years ago last autumn, we walked on the sea beach together, and with
a strange and prophetic kind of poetry, he likened the scene to his own
failing health, the falling leaves, the withered sea-weed, the dying
grass upon the shore, and the ebbing tide that was fast receding from
us. He told me that he felt prepared to go, for he had forgiven his
enemies, and could even rejoice in their happiness. Surely this was a
grand condition in which to step from this world across the threshold to
the next!

LORD KITCHENER

THE RELIEF OF KHARTUM

[Speech of Horatio Herbert, Lord Kitchener, at a banquet given by the
Lord Mayor of London, at the Mansion House, London, November 4, 1898,
in celebration of the campaign in the Sudan and the successful
recovery of Khartu