ll Irish or American echoes? [Cries
of "Both! Both!"] The voices that speak are Irish certainly, but the
roof, the walls that give back the sound are American. [Applause.] May
we not therefore claim the indistinguishable unity of nationality, of
sentiment, and of feeling?

I should be ungrateful, indeed, gentlemen, did I not express my warm
acknowledgments for this greeting which you have given me--this hearty
Irish welcome. I shall never forget the words of warmth which you have
spoken to myself personally and the expressions of encouragement which
you have given to my people and my cause. I shall tell my friends when
I go back, that among the best supporters we have upon this side are
Americans and Irish-Americans who believe firmly in the justice of
Ireland's cause and of the determined yet peaceable, strictly peaceable,
character of the struggle which Ireland's representatives are making for
the re-establishment of her Parliament in College Green. [Prolonged
applause.]

ALEXANDER KELLY McCLURE

AN EDITORIAL RETROSPECT

[Speech of Colonel A. K. McClure, editor of the "Philadelphia Times,"
delivered at a banquet at Philadelphia, December 9, 1896,
commemorating the fiftieth year of his connection with the press of
Pennsylvania. Governor Daniel H. Hastings, in introducing the guest of
the evening, concluded by saying: "I said in the beginning that he is
the Nestor of Pennsylvania journalism. Yes, like the King of Pylos, in
Grecian legend of the siege of Troy, he is the oldest of the living
chieftains. Forney, Morton, McMichael and most of the pioneers of our
modern journalism are gone. McClure has been to Pennsylvania what
Horace Greeley was to New York journalism. Dana, of the 'Sun,' and
McClure, of the 'Times,' are the links connecting the present with the
past of American journalism. To-night the roses of friendship and
fraternity are growing upon the walls that separate us in our
life-work, and we are here to join in our congratulations and good
wishes to him in whose honor we meet--Colonel Alexander K. McClure."]

MR. CHAIRMAN:--I cannot express the measure of my grateful
appreciation of this imposing greeting, so exceptional alike in welcome,
in numbers, and in distinction. I accept it as a tribute to the
matchless progress made by our newspapers during the present generation,
rather than a personal tribute to an humble member of the profession,
whose half century of edi