The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1878-04-18
The Century Club Banquet to Bayard
Taylor.

A NEW YORK correspondent of the
Chicago Tribune writes to that paper
as follows, under date of March %:
The numerous friends of Bayard
Taylor are manifesting their kindly
feeling by series of banquets given to
him on the eve of his departure to fill
the mission at Berlin. On the 10th
inst, a goodly number of the men,
bers of the Century Club, of which
William Cullen Bryant is the President,
gave him a breakfast, at which inter-
esting addresses were dcliv cred by Mr..
Bryant, Bayard Taylor, George w.
Curtis, the Rev. DIR. Bellows, the Hon.
John Bigclow, and others. The Cen
fury Club is a social Club, composed of
the best representatives of the refine
ments of culture and art of our city.
MIR. Bayard Taylor is the fourth one of
the members of the Club appointed to
foreign missions within the last few
years Bigelow, Jay and Bancroft
being the others-saying nothing about
another member, William Nj. Evarts,
the maker Of Ambassadors. Iii some
evidence of the kind of men who COM
pose the membership of the Club that,
at the election of 1876, candidate for
the Presidency of the United States,
candidate for the Governorship and
Lieutenant-Governorship Of New York,
and for the Mayoralty of this city,
were taken from its body. 1t would al
most seem rs if, when a tirst-class
ticket is to be formed, the politicians
select their candidates from among the
class who are members of the Century.
And yet. at the Club, partisan politics
are entirely ignored, and its officers, as
a matter of taste, eschew all publicity
that partakes of the sensational; con-
sequently none of these speeches have
been made public by the Society. 1
had the good fortune to be a guest at
the banquet, through which means
am now enabled to furnish your readers
with the address of Mr.. Bryant, to-
gcther with Mr.. Taylor's response. |
do this without reference to the objects
of the banquet, or to violate the pri-
vacy of the Club, but for the purpose
of showing how well preserved are the
mental powers of a man now in his
cighty-fourth year, whom Motley
termed 1.-the venerable and most be-
loved poet of our country Although
it has been said that such minds never
grow old, it is more than probable that
MIR. Bryant's perfect health. activity
and intellectual vigor are the result OF
the abstenious life he has led. and Of
the natural serenity of his mind. He
sympathizes deeply, as he did of old,
in all of the moral and public enter
priscs of the day, and is almost daily
called upon to preside at and address
public meetings upon any and all sub
jccts having for their object the moral
and social advancement of the people.
His graceful address, which now give,
shows no signs of age. 1t was de-
livcred with all the enthusiasm, rs
may be inferred, Of his college days, as
the closing point would Indicate:
MIR. BRYANT $ ADDRESS
GENTLEMEN: should be sOrry to cast even thu
smallest shadow over the festivities of this
sion. We are here to do honor to our fellow
desire to hear and l find myself obliged to Ell
treat of hlm that he will use it in the way OF ex
planning little matter in which he is concerned
have not much doubt that he will be glad of thu
opportunity.
Gentlemen, this Century Club is the foster
mother of us all. We have. in n manner, beer
slant love: We must stand by her whenever hel
rights are brought in question. We must see tina:
she is deprived of mourning which adds to her re-
let any body pick the good lady's pockets or sliI
off her necklace or bracelets wrench the jewel,
from her ears. And what. my brethren. are hel
jewels! They are like those of the mother Of the
Gracchi-- her sons are her jewels. One Of tht
most brilliant and eminent Of these is the gentle
ment who sits at my rIgat hand. and lie is abou
to steal himself from her. He who has dclightee
the world with the charming narratives Of hi
journeys in the remotest part Of the globe; who's
graceful poems have bewitched our maidens, ano
Woo has transplanted into our language the great
est poem of the greatest poet of Germany, rem
dering it with fidelity, strength and grace which
Goethe himself might wonder at-he is about t.
desert tnat kind and indulgent mother unde
hours with his brethren, and smoked 80 many
bundles of cigars without hearing a murmur o.
admonition. He leaves her, proud as she is o.
him and his writings, after having 30 long mes lee
in her affectionate lap, and wanden off to dis
tant country to be an Ambassador.
l know it may be said that our guest il but ont
of the many, and that one diamond more or lea
in the cluster which crowns the brow of the Cen
fury may not affect essentially her prosperity
Let this be granted; the principle ct the thing L
TO be conslerea. II one OF her eaiore a may Se
the East, to Texas, to California. and thus thu
Century, the best CluO IN tne WOrlO, Will perish
by the parricidal act of her children. Her fate
will be like that of the old people of some parts
of India whose families, when their parents have
become helpless with age, convey them to the
brink of the Ganges and leave them there to
either die of hunger or be swept away by the first
food that swells the current Of the sacred river
Such is the state of things-the situation in
mOdern phrase which would give our guest the
opportunity of explaining. What has ho to say
to it? And while he is meditatlng what answer
to make propose that We drink his health with
three cheers and a tiger.
BAYARD TAYIOR's RESPONSE.
MIR. BRYANT, AND BRETHREN OF THE CENTURY
and sympathize with me on this occasion, when
l am compelled to appear as at least half a guest
where have 50 often been one of many hosts. II
is great deal easier for me to unite IN doing
honor to some one else than to receive honor my.
self-probably because have had 90 much more
not have been wholly easy for the Disciples 81
the Great Master to be served by Him; and il
embarrasses me, a disciple of song, to receive
generous service from master Of song. Hseems
any change in our relative positions, or in my
associations with all of yOu--except that they
should continue to grow more trustful, intimate
and happy. There Is, really, no change: but the
circumstance OF my receiving this welcome
through what may be called an acc dent of my
lif., seems to place me temporarily in q new re-
lation toward you. / want you to make YOU
kindness complete by helping me to remember
SO that may bear the remembrance away with
me, that we should have been just the came good
friends if had received no diplomatic appoint
ment. It will not be easy for me to lose the
in that double consciousness which comes from
the strong yearning of the heart pass as an un.
seen ghost among you, take an empty chair in
my favorite corner, give you unfelt taps on the