The Portland daily press., 1879-12-30
New YoRK. Dec. %. 1879.


Democrat Says-Maine Affairs.
NEW YORK, Dec. 80, 1879.
The commonest remark one hears from the
departing guests at every annual dinner Of the
New England Society is, "Well, this is the
best v, te 1-e2 ,,ad!' There is something so
pleasant about reunion of this kind, where
immigrants from every one of the Eastern
States spend sociable evening together and
! indulge in tender memories of the homes and
scenes of earlier days, that such gathering
| would be thoroughly enjoyable even if it were
| not illumined, during the last half of the time
by the flashing pyrotechny of rhetoric. In
fact the interval betwe the hour named for
sitting down and the actual occurrence of that
event passes away very satisfactorily and with
surprising swiftness. This time the wait was
longer than usual. The programme fixed the
dinner for o'clock; it was quarter after
when the chairman brought down his hammer
and announced that Rev. Arthur Brooks
would say grace. The intervening period had
been spent in hand shakings, introductions
and cheerful conversation. Everybody was at
his best, and there was a look of manifest
assembled throng, indicative OF entire satisfac-
tion with the existing condition of things. |
have been accustomed to meet these gentlemen
in all sorts of times, in seasons of national
peril, and in seasons of commercial disaster,
and do not remember that they were ever so
much cast down, as to show any signs of de-
preston on Fore Fathers Day. That is an
occasion when they are always in good spirits.
The genuine Yankee celebrates Christmas on
the ed. He keeps the other holiday in def
erence to public sentiment, andlbecause brief
respite from business is something he needs
rather oftener than he gets it. But the COM
memoration of the landing of the Pilgrims
represents to him the great idea which consti-
tutes the base Of the noblest political structure
the world has ever seen. He recalls with
pride the history of the tolls, the sacrifices and
the heroism of his venerable sires, and smiles
with contemptuous pity when some fiippant
outsider airs his envy by the utterance OF dis
paraging expressions concerning the early
Puritans. 1t is part of the chaff with which
New Yorkefs spice their conversation when
discussing the Yankees among them, to speak
in a tone of not unamiable raillery OF their
great admiration of the land they came from,
and the blood they inherit. The people OF
Dutch descent are quite serious about it.
They complain that the descendants OF the
Plymouth colonists have come over here and
possessed themselves Of much of the property
upon Manhattan Island, and have gradually
elbowed the Knickerbockers out, and are alto
gether too grasping and avaricious to have
sprung from a pious unworldly lineage
Al ,aIl and mid
decreasing element of our population really
have a grievance. They derive their origin
from the ''first families" and they don't Ike
| to have a body of mon, some OF whom never
were in the metropolis till they were grown
| up, holding brilliant festival every year to
extol their progentors as the superiors in NOR
ais and in force of character of any race who
| ever set foot upon American shores.
| OF course the Irishmen and the Germans
and the odds and ends of our heterogeneous
mass of inhabitants gathered together from all
nations and tongues and kindred OF the earth,
| and having no preference for one country over
another, except in so far as to choose the one
that it is most profitable to live in, have no
sympathy with that intense attachment with
which the sons of the Pilgrims regard the
ON with staring eyes, and bewildered faces and
| inquire in a Babel like confusion of broken
tongues, what all this fuss is about. And
when they are told that it is a filial tribute to
the memory of parcel of men and women,
who braved great hardships and encountered
grave perils for the sake of being where they
could enjoy the unrestricted freedom Of re-
ligion and political opinions, they grow more
astonished than ever, and cannot understand
what kind of people could have lived in the
world two hundred and sixty years ago. And
then it is a matter OF extreme wonder to them
| how such a set of fanatics ever managed to get
ahead so well in the world
However the Yankees hold their revel with
unfailing regularity, no matter what their
neighbors think or say about it, and they never
| fail to have a full house and a good time.
There is 40 dining room in New York that will
accommodate as many as would like to attend,
| consequently there is an early and eager de-
mand for tickets, at 80 apiece, which is a good
deal of money to pay for single meal exclu-
sive of wine and cigars. The proprietors OF the
| Fifth Avenue Hotel being natives OF New Eng
| land and members Of the Society have at last
| consented to serve this notable banquet, though
it interferes very much with their regular bus
iness, occurring as it does at an hour OF the day
when their largest room is always full and gem
orally overfowing. They have a hall that Will
| seat 2SS persons Delmonico, at whose estao-
lishment the dinner was given until last year,
can. only accommodate 220 The change hap
pened opportunely for there had been grow
ing dissatisfaction for quite while at the diff
| in riuer
hasn't been overcome by great deal it has
only been mitigated. There hasn't been
year in the last twenty when all the applicants
for places succeeded in securing them.
The quality of food served on an occasion OF
this kind is a matter Of secondary Importance
but it is no more than justice to MeSsrs. Hitch
cock, Darling & Co. to say that they provided
a sumptuous repast and that the courses were
brought on in good shape. The soup and meats
were hot; the wines and ices were cold. There
was an unconscionable delay in getting seated,
but that may have been the fault Of the man
ayers of the Society rather than OF the hotel.
Ii was ten o'clock before the cloth was re-
moved, and that ceremony was fastened very
much towards the close by manifestations of
impatence ON the part of the audience. There
!
the printed prospectus besides the three repre-
sentatives of the Sister Societies, ST. George
st Patrick and st. Andrew. Now sixteen
speeches, averaging ten minutes each leaving
space for the President to call for them in thenr
order, will consume three hours, and that
would keep the thing going till one O'Clock A.
NJ. And that in fact was about the time the
exercises did come to an end, for though some
of the performances promised on the bill were
omitted two or three of the orations were oil
considerable length. The best evidence that
the talking was good is that pretty much all
the company staid to hear it. Mr.. Appleton
Introductory remarks were exceedingly brief.
He might well have been excused for indul-
ging in some laudatory references toh his admin
istration of which this was the closing scene,
for his two terms mark very successful epoch
in the annals of the Society. 1t has an in
creased membership, and a fuller treasury than
ever, ard is thoroughly vigorous and stable
organization. The great theme OF the evening