Grand Rapids morning telegram., 1885-01-27
OUR SCOTCH CITIZENS.
sURNs's BIRTHDAY CELEBRATED.
Over Two Hundred Guests Present at
the Banquet - An interesting
Program Carried Out.

For the past thirty years the sons of Scot
land, residents of this city, have kept at least
one day each year in which 10 revive men,
ories of their native land, recall the leading
features of history and cherish tender recol-
lections of those who have contributed III
making their country honored the world
over. Beginning as a st. Andrews Club,
then changing into the Caledonian, they
afterward. by mutual consent, became
merged into the Burns Clnh. "a the most
appropriate name by which 10 express all
that is dearest TO Scotchman's heart. For,
in the character of Robert Burns, with his
peerless genius, his patriotism, his honesty
and integrity, and above all in the match
less beauty and naturalness of his lyrical
compositions they see all that is admirable
in a home and country and enough to keep
green forever the memory of their native
land. ,
In commemoration of the birth of Robert
Burns, Jan. %, 1853, one hundred and twen-
ty-six years ago, the Bridge Street House
last evening, was given over to the Burns
Club, in which to hold their celebration.
Mine host, j. b. Britain, entered into the
spirit of the occasion, and with the hospi-
tality of Scotchman, made all welcome,
and provided abundantly for their wants.
The tables, spread for over two hundred
guests in the handsomely decorated dining
hall, groaned with the good things they held
which were promptly and politely served by
mattresses dressed in white, with the Scotch
colors as ornaments.
The program of the evening, as heretofore
published in The TELEGRAM, was observed
with some variations, which heightened
rather than shortened it. Space forbids
more than a fractional mention of the inter
esting proceedings.
The banquet was opened with blessing
asked by Charles Miller, who has had that
honor conferred on him by the club consecu-
lively for the past twenty-five years. John
Muir recited Burns's address to the Haggis,
and Squiers and Guthans orchestra played
Comm Through the Rye"
President Thomas Smith delivered the
annual address, the striking portions of which
were as follows:
''The world has delighted to honor these
men and we as ScOtchmen rejoice In birth
right which their achievements have made
SO desirable a possession. My friends, we
.Se. -'far frae our name, and our am coun-
trie," as the auld song says. Robert Burns
was the poet of humanity, the poet of broth
erly love, the man who above all men taught
the worth of the individual, and the value of
honesty and manly independence. Memory
links us to the past and it is right and fitting
<krk oh< 1a hut
citizens in prosperous and hosritable ma
ton, let us unite tender love for the old,
with loyalty and faithfuness to the new
Richard Fyfe, DR.. w. III. Ross. A. G. Fyfe,
David Forbes, Mrs. White, and Mrs. Lindsey
sang songs accompanied on the piano by
Mrs. Braun, interspersing the addresses of
j. w. Brown, Mayor Belknap, DR.. Wood and
Mr. Baxter. Mr.. Brown paid a fitting trib-
ute to the genius of Burns, the doctrines he
taught of the universal brotherhood of man,
and pointed out features of wrong existing
at the close of the last century, which exists
in another form only at the close of this.
Mayor Belknap responded to the toast,
"Grand Rapids; the City of our Adoption"
compared Grand Rapids to a diamond set in
gold; said it could be proud of its success
and owed as much to the Scotch "a to any
other people. He said there was but one,
power that could get away with Scothman
and that was Scotch woman; Burns's works,
were like the Bible, the more we study them,
the more we learn.
DIR. Wood said it was a proud day in 1859,
the year Burns was born. II was the year,
Britain conquered France on the sea, the
year Wolfe carried the British flag to Quebec.
the year Watts tested steam, the year science
and literature sprang to new life, the year
DR.. Johnson finished his dictionary, Hume
his third and fourth volumes of the history
of England, and the year that produced the
most literary and scientific men of that
country-but none, nor all combined have
given more glory TO that period
than the Ayrshire plowman, Robert Burns.
The Doctor sketched the life of the poet. his
poverty, struggles, success, unrequited life,
and the noble work he had done in the edu-
cation of the Scotch people and the eleva-
tion of their language and customs. He
spoke in words of the highest praise of the
erection of the Burns and Scott monuments
in New York. The Doctors address was the
gem Of the evening, and uas eloquent
in description. Mr.. Bsrter's response
to the toast. The Press" vas
an able review of that subject in its bearings
upon the education Of the masses in dissem-
mating the labor and work of authors and
men of genius. After the conclusion Of the
mus1c and addresses the hail vas cleared and
dancing introduced with Scottish prom
enade.