The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1889-05-18
Addresses at the Reception Concert
Wednesday Night, the Sth Inst.
RESPONSE OF II. L. MARTIN, OF THE
NEW MIssIssIPPIAN, TO WELCOMING
ADDRESS OF MRS. PAULINE
VORMJJS
Ladies and Gentlemen:

Ladies and Gentlemen:
In our hours of daily toll the prom
ised enjoyment of re unions like this,
flashes up ever and anon IN our minds
like fire in coal oil can. or as quickly
as a politician scrambles upon the
fence whenever an issue that threatens
to divide the people is seen coming
down the road.
The social amenities that are cult
vated here forge ties of friendship al
strong as steel, yet as sweet and fail
as the velvet cheek of the dew i'm
pearled rose and the tide of coming
years can never roll so deep as t.
drown the amaranthine memories thai
are implanted in our hearts by th,
events of these joyous and all too fleet
ing hours.
On receipt of President Almon's In.
vitation to respond tonight, l asked
him what should talk about. "Oh,'
replied he, 'just anything or nothing
And for week past | have labored SC
hard thinking of something TO say
about nothing, that just before leaving
home | was compelled to summon the
services Of three physicians to save me
from watcry grave. Now | don't
exactly mean watery grave, but then
| use the phrase on account of the
pathos and tragedy of the sound.
But after listening to the silvery
words Of welcome that have fallen
from the lips of Greenville's lovely
Florence Nightingale; and after hav-
ing enjoyed your boundless hospitality
for "a hours; and standing here amid
this brilliant festal gathering, where
wit, culture and beauty abound on
every hand, am so overwhelmed az
TO be very much in the condition OF
Paddy, who with his companion, Mike,
was rumaging through an old garret,
when suddenly tripping, he tumbled
headlong into the dark cellar below.
Pcering down into the darkness, Mike
solicituously cried, "Paddy and are ye
kilt p In doleful tremulous tones
came the response, "No, Moike, I'm
not kilt but Pm knocked spacheless.'
And so, Ladies and Gentlemen, IL
should frequently stop short in the
course Of my remarks, with my right
arm tragically extended, my gentle
blue eyes gazing blankly into space,
and my mouth open as wide as the
candidates heart for the "dear people,
but uttering nothing, do not think, |
beseech you, that | am posing for
effect or lost in reverie. But accept 1t
as conclusive evidence Of the existence
of surging, impetuous thought, locked
within my breast, longing to be re-
leased by words, which, like the his
toric letter, was '1onged for but never
came.n When I make these little
unique pauses, so peculiar to my own
style of oratory, | wish that / were
lost in reverie, or something a thous-
and times deeper. At such times l
yearn for solitude with an exceeding
great yearning; feel meek and lowly
and humble-humble enough to play
with becoming dignity the title role of
that masterpiece of Tennyson or
Shakespeare, Little Jack Horner sat
in a corner eating Christmas pie, etc"
My friends, / will not say that the
members of the Press are gathered
here tonight from the erich, red hills,
clad with their waving fields of grain
and forest green, that girts our North
ern border;;' nor @from the modest
Tombigbee, where our Eastern gates
open upon the mineral fields of Ala
bama's wealth; nor "from the flower
fringed coast of the South, which is
ever laved by the silvery waters of the
Mexic Gulf" for l know that so in
telligent an audience as this must have
had unlimited opportunities in the
past for the study of State boundaries
at the hands of rhetorical geographers,
But for the satisfaction Of those of my
audience who might become alarmed
at so unusual an omission, | will state
that sthe red hills of Tennessee" athe
purling waters of the Tombigbee,' .
"the mineral gates Of Alabama" @the
flower-fringed coast and the silyery
waters of the Mexic Gulf" we're at last
reports all well and doing prosper
Gus business at the same old stands.
But, nevertheless, the members oi
the Press are here--all here--as far at
practicable, with their waxed mus
taches, their modest, maidenly, don't
| look-at-me-hard blushcs, their borrow
ed-for-the-occasion new store clothes
their little Association passes, and
their warranted-never-t o-get-out-of-or'