Morning journal and courier., 1891-12-23
| NEWS BY TELEGRAPH.
 From All Quarters. CHAUNCEY TALKS AGAIN This Time He Has a Word to
 Say About Cranks. I'VE ABySSINIA BURNED AT SEA, Nine Sailors Drowned in a
 Marine Accident.
.ELkInS APPOINTMENT CONFIRMED.
Loss of a Vessel With All
 on Board.
EIGHTY-SIXTH ANNUAL DINNER.

Members of the New England Society | Banquet and Talk at New York A Distinguished Gathering - Dr. Twitchen Among the Number-Mr. DePew's Masterly Speech.
 NEW YORK, Dec. 22.-Over 400 gentle men attended the Seth annual dinner of the New England Society to-day. A more representative lot of Americans were never gathered together in social bonds. Under the flags of New England and the stars and stripes sat the master of ceremonies, J. Pierpont Morgan. On either side of him sat, among others, Hon. Wm. H. H. Mil Ter, Hon. Frank Hiscock, Chauncey M. Depew, Isaac H. Bromley, General Horace Porter, Rev. Dr. Barker Morgan, Isaac H. Bailey, Daniel G. Appleton, Rev. Joseph Fl. Twitchell, Rev. w. R. Huntington, D. D., Hon. John DalzelI, General Howard and Hon. Calvin E. Pratt. At right angles to these sat the remainder of the guests. It was 9 o'clock before the choice menu had been discussed. President Morgan then arose amid applause. After few words of welcome the first toast was an nounced, "Forefathers' Day." This was responded to by the Rev. Joseph H. Twitchell of New Haven, Conn. Then J. Pierpont Morgan, the retiring president, in graceful speech surrendered his office to his successor, Daniel G. Rollins, who re- piled briefly. Isaac H. Bromley then re- sponded to the toast "Connecticut's Part in the Business" The speaker kept the gathering in laughing mood. His speech was humorous attempt to extort recogni- tion of that commonwealth for whatever of good it may have done in the past for which, he said, Massachusetts has claimed the credit. "New England in Congress in Early Days" was responded to by Congress man John Dalzell of Pittsburg. The speech of the evening was by Chauncey M. Depew in response to the toast "The Crankiness of the Puritans." He said:
 MIR. DEPEw's ADDRESS.
 Dr. Charcot, the most eminent author ity in Europe on diseases of the mind, declares in an article in our papers of yesterday that everyone who displays un- usual intellectual activity and superiority is undoubtedly insane. Accepting as true the diagnosis of this distinguished Frenchman, I am now addressing an ex- ceptional crowd of selected lunatics. The crank has become the most prominent feature of our civilization. The news papers are incomplete without daily chronicles of his achievements. He pos sesses one advantage over ordinary mor- tals in that he has never been interviewed. The editor of the Century Dictionary, a Yankee of the Yankees, is compelled to admit that the word 'crank" is not to be found in the Anglo-Saxon or early English, but like many of the good things which the Puritan possesses, it came from the Dutch. While Charcot claims that Shakespeare and Milton were insane, we, with true American progress, have advanced much further. As we have evoluted the theory, it threatens to empty to lock up people who endangered life or property, or did deeds of violence on either, for statutory period, but the new idea sends them to an asylum to come out in 8 few months to the glory of the profession al gentlemen who have wrought wonder full cure and the terror of the com munity who are the victims of these experiments. The man who tries to assassinate an eminent divine or to dynamite millionaire, or who makes ducks and drakes of other peoples money, is, of course, insane and therefore irrespon- sible The Puritan was not that kind of crank. The most important article of his faith was individual responsibility. He believed in roasting the sinner here as 8 preparatory course fol matriculation into that lurid universe below, where, according | to his view, no superiority in athletics | would ever secure graduation. The Dutch definition of crank was person who when possessed of an idea never failed to keep | it before the world and, if necessary, to | be very disagreeable in urging it upon | his contemporaries and who never doubt | ed himself. The Dutchmen invented ! af& %h4 1oI ty, Holland. Nothing has contributed so much to false history as the misuse of words. The Stuart kings persecuted the Puritsns because they would not except the religion of the throne. But these royal personages had not religion as the devout Puritan understood the word. They were absolute in morals and depraved in conduct. They arrayed all the power of the state on the side of forms whose sub stance was that the king rule the church, but the Puritan placed against their authori- governed the king. The established order was loyalty accepted by the classes and masses, and for the aristocracy and the gentry, for the men in the professions and in business, for all which with us stands for capital and vested rights, it seemed but heresy and treason to teach reform. The prayers of the church at that time were like affidavits of can didates now as to election expenses. The margins were larger than the text. The Puritan who was ready to fight and willing God as he thought right was the phenome- nal crank of the period. He was peram- bulating can of moral dynamite, whose explosion might iberate the souls and minds of men. He was beyond dispute the most disagreeable of human beings to all that constituted the social and political power of his day. In the unequal contest of the hour he and his co-religionists were prosecuted, imprison- ed, executed or exiled. But his fight was not for time, but for eternity. Stuart taken from their sons, and their power transferred to house alien in blood and faith; but the sons of the Puritans govern half the world, and their principles are the vital and energizing forces with the other half.
 When the Mayfower sailed from Delft haven there were thirty sovereigns gov. erning Europe whose names filled all the
 requirements of contemporary fame. The departure of the Mayfower and cargo ot
 120 passengers made no more impression
 upon the politics of Europe than did the
 parting of the waters beneath her kee
 upon the Atlantic ocean. For two hun
 dred and saventy years the fight has beer
 hot between the cranks and the kings
 The monarchs are forgotten and theil
 kingdoms and principalities merged o,
 lots, but the leaders of the Pilgrim bant
 are for the new world the cannonizet
 saints of civil and religious liberty
 The Dutchmen saw the splendid qual
 ity of the raw material which cam
 among them for refugees. They under
 stood that crankiness indicated surplus en
 ergies and determined to prepare it fo
 power by opportunity and education
 They gave the free school to the Puritan
 children, the free press to the Purital
 writers, free churches for the Puritan reli
 gionists and opened the trades for Purita
 artisans. The Dutch declaration of inde
 pendence was liberal education in ibert
 and the Dutch republic model for stat
 sovereignty and national power.
 s'Sires and Sons'' was responded to b General Horace Porter and stUnrealize