Morning journal and courier., 1892-01-27
JUDGE TORRANCE ON BURNS.

Address of the Associate Judge of the Supreme Court of Errors Before the CaledOnian Club of This City.
 The following is the able and eloquent address of Hon. David Torrance at the Cal edonian clubs entertainment in commem- oration of the 133d birthday anniversary of Robert Burns, the Scot poet, Monday evening in Sassacus armory, which was unavoidably omitted from our columns yesterday morning owing to want of space: . Someone has said that wherever Scots- men go one of the first things they do in the new settlement is to dispute whether they will begin with Presbyterian kirk or a Caledonian club. If they cannot have both they generally begin with the club.
 Judging from what I see around me here, am, like the beadle of whom Dean Ramsay speaks, tempted to draw an infer ence. To this beadle a gentleman one day said: "John, ye hae been sac lang about the minister's hand that I dare say ye could preach sermon yersel now" To which John modestly replied: "Oh, na, l COuAuud SACoSA |" oOAAlAoA3 10o maybe I could draw an inference" "Well, John," said the gentleman, humoring the quiet vanity of the beadle ''what inference could ye draw from this text. A wild ass suffeth up the wind at her pleasure?" 'sWeel, sir, I wad draw this inference; he wad sniff a lang time afore he wad fatten upon t." Now, know nothing about the kirk which the Scotchmen 'hereawa" may have establish ed. I presume you have one. But if from what see around me I am at lib erty to draw an inference, it would be that the club at least is a great success. have heard of your club ''by the hearing of the ear," long before this time, and though we meet tonight for the first time face to face the fault is not yours. Still it is not as strangers and aliens that we meet, but as kinsmen and friends, to do honor to the memory of one of the greatest of our kinsmen.
 Tonight of all nights of the year, no Scotsman should be stranger in Gale donian club.
 You have asked me to say a few words about Burns and hadn't the heart to re- fuse you this time, although l fear that what may say will come far short of what you think the theme and the occasion re- quire.
 However "Bannocks are better nor nae kind of bread" and "pot luck" is not to be despised when better can't be had. I can say nothing new to you about Burns or his work, because the world of English speaking folk, at least, knows him and it by heart.
 Probably all that is true and worthy of him and of his life, and work has already been said better than it will ever be said again.
 Mine tonight must be the humble task of recalling very briefly to your attention some of the reasons why it is fit and prop l CT to meet thus yearly to celebrate the po- cts birth. In the short time, at my dis posaI, I crave the liberty of doing this very much at large, as the Perth lawyer l did his swearing. The story goes to that l the Duke of Athole invited Perth lawyer l to meet him at Dunkeld on business, and | appointed with particularly the hour and | place of meeting.
 The lawyer was on hand promptly, but the duke had forgotten the appointment | and gone from home. One who was pres ent described to a friend how the lawyer swore. "But whom did he swear at?' 1 asked the friend. "Weel," the other re- piled, .she didna swear at ony thing in particular, but just stood in the middle o1 the road and swore at lairge."
 My talk will be somewhat 'at lairge." | One of the characteristic things said
 about our century is that "the schoo
 master is abroad" The Scotsman, not te
 be outdone is also abroad, and seems never
 so much at home as when abroad; and fol
 'bodie" that lives so much abroad, it i!
 surprising how much he thinks of home
 and home folks and home songs.
 There is not great deal of him as com
 pared with other nationalities, but he gen
 orally makes the most of himself anc
 manages "to get there with both feet," a
 it were, whenever there is an honest penn,
 to be turned, and frequently where there
 is not, from the equator to the poles, in al
 lands and climes, and under every star
 there you will find him.
 But if he thus takes the wings of tht
 morning and goes to dwell in thu
 utmost parts of the earth, he general,
 manages to convey with him, whatever
 else he leaves behind, three precious things
 Memories of home, the Bible and the song
 of Burns. These largely make him wha
 he is the world over.
 Now if the truth must be told, we are
 somewhat long headed, canny, cool, eau
 tious folk, not easily reused to enthusiasm
 about anything, and not at all given t.
 spending our money for that which is no
 bread. We are the last people to ''gant
 daft" about anything or anybody. Ant
 yet call you to witness that about on'
 man who, according to his own account
 has