Omaha daily bee., 1896-02-23
GAVE DOCTOR DEpEw A DINNER.
COmplim entnry Banquet rendered by
the Lotus Club.

the Lotus Club.
NEW YORK, Feb. 22.-For the first time
In his after-dinner career Chauncey NJ De-
pew was tonight the guest Of honor at a
complimentary dinner given him at the room,
Of the Lotus club. The presiden. Of the club
Mr. Frank r. Lawrence. sat at the guests
table and with him were, besides Mr.. Depew,
President Seth Low of Columbia college,
George w. Smaley Rev. DR.. s. A. elliott
Of Brooklyn. Roswell p. Flower, j. Lind
say Gordon. District Attorney John r. Fell
lows. Chester S. Lord, Captain William
Henry White, F. c. Wagner, Rev. DIR. r. s.
Macarthur. Charles Emory Smith and August
Thomas.
President Lawrence, at the conclusion of
the dinner. introduced Mr.. Depew, who
spoke In pleasant, half humorous vein of
public men and politicians in general and
their relations to the great public. He re-
ferred to this as the presidential year. "the
year of all others for idols and idol worship
the year when the politician becomes
statesman and the statesman becomes en-
dowed In the popular imagination with s,I-
p.eme qualities" "Yet" he said, "the peo-
pie were not accepting these politicians and
statesmen without question. but were calmly
analyzing their qualities, subjecting them to
all the frightful processes OF the cathode
rays" This. he declared. to be the resul.
or that universal education. OF the universal
reading of newspapers and Of electric toucn,
day by day, with all the world.
Finally, referring to the 22d of February
as a public holiday, he said: "This Feb
ruary, for the first time both Washngton's
and Lincoln's birthday have been made
legal holidays. Never since the creation of
man were two human beings so unlike so
nearly the extremes OF opposition to each
other as Washington and Lincoln. The one
an aristocrat by birth, by breeding and as
nd hx
every surrounding democrat. AS the rich
est man In America, large slave holder
the possessor Of enormous landed estate
and the leader and representative of the
property, the culture and the colleges of
the colonial period, Washington stood for
the conservation and preservation of law and
order.
"And yet, millionaire, slave holder and
arlstocrat in its best sense that he was as
he lived, so at any time he would have died
for the immortal principle put by the Pur-
tans in the charter adopted in the cabin
Of the MayAower and re-enacted in the
Declaration of Independence. of the equality
1f all men before the law and OF the equal
opportunity for all to rise
Lincoln, on the other hand, was born in
a cabin, among that class known as poor
whites In slaveholdng times, who held no
possesSon and whose condition was so hope
less as to paralyze ambition and effort His
SO far as hls surroundings wero
had considerable mental, but little
moral, Improvement. by the removal to Indi-
ana and subsequently 10 Illinois. Anywhere
IN the old world a man born amidst such en-
gironment and teachings. and possessed of
inconquerable energy and ambition and the
greatest powers OF eloquence and constructive
would have been socialist
and the leader Of a social revolt. He might
have been an anarchist. His one ambition
would have been to break the crust above
ilm and shatter 1t to pieces He would see
otherwise no opportunity for himself and hls
'ellows In social. or political, or professional