The Portland daily press., 1897-12-23

New York, December 22.-The 92nd an
nual festival of tho Now England society
in the city OF New York was held at Del
monico's tonight. -Four hundred mem
bers Of the society AMI their frionds, in
Guiding many distinguished men were
present The tables were dev old Of deco
ration except for the miniature pyramids
OF yellow doughnuts and rosy Baldwin
apples.
Inc dinner was made up of good old
fashioned New England dishes with lib
erel introduction of French dainties and
during its discussion quartette assisted by
the major portion of those present sang
popular airs.
1t was en- O'Clock when President Bea-
man called for order and after a humor-
Gus and thoroughly patriotic speech, he
introduced Rev. Lyman Abbott who re-
sponded to the toast 81 koretathers' Day. -
GOV. Black was next introduced amid
much applause. he spoke TO the toast
Ihe State of New YORK.
Governor Black in part said:
The annual gatherings of this society
nave always awakened interest, for
among It's members are many who eXeIl-
pllfy the worth and Independence of q
fearless character. For the last fifty years
IN New York city. the efforts which
have pushed it to the front and held it
there would suffer marked decrease with
out New England. In all its progress
winch has made it great and famous, the
children of New England have been
among the leaders. In professional life
their names have been conspicuous In
that enormous volume which makes her
business second in the world. they have
touched elbows with those who hold their
places at the front. In every army there
must be rearline, but no New England
mother Will ever scarce for her children
there. They have arrived gradually but
always forward. No proclamation has
attended their advance and they have not
been consumed by fear lest their valne
should be placed too low. Self reliant
self respecting, seldom self indulgent,
deserving the respect of others, always
maintaining their own, the place they
have held in this city, eXcites the pride of
every son of New England, whether at
home or abroad. In every circumstance,
persistent courage will always mako its
way and thousands who are proving this
| in every corner of the world, are now
remembering some spot within New Eng
land borders from which their inspiration
still is drawn. II sought the genuine
in character aud in purpose, the qualities
that will bear inspection unadorned and
grow stronger as the knowledge of them
grows more complete, this society, I
know. would pardon me if my first i'm
pulse brought Inc here to search among
the sons and daughters Of New England.
President Eliot was then introduced
as the man who reorganized Harvard col
lege without asking Tor "a receiver.
President Eliot took up the matter of
the establishment Of educational institu-
tions throughout Massachusetts and of
other institutions of learning.
U. S. Senator Wolcott was also accord
cd hearty applause when he arose to re-
spond to the toast, 1.-The East and the
Vest
President Beaman referred to the in
ability of Senator Edmunds to be present,
and then introduced Senator Geo E.
Hoar, who responded to the toast, ''The
Bradford manuscript and its gracious re-
turn. y
have been asked good many times,
in years gone by, to attend these dinners
and those of your kindred society in
Brooklyn. l have always had good hon
est reasons, growing out Of public duties,
why | could not accept. But, after all,
think the controlling reason was this Z:
I account myself the worst after dinner
speaker on this continent. Now, it is a
to dinner Of this society. When I de-
clined the invitation l had the honor; in
deed it was quite likely that 1t would be
repeated; and at the came time / got Off
without being detected. But this year
the sweet and innocent lures of Mr.. Bea-
man have caught the wary bird, and l
suppose l shall never be invited to dine
with the New England Society again.
The President asks me to say some
thing about the return of the Bradford
manuscript. There is little to be said
that you do not already know. The
Bradford manuscript has been placed, by
order..of Governor Wolcott, the lineal and
most worthy successor of william Brad
ford, in the archives of the State House
at Boston, there to abide until the child
rem of the Pilgrims are unworthy to keep
it; or, what l hope and believe to be the
same thing, until time shall be no more.
1t is tho most precious manuscript on
earth, unless wescould recover the text of
one of the gospels as written by the pen
of the evangelist. do not think of any
other single object of human possession
SO precious to the children Of New Eng
land, or, unless possibly we were toEexcept
very few Of the great paintings and
statues,s.. to the world. The story of the
successful attempt to get 1t back, after
many failures, is, suppose, familiar to
all of the gentlemen who sit about this
table. We were fortunate that MIR. Bay
ard, the representative not SO muchEof the
diplomacy as of the good will of the
American people at the Court of St.
James, happened then to be in London
and to contribute his great influence to
the result. After all, our gratitude is
chiefly due to the two illustrious prelates,
Bishop Temple now Archbishop of Can
terbury, and Ills successor of London, the
present Bishop Creighton. II we want
any better testimony that the spirit OF
the Pilgrims has become fop us the spirit
of the age and is now peryading the Eng
lish speaking world, it is to be found in
the fact that while John Milton said that
our Pilgrim Fathers ''tied from thu fury
of the bishops" this great act of inter
national kindness has been accomplished
by the successor of Archbishop Laud and
the successor of Bonner and Bancroft.
This society tonight celebrates sthe
memory of the Pilgrims on the anniver-
sary of the day when they came ashore at
Plymouth. We are not, at this moment,
doing honor to Puritanism. We will
stand by, we will defend against any an
tagonist, on any fitting occasion, the
nllne and fame of our Puritan forefath-
ers-planters Of states, builders of con
stituttons, creators and preseryers of Eng