St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1897-10-29
VERrlONT PARTY IN TENNESSEE.
Our Associate Editors Story.


nooga & st. Louis railway and three
hours later were in Nashville, 1855 miles
from New York. The Tulane hotel was
our home in Nashville until II o'clock
Tuesday evening. The distance from
Chattanooga to Nashville is 153 miles
and we would have covered the distance
in two hours and 80 minutes if freight
had not caused us to make stop.
This party of 65 from far distant Ver-
mont is one OF the largest that has Wis
tied the Tennessee centennial exposition
and we were warmly greeted by the ex-
position managers and by Gov. Robert
Taylor OF that state, who showed their
appreciation of our travelling 5000 miles
to see their big show. Nashville papers
praised our patriotism and we were
given most royal welcome from every
source.
Monday was observed as Vermont day
on the exposition grounds and every
member of the party will long remember
it as a very pleasant occasion. Gov.
Taylor and staff and representatives
from the exposition visited the party at
the Tulane at 10 O'Clock in the morning.
Shortly after Gov. Grout and his staff
and the state officials present were es-
corted to the exposition grounds in car
riages, the remainder of the party follow
ing in carriages.
Gen. G. P. Thurston carried Gen. Gil
more, Q. M. G. OF Vermont, out in his
private carriage, while Gov. Taylor and
Gen. Sykes were in the carriages with
Gov. and Mrs. Grout of Vermont. Ar
irving at the New York building, a gen.
eral reception was held. the visitors
and many prominent Nashville people
mingling together in thorough good tel-
lowship.
Gen. G. P. Thurston presided and well
coined the visitors on behalf of the expo
sition company.
GOV. TAYLoR's ADDRESS.
"Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen
About a third OF century ago egave
Vermont very warm welcome to Dixie.
We threw her bouquets from the cannon's
mouth and she acknowledged the COM
pliment with a tongue OF fire, which was
not only eloquent bas intensely persua-
sive.
But, thank God, the greetings of civil
A-:l 80 kah h.,L
about to step over the threshold OF new
century, reunited people. with the
North and the South claspng hands and
plcdging to each other eternal friendship
and brotherhood.
Tennessee greets Vermont today, not
with bombshells and bayonets, but with
blessings and benedlctions not with the
bugle blast Of battle, but with the melo-
dies of peace; not with smoke and fire,
but with sugar and fire. water; not with
cold steel, but with hot biscuit and
Southern hospitality. Our distinguished
guests may not find themselves sur
rounded here with all the comforts and
elegances which the great wealth of New
England provides for them at home, but
they will find warm hearts and cordial
welcomes everywhere, and goodwill and
fraterna feeling among our people.
II pledge them further that they shall
see revelation here. They shall be the
witnesses Of our triumphs in peace. as
they were of our valor in war. They
shall see how the South has arisen from
her ashes by the courage and energy of
her citizenship. We shall show them
within the gates of this White City the
epitome of our history, and the prophesy
of our future wealth and glory. II I
could, would escort the splendid Gov
ernor of Vermont and his delightful party
all over the South, that they might see
the victories we are winning along all
the lines of industry, and the harvests
we are reaping in every field OF labor, so
that they might sit around their New
England firesides, when winter locks them
in and think OF our sunny Southern skies
and our snowy cotton fields stretching
away to the horizon, alive with toiling
negroes, gathering the feecy crop and
singing the old-time plantation songs as
they used to sing them long ago; that
they might think OF our increasing wealth
and population, oi our wonderful progress
in education, and OF our universal 10y
atty to the Christian religion; that they
might remember us as law-abiding,
liberty-loving people, loyal to the gov
ernment and in the Union to stay. And
then they might, perhaps, determine to
bid adieu to the icicles and bicycles and
spectaces and blizzards and Boston
baked beans of New England and cast
their lot in the beautiful land of majors
and colonies, where the magnolas bloom
and the mocking-birds sing, and where
sunshine and salvation are free.
but, since l cannot show them the
whole South, it gives me more pleasure
than can express to receive them and to
welcome them to the garden spot of the
Western Hemisphere, my own, my native
Tennessee"
GOV. CIRCUITS RESPONSE.
Your kind words of welcome make us
quite at home, and for them we thank
you.
Vermont, in acknowledging your cor
dial greetings and the honor it signifies,
congratulates Tennessee upon the one
hundredth anniversary of her admission
to the Union, that great sisterhood oi
states which since her membership in it
has become the leading power of the
world, the acknowledged supremacy oi
which is symbolized by the proudest flag
that floats the land or rides the sea.
ut is pleasant to know that old glory
waves over the exposition from staff in
which may be found as token piece o
wood from each state of the Union, indi