The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-12-23
A NEW ENGLAND DINNER
FoREFATHERs' DAY OBSERVED
WITH BRIGHT SPEECHES.
MIR. Charles Major Hits the Mother
Country Puritan-Mr. Fletcher
on the Farmer.

-A--
The annual dinner of the New England
Society was held last night at the Denison
Hotel In many respects the affair was one
of the most brilliant ever given by the So
ciety. About one hundred people were pres
ent most of them members of the organ
ization. The dinner began at $50 o'clock and
it was not until nearly 10 o'clock that the
speech making commenced The tables
looked very handsome in their floral decora-
tons there being a great profusion of
roses. The costumes of the ladies were
bright and pretty and added to the general
attractiveness of the event.
Rev. DR.. N. A. Hyde presided as toast
master. In announcing the first toast he
spoke of the purpose of the New England
Society. 1t met, he said, to revive the sacred
memory of the homes, the life, the grand
history of old New England-to celebrate
the virtuous and the noble deeds of the
men who planned this great Nation. This
object, he said, must appeal to the pride
and loyal spirit of every son and daughter
of New England. DR.. Hyde said that since
the last meeting there had been some
changes made in the bylaws of the society
with view to increasing its membership
and making it more permanent. Dr. Hyde
then introduced Judge r. S. Taylor of Fort
Wayne, whose toast was Commonplace
Traits
JUDGE TAYLOR'S TOAST
Judge Taylor began by saying that so far
as he knows, he has not drop of New
England blood in his veins. He said he
knew but little of New England history. lit
erature, the country or the people, and that
in youth he did not imbibe any admiration
for he Nnr LVnoI oI,o A.
New England people he knew were rather
disagreeable. They We're stuck up" which
was offensive; they turned up their noses
at the Hoosiers, and the Hoosiers turned up
their noses at them. The general verdict
was that they were queer" Later he
thought better of them, and saw that New
england blood had permeating and dis
tincttve quality which did not belong to any
other stream. A small mixture of it flavors
a relatively large mass of other social ma
terial. Judge Taylor said that it was Gus
tomary OH such an occasion to give reasons
| highly fattering to the sensibilities of the
assembled company and the grand quail
ties which distinguished the pioneers OF the
BAY state, but he had an explanation of the
wonderful impress of New Engandism upon
the history of the country which was COM
monpiace 1t was concentration and per-
| sstence of effort. The molecules of
| Yankee brain are in state of incessant vi
bration, no matter what the mans business
may be- The blood that came in along the
middle and Southern coast does not secrete
that kind of gray and white matter New
| England farmer never neglects his farm
and nothing on it escapes his attention. A
| Southern or Western farmer is in such a
| hurry to do something else when moving
| IS over that he even leaves his machines in
Poetry, continued the speaker, lis not
| the mere int1orescence of a glowing imag-
| iration, for most of us can feel sublime
| beautiful and tender things, but we have not
| the patience to pick out the rhymes The
| successful versifier Is the one who can keep
| his head hot while he ransacks the diction-
| airy. a mind working this way will accept
| its own conclusions and stand by them
strongly. such a man must be dogmatic
| and trust his reasoning without question
| To the people of New England there is a
| fascination in theology. In their minds it
| became an exact science; 1t squared ac-
| counts like a system of double entry book
keeping, and it did not hesitate at conclu-
| sions If its reasoning sent infants a span
| long to eternal punishment for the sins of
| Adam, so much the worse for the infants
| Logic must be respected.
Amy criticism of New England theology
| was disclaimcd, but Its severe logic in
| volved propositions which men nowadays
| are not willing TO accept"
The speaker took up .greenbackis and
| free silverism in Michigan and Kansas
which are settled largely by New England
| people He was of the opinion that the
| clear, practical New England brain should
see through the sophistries of cheap money
| as through glass, but the strength of the
movement in the States noted was too
| much ratiocination which, started wrong,
| leads farther and farther from the truth
| The chief traits of the New England man
| are concentrated and unceasing activity
| forethought. order and method. This coun-
/ try has no better type of citizen, concluded
| the speaker than the New England boy who
| finds his place ia society as western man.
MR.. MAJOR SEVERE ON THE PURITAN
Charles Major, of shelbyville, responded
to the next toast, THE Hand that Launched
| the Mayflower." Mr.. Major went back to
| the conditions and events that led up to the
fo,, milo 10 fha
| land coast, and in dealing with the Puritan
character he did not invest it with any of
the romantic charm which he has thrown
about the two leading characters in his sue
cessful novel. Mr.. Major used the surgeons
knife in laying bare the fiber Of the Puritan
| in England. and while he may have done so
somewhat to the discomfeiture of Il number
in the estimable company who pride them
selves on puritan ancestry, yet ne dld II
with skill. and relieved the severity OF his
arrangement by well-chosen points of humor
He did not find the early Puritan FAR re-
moved from the Pharisee, although he in
sisted that the mother country Puritan was
at once the type and the antithesis of the
Pharsee; the type in fact, the antithesis in
mode; the publican kneeling farther up IN
the synagogue. 1.-THE Puritan lost no oppor-
world and to the Lord, lest they might be
overlooked by either or both. Mr.. Major
thought that the Lord never meant that
these great virtues should make groVelerS
of men; not that poor, erring humanity
should parade them as a beggar does his
sores; yet the Puritan who did not pro-
claim the fact of his extreme wickedness,
in canting phrases of the times: soon lost
caste If another had abused him as he
abused himself, his pugnacious Christianity
would probably have declared war at once.
That the sect called themselves Puritans
because, forsooth they were purer than
other people was not claiming much at that
day and date, insisted Mr.. Major. Their
object was to reform the Reformation. Mr..
Major recited the history of the antagonism
between Elizabeth and the Puritans, each
viifying the other and the Queen occasion
ally burning a few or cropping their ears.
The Puritan discipline, added Mr.. Major,
consisted largely of a strenuous ipsistence
upon a batch of nonessentials both as to
the mode of worship and of individual life,
all of which sinners must Internationally
accept and conform to or else go to-an-
other church Most of their absurd doc
trines and articles of discipline were
adopted because the. established church
maintained the opposite. Mr.. Major went
into an outline of few of these articles
of faith He poked fun at the ,Puritans'
warfare on the stately minuet and cotillon,
comparing ii with the vogue of the waltz