The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-02-13
IN HONOR OF LINCOLN.
BANQUET AT YOUNG MEMS RE-
 PUBLICAN CLUE.

1
 the Evening by Rev. Dr. Gardner $.
 EIdridse Many Prominent Speakers | Present.
 | The fifteenth annual Lincoln banquet
 of the New Haven Young Mems Repub- 1 lican club held last night was without | doubt one of the most successful in it's hietory. The toasts, which were uni- formly excellent, the attendance, which was about 400, and an excellent menu,
 provided by Clark, combined to make
 the occasion memorable.
 Among those at the guests table were the following: John A. Hull, John N.
 Champion, Wilson Lee, George B. Mar
 tin. ex-Mayor Farnsworth, Hon. Will
 liam A. King, F. s. Hotchkiss, Rev. Dr. w. L. Phillips. Rev. Dr. Gardner s.
 Eldridge, D. c. Carmichael, Hon. John
 H. Light, Generll Phelps Montgomery,
 Major John Mckinley, Joseph A. How
 arth, John F. Gaffey, Frederick A.
 Betts, George Lilly, of Waterbury, Will
 liam B. Tuttle Arthur c. Benedict,
 Charles Mark, ?. A. Lockwood, jr., John
 McGill, George McKendrick, Frank J.
 Rice, Dr. Waldo H. Minor, Theodore H.
 Mcdonald, Professor John w. Wetzel,
 George Hall, Major L,idington, Jacob
 B. Ullman, Judge Livingston Cleave-
 land, Judge James Bishop, Jacob Good
 hart William H. Davidson, E. Knight
 Sperry, Frederick Averill, James K.
 Lyon, George Pardee, Minor Chatfield, and Judge Dow.
 Hon. John H. Light, speaker of the House of Representatives, was present, but owing to indisposition was com pelled to leave at an early hour. He accordingly responded flttingly to his toast, "The Republican Party" during the progress of the banquet
 At the opening of the ceremonies Toastmaster D. G. Carmichael, presi- dent of the Young Mems Republican club, introduced Rev. Gardner s. Eld- ridge D. D., who responded most ably t,o the toast of the evening on "AbYa- ham Lincoln"
 Dr. Eldridge spoke in part as fol- lows:
 q congratulate you tonight for hav- ing chosen Lincoln day for your annual banquet, for in so doing we are called into the holy presence of sweet mem" or,es.
 'The study of great men Is baff1ing. Lincoln had no ancestry, no education he simply sprang from the virgin soil of the west. Whence the great man came no one could tell. They talked about the railsplitter and the country post master, while there the man stood waiting for his destiny. The early scenes of his life are laid in the country of saplngs and slabs. He had but few books, but those were the great books of our humanity. Lincoln disregarded the bondage and slavery of environ ment turning his environment into a | from which he got his edu- cation.
 "No matter where it was, on street | corners or in country stores or in the court room, wherever he found a frag- ment Of humanity there was his mind open and reception to the deep lessons of human life. In a barrel filled with rubbish of bottles and old shoes he ap- castaway copy of Black stones Commentaries His selective faculties set at once to work on this book from which he took his inspira- ion, not from the bottles-and as for he shoes, he never was content to stand in another mans shoes" (Ap- olause).
 pr. Eldridge then described the trials hat visited Lincoln when he became national figure, and his triumphant struggles in guiding the nation through he tremendous civil conflict to his ragic death. In the career of Lincoln t can be seen that he dealt in princi- ,les, and not in policies; that he hunted ut the deeper lines which the Almighty llready laid out and thus made himself he master of the destiny of thist na- ion.
 pr. Eldridge closed with splendid igure suggested by Lowell, of Lincoln ,uiding the shaky raft of the republic trough the rapids. "We see the pie ure of the backwoods raftsman, his omber face fitting with the lights and hades of life as he hold the rude longs n form, until they become transf1gured nto a ship, iron-clad and ocean going, he ship of state; and hurling the oam of opposition from it's brow it uts it's way through the dark waters f destiny.''
 Major John Mckinley, of New Lon- on, was next introduced and respond d wittily to the toast on "The Press" ie said that this was only the third , me this winter he had responded to ,
 toast on the press, and while hereto ore he had carefully avoided saying e nything about the press, he was to- fight inspired with memories of the ood and fearless work done by the ( ress in anti-slavery days. Whatever I ause you preach or pray for can be lccessful only by the powerful aid of f le newspapers. Major Mckinley paid f
 glowing tribute to the honesty and q of the brotherhood to f hich he belongs. C Professor John ". Wetzel was en- d encored for his dramatic | scital of "The Trial of Ben Thomas" 0 nd responded with James Whitcomb t iley's How It Happened" t Rev. Dr. Watson l.. Phillips spoke i ply on the subject, "The Divine Un- c ,st That Bids Us Climb and Do Our V est" interspersing his serious subject a ith many witty points and salles. o Hon. William A. King, republican e ader in the House of Representative [ elivered an impressive utterance on and Constitutional Re | 'rnl," in which he said that since the 0 essage of Governor Mclean the re- f rtx etc Ic Sho ta | "