The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1902-04-16
THE BANQUET.


ton hotel
THE BANQUET.
The BANQUET rendered to Pesident
Roosevelt tonight at the Charleston
hotel, was fitting close to day full
of incidents and served to gather to-
gether men prominent in the affairs
of the Safe, having solely in mind a
greeting to the president which would
| prove the sincerity and the warmth Of
feeling existing for him as the ch1ef
executive of the nation. The banquet
hall was bower Of roses, plnks and
| smilax, artistically arranged, while
loosely strewn over the tables were
thousands of violets, where fragrance
could only but suggest that springtime
| had arrived. Over three hundred
specially invited guests were present
and the president was at his best. In
few well chosen remarks Mayor
SmyUb welcomed President Roosevelt
to Charleston, whose response was
listened to with the closest attention
and which were interrupted by loud
and continuous applause.
| The Presidents remarks were as fol-
| lows:
"Mr. Mayor, and you, my hosts and
my fellow American citizens; (Great
| applause. I should indeed be but a
poor American myself if I were not
! deeply touched and gratifed by the
way you have greeted me today, in
| this your beautiful city :; and of course
| I feel at home here (Applause. l
think that an American who is worth
his salt has the right to feel at home
in every part of the United States
(Applanse.
who took part in the great war. The
war in which the younger among US
here took part was very little one
because it didn't have to be any big
ger. applause. But it had one
thoroughly good effect: it put the cap
on the structure that had been build
| Ing while we were almost unconscious
of it, and it taught Us how thorough
| ly at one we were. When we got
( though that war it did not make a bit
of difference to Us whether it was an
admiral who came from Vermont or a
lieutenant who came from Alabama
! (applause), if the man had done his
duty in such shape as to make US each
feel an even more generous thrill of
pride in our common nationality. The
debt that we owed him had little to
dc with the section from which he
came. (Applause.
and now, special word to you ot
Charleston and Of South Carolina.
Just II years ago when I first went to
Washington to take part IN govern
mental work I was Immediately thrown
| into singularly close contact and
intimacy with South Carolinian.
1t was nay good fotune to work with
him for three years and for the nine
years since and for as long as | shall
continue to be in public life, it will
he to me ever a spur to try to do
decent duty of the republic, because |
have been thrown intimately in con-
tact with as fearless and as bigminded
public servant as his country has ever
bad, my old friend, your former Cover
nor. Hugh Thompson. (Great ap-
plause.
And from what I have known Of
you and OF your representatives it was
in no sense surprise, but it was a
keen pleasure to be greeted with the
hearty and generous hospitality, the
more than hearty and generous hospi-
| tality which you have shown ne to-
day Applause.
| TIE welfare cf any part of this
country is III a certain sense an index
of the welfare Of all, and think, gen
tlemen, that on the average as we ali
tend TO go up. it seems TO be little bet
/ ter to go uniformly rather than at d
| sharper gait, fer the time being, and
then down and then up again and t5en
down South Carolina seems during
the last two decades to have definitely
entered uron the path of steady pro
gress IN things material as we'll as in
other things. | was much struck in
| looking over some Of the figures OF the
| census quite recently published TO see
the astonishing progress that has been
made here in your State. was pre-
pared to see that the values of your
farm products had risen as they have
little over 30 per cent. | was pre-
paed to see that your farms them
selves had increased in a still larger
proportion: that the value of your
lands and buildings had grown up, but
did not realize the way in which
your manufacturing enterprises had
increased, both as shown in the fact
that your manufacturing products had
gone up over l30 per cent. that for
instance the number of spindles has
about quadrupled, from less than half
a million to more than two million
in the State. I did not realize that