Perth Amboy evening news., 1906-07-05

POURING RAIN
Undaunted by the Storm at Oys-
ter Bay He Gives An Account
of Stewardship.


OYSTER BAY, N. Y, July 5.-In spite
of The %inclemency of the weather the
natural am~phitheater of Locust grove,
where the president delivered his indie
pendenco day speech, was early alive
with his fellow townsmen, who were
on hand to greet him after bis winters
absence. ok
When the president finished both him
self and his thousand and more holiday
clad auditors were drenched. No one
deserted the celebration. The rain
came suddenly, and there was 10 shell
ter in sight, and when the president
paused while umbrellas were raised he
remarked good naturally, Il am sorry
for you ladies', but ashamed of you
men because you are afraid you will
melt
After the national anthem had been
sung Sheriff Jerome b. Johnson in
PRODUCED Gerald Beekman. Mr.. Beck
man babe the president welcome on
behalf of the committee and the people
of Oyster Bay. The president spoke as
follows:
''Mr. Chairman, and you, my old
friends and neighbors, you among
whom l have lived so many years, 1t
is a great pleasure to have this chance
today to say q few words of greeting
to you and In a sense to give an ac-
count of my stewardship. / say In a
sense because the stewardship ought
really to give an account of Itself. II
a stewardship requires too much ac-
counting it is pretty certain that it
should have been handled q little diff
ferently.
IF the dominies present will permit
me, l shall take for my text q saying
Of Abraham Lincoln, made by him to Il
group of friends just after his re-elec-
ton to the presidency. He said: In
any great national trial hereafter the
men of that day as compared with
those of this will be as weak and as
strong, as silly and as wise, as bad and
as good. Let us therefore study the
wisdom of this as philosophy from
which to learn wisdom and not as
wrongs to be avenged And he added,
SO long as l have been president l
have not willingly planted a thorn in
any mans BOSOM
"Now,. friends, remember that Lin
coin faced the greatest crisis the ma
ton has seer since the Revolutionary
war, as great q crisis as the nation can
ever face, meaning as it did either ma
tional life or national death. Yet with
all Lincoln's firm sincerity of belief
1t was yet possible for him to say that
he had no rance toward those who
had gone hopelessly wrong, and that,
while never for one moment binding
himself to this philosophy of the situa-
ton, he never felt 1t as a wrong to be
avenged.
lie treated the wrong as calling for
a remedy, not as calling for vengeance.
1t is just in this spirit that we must
invest our problems today"
The president had been speaking
about half an hour and was approach
ing the climax of his address when,
without any warning, rain came down
heavily. In less than five minutes
everybody at the grove was soaked,
despite the protection of umbrellas, and
pretty white lawn dresses hung like
limp, damp rags on the women, and
the children had a sad time of 1t.
The president continued speaking
with barred head, although he was OK
posed to the fury of the storm, and the
water trickled down his face, dlmming
his eyeglasses so that he could hardly
distinguish his auditors. He stuck 1t
out for Il time, but at last broke off
suddenly and seized q rubber coat. lie
put this on and continued, still with
barred head, until the shower ceased,
when he threw aside the coat. Mr..
Roosevelt seemed to enjoy the rain If
the women and children didn't. While
it lasted its roar drowned his words SO
that only those in his immediate neigh
borhood on the platform could hear
what was being said.
'We have heard a great deal lately
the president shouted above the noise
of the downpour, ''of the great iniqui-
ties in business life, social life and in
politics. A great amount of iniquity
there has been, but there is no war
rant for us growing hysterical. Don't
let us spend nine-tenths of our time
saying this country is the worst in the
world. Let us rather seek to remove
the causes of wrongdoing and not cult.
vate a spirit Of rancor. But wherever
there is wrong to fight let us fight il
and root it OUT