Waterbury evening Democrat., 1906-07-05
IN POURING RAIN.
President Undaunted by the
 Storm at Oyster Bay.
GIVES ACCOUNT OF STEWARDSHIP,
Roosevelt, Receiving Welcome to sumnher Home, Completes His Speech While He and Au-
 dience Are Drenched.


 dience Are Drenched.
 OYSTER BAYlN. Y, July 5.-In spite of the inclemency of the weather the natural amphitheater of Locust grove, where the president delivered his Inde- pendence day speech. was early alive with his fellow townsmen, who were on hand to greet him after his winters absence
 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 no shel- ter in sight, and when the president paused while umbrellas were raised he remarked good naturedly, T 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- troduced Gerald Beekman. Mir. Beck man bade 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 I have lived so many years, it is a great pleasure to have this chance today to say a few words of greeting to you and in sense to give an ac- count of my stewardship. I say in sense because the stewardship ought really to give an account of itself. If a stewardship requires too much ac- counting 1t is pretty certain that 1t should have been handled little diff ferently.
 If the dominies present will permit me. shall take for my text saying of Abraham Lincoln, made by him to a group of friends just after his re-elec- ton to the presidency. He said: Tn 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 have been preslednt 1 have not willingly planted thorn in any mans bosom
 "Now, friends, remember that Lin coin faced the greatest crisis the na- tion has seen since the Revolutionary war, as great crisis as the nation can ever face, meaning as 1t did either na- tional life or national death. Yet with all LincOln's firm sincerity of belief it was yet possible for him to say that he had no rancor toward those who had gone hopelessly wrong, and that, while never for one moment binding himself to this philosophy of the situa- tion, he never felt it as wrong to be avenged. ~r- rag -'t-Ii
 "He treated the wrong as calling for a remedy. not as calling for vengeance. It 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 it.
 The president continued speaking with barred head. although he was ex- posed to the fury of the storm. and the water trickled down his face, dimming his eyeglasses so that he could hardly distinguish his auditors. He stuck it out for a time, but at last broke off suddenly and seized rubber coat. He put this on and continued. still with bared head, until the shower ceased, when he threw aside the coat. Mir. 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 inlquity 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 culti- vate a spirit of rancor. But wherever there is wrong to fight let us fight 1t and root 1t out"