The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1909-07-15
PRESIDENT LEAVES QUIETLY.
No One at the station Knew When
He Boarded the Train for WASH

ne DOhrueu tne IrHln 1Or wash
ingtOn.
Burlington, July 9.--President
Taft left the city for Washington so
quietly last evening that only those
who accompanied him to the sta
ton were aware of his departure.
The President, accompanied by
members of Governor Prouty's STAFF
and by the secret service men, left
the banquet given in his honor at
the college gymnasium, when Am
bassador Bryce had finished speak
ing and when the post-prandial ex-
ercises were two-thirds over.
A waiting automobile was entered
and the machine quietly wound its
way to the railroad station, where
several thousand people were wait
ing to take trains home 1t seemed
as though not one of the vast throng
was aware that the President was
near, for not a shout was heard. The
car carrying the President was run
to the rear of the station and the
private car, attached to the rear of
the 1920 train for the south over
the Rutland railroad, was boarded
Some might have noticed the large
figure of the President and the
group of men that walked closely
about him, but if they did, they APP
parently did not know it was Pres
ident Taft.
The train was an hour late in
leaving. At just eleven o'clock the
train glided slowly out of the sta
ton with crowds of closely packed
humanity on both sides of it. The
crowd was also just leaving the
amphitheatre at the lake front and
the din of honk, honking automo-
biles drowned any cries that might
have been raised over the Presi-
dents departure.
Thus President Taft left Burling-
ton for Washington on the day of
Burlington's largest and most sue
cessful celebration. SO quiet was his
departure that for nearly an hour
afterwards members of the large
crowd, surging back and forth in
the station, were inquiring when the
President was to leave.
Governor Prouty presided at the
post prandial exercises at the uni
versity last evening and introduced
the President as the first speaker.
On the course of his remarks the
President said:
eff I were to describe the YER
monter in one word, I would say he
was a safe man, safe for himself.
safe for his family, safe for his state
and safe for the nation. (Applause).
His experience was not unlike, and
his standing in our community is
not unlike, and his standing in our
community is not unlike that of the
canny Scotch in Great Britain. No
body ever got ahead of a Scotchman
in trade, and I have yet to hear of
the Vermonter that has been left
in that regard.
Now, I have been a good deal in
terested in trying to break up in a
sense-not exactly in a political
sense, but in the sense that you will
understand it, that of feeling and
sentiment, the solid South And when
I have suggested that the irreverent
| southern politician has suggested
| that it is about time to break up the
solid North, and references are made
to the fact that Vermont is just as
solid as Alabama and Georgia Well,
what the effect on Vermont would be
if the South were really to break up
| and some of those states become re-
publican, perhaps We cannot say. 1t
Is my own theory that Vermont and
many another northern state has
been made solidly republican be-
cause here was solid South. and
that one of the benefits of breaking
up solid South would be that there
would be no solidity anywhere on
sectional lines. But one thing I am
bound to say, that even if republic
can majorities are pretty certain in
Vermont There is something about
a republican majority in Vermont
every four FEARS that man who has
been a candidate for the presidency
studies with most anxious concern,
and that is whether the majority of
the people that favor the republican
ticket in Vermont at a presidential
election shall amount to more than
2O,O00 for if they don't the repub-
lican candidate may as well make
no arrangements. or rather ought to
make other arrangements for the
next four years.