y life, which
has been a model to us all; still less to enlarge upon your unblemished
personal character. Such topics belong to the stillness of a man's own
chamber, not to a festal occasion such as this! I am here to speak of
your public life as a citizen, as it lies open to all men's eyes.
Well-equipped vessels sail away from your shipyard and carry our flag
far and wide over the seas. A numerous and happy band of workmen look
up to you as to a father. By calling new branches of industry into
existence, you have laid the foundations of the welfare of hundreds of
families. In a word--you are, in the fullest sense of the term, the
mainstay of our community.

Voices: Hear, hear! Bravo!

Rorlund: And, sir, it is just that disinterestedness, which colours all
your conduct, that is so beneficial to our community--more so than
words can express--and especially at the present moment. You are now on
the point of procuring for us what I have no hesitation in calling
bluntly by its prosaic name--a railway!

Voices: Bravo, bravo!

Rorlund: But it would seem as though the undertaking were beset by
certain difficulties, the outcome of narrow and selfish considerations.

Voices: Hear, hear!

Rorlund: For the fact has come to light that certain individuals, who
do not belong to our community, have stolen a march upon the
hard-working citizens of this place, and have laid hands on certain
sources of profit which by rights should have fallen to the share of
our town.

Voices: That's right! Hear, hear!

Rorlund: This regrettable fact has naturally come to your knowledge
also, Mr. Bernick. But it has not had the slightest effect in deterring
you from proceeding steadily with your project, well knowing that a
patriotic man should not solely take local interests into consideration.

Voices: Oh!--No, no!--Yes, yes!

Rorlund: It is to such a man--to the patriot citizen, whose character
we all should emulate--that we bring our homage this evening. May your
undertaking grow to be a real and lasting source of good fortune to
this community! It is true enough that a railway may be the means of
our exposing ourselves to the incursion of pernicious influences from
without; but it gives us also the means of quickly expelling them from
within. For even we, at the present time, cannot boast of being
entirely free from the danger of such outside influences; but as we
have, on this very evening--if rumour is to be believed--fortunately
go