epew's coming into the room so late to-night
and leaving so short an interval between his speech and mine. His
conduct is of a piece with the conduct of so many married men nowadays
who manifest such exceedingly bad taste and want of tact in dying only
such a very short time before the remarriage of their wives.

I have acquired some useful experience in attending New England Society
dinners in various cities. I dine with New Englanders in Boston; the
rejoicing is marked, but not aggressive. I dine with them in New York;
the hilarity and cheer of mind are increased in large degree. I dine
with them in Philadelphia; the joy is unconfined and measured neither by
metes nor bounds. Indeed, it has become patent to the most casual
observer that the further the New Englander finds himself from New
England the more hilarious is his rejoicing. Whenever we find a son of
New England who has passed beyond the borders of his own section, who
has stepped out into the damp cold fog of a benighted outside world and
has brought up in another State, he seems to take more pride than ever
in his descent--doubtless because he feels that it has been so great.
[Laughter.]

The New England sire was a stern man on duty and determined to
administer discipline totally regardless of previous acquaintance. He
detested all revolutions in which he had taken no part. If he possessed
too much piety, it was tempered by religion; while always seeking out
new virtues, he never lost his grip on his vices. [Laughter.] He was
always ambitious to acquire a reputation that would extend into the next
world. But in his own individual case he manifested a decided preference
for the doctrine of damnation without representation.

When he landed at Plymouth he boldly set about the appalling task of
cultivating the alleged soil. His labors were largely lightened by the
fact that there were no agricultural newspapers to direct his efforts.
By a fiction of speech which could not have been conceived by a less
ingenious mind, he founded a government based upon a common poverty and
called it a commonwealth. He was prompt and eminently practical in his
worldly methods. In the rigors of a New England winter when he found a
witch suffering he brought her in to the fire; when he found an Indian
suffering he went out and covered him with a shotgun. [Laughter.]

The discipline of the race, however, is chiefly due to the New England
mother. She could be seen going to church o