ghter.]

Gentlemen, there seems to be an impression that the Holland Society,
because it does not have a Club-house--and it may have a Club-house,
that remains for you to decide; and because it does not have a great
many other things, has no reason for its existence. But, gentlemen,
there is one sufficient reason for the existence of the Hollanders in a
Society. We have eight hundred and forty members, and each one of us has
a function--to teach our neighboring Yankees just exactly what we are,
whence we came, and where we mean to go. [Laughter and applause.] The
colossal ignorance of the ordinary New Englander [laughter and
applause]--I mean in regard to the Dutch [laughter]--is something that I
would delineate were it not for the presence of the President of the
Mayflower Society. [Renewed laughter.] Why, it was only the other night
that at one of these entertainments when I was representing you and
doing the best I could with my medal and my ribbon, that a friend came
up to me and said: "You belong to the Holland Society, don't you?" I
said, "Yes." "Well," he said, "you Dutch did lick us on the Excise
question, didn't you?" [Great laughter and applause.] Now what are you
going to do with a people like that? We got the credit of that thing,
anyhow. [Renewed laughter.] There is a Governor of Connecticut here
to-night [P. C. Lounsbury], and I was going to say something about
Governors of Connecticut of years and years ago. A man could not
properly relate the history of New Amsterdam without remarking on the
Governors of Connecticut, but out of respect to the distinguished
gentleman, whom we all delight to honor, I shall draw it very mild. I
shall only tell one or two things that those Governors of Connecticut
used to do. There was one of them, I have forgotten his name and I am
glad I have [laughter], who used to say in all his letters to his
subordinates when they were pushing us to the wall and getting the
English over to help them push: "Don't you say anything to those people,
don't you talk to those people, but always keep crowding the Dutch."
[Laughter.] That is what a Connecticut Governor gave as official advice
years ago. And they did crowd us. But Governor Lounsbury told me that
if they really had their rights Manhattan Island would belong to
Connecticut. So you see they are crowding the Dutch still. [Laughter.]

Now, every once in a while, one of these New Englanders that owns the
earth, especially that little