t will be a cold day for
the party to which he belongs if they undertake to turn him down. I
hoped that you all thought so. There was an old darky that used to
say about the Commandments: 'Yes, preacher, they are all right, but
in this here neighborhood the eighth Commandment ought to be taught
with some discreetions.' [Great laughter.] [A Voice: "Which is the
eighth Commandment?"] 'Thou shalt not steal.' Now in New York there
are some people who think there are some commandments that ought to
be taught with some 'discreetions.' But they had better alter their
law if they don't like it, and they had better not put a Dutchman
in office after an oath to enforce the law and then ask him why he
does enforce it. [Great applause.] This gentleman does not need any
introduction, evidently--the Hon. Theodore Roosevelt." [Great
applause. Three cheers were proposed and given for Mr. Roosevelt. A
Voice: "Tiger!"] Mr. Roosevelt: "In the presence of the judiciary,
no!" [Laughter.] There was great cheering when Mr. Roosevelt rose
to respond.]

MR. PRESIDENT, GENTLEMEN, AND BRETHREN OF THE HOLLAND
SOCIETY:--I am more than touched, if you will permit me to begin
rather seriously, by the way you have greeted me to-night. When I was in
Washington, there was a story in reference to a certain President,
who was not popular with some of his own people in a particular Western
State. One of its Senators went to the White House and said he wanted a
friend of his appointed postmaster of Topeka. The President's Private
Secretary said: "I am very sorry, indeed, sir, but the President wants
to appoint a personal friend." Thereupon the Senator said: "Well, for
God's sake, if he has one friend in Kansas, let him appoint him!" [Great
laughter.]

[Illustration: _THEODORE ROOSEVELT_

_Photogravure after a photograph from life_]

There have been periods during which the dissembled eulogies of the able
press and my relations with about every politician of every party and
every faction have made me feel I would like to know whether I had one
friend in New York, and here I feel I have many. [Great applause.] And
more than that, gentlemen, I should think ill of myself and think that I
was a discredit to the stock from which I sprang if I feared to go on
along the path that I deemed right, whether I had few friends or many.
[Cries of "Good! Good!" and great applause.]