te as good, and sail around New York harbor in the Half-Moon.

I heard, years ago, the difference illustrated between the Yankee and
the Dutchman. There was an explosion on a Mississippi River steamboat;
the boiler burst, and the passengers were thrown into the air. After the
accident, the captain came around to inquire in regard to them, and he
found the Dutchman, but not the Yankee; and he said to the Dutchman,
"Did you see anything of that Yankee?" The Dutchman replied, "Oh, yes;
when I vas going up, he vas coming down." Now, the Dutch blood may not
be quite so quick as the Yankee, but it is more apt to be sure it is
right before it goes ahead. Dutch blood means patience, fidelity, and
perseverance. It means faith in God also. Yes, it means generosity. I
hardly ever knew a mean Dutchman. That man who fell down dead in my
native village couldn't have had any Dutch blood in him. He was over
eighty years of age, and had never given a cent to any benevolent object
during his life; but in a moment of weakness, when he saw a face of
distress, he gave a cent to an unfortunate man, and immediately dropped
dead; and the surgeon declared, after the post-mortem examination, that
he died of sudden enlargement of the heart. Neither is there any such
mean man among the Dutch as that man who was so economical in regard to
meat that he cut off a dog's tail and roasted it and ate the meat, and
then gave the bone back to the dog. Or that other mean man I heard of,
who was so economical that he used a wart on the back of his neck for a
collar-button. I have so much faith in Holland blood, that I declare the
more Hollanders come to this country the better we ought to like it.
Wherever they try to land, let them land on our American soil; for all
this continent is going to be after a while under one government. I
suppose you have noticed how the governments on the southern part of the
continent are gradually melting into our own; and soon the difficulty on
the north between Canada and the United States will be amicably settled
and the time will come when the United States Government will offer hand
and heart in marriage to beautiful and hospitable Canada; and when the
United States shall so offer its hand in marriage, Canada will blush and
look down, and, thinking of her allegiance across the sea, will say,
"Ask mother."

In a suggestive letter which the chairman of the committee wrote me,
inviting me to take part in this entertainment,