g her work while
she instructed her children! The blushing daughter plied it diligently,
while her sweetheart had a chair very close by. And you remember, too,
another person who used it more than all the rest--that peculiar kind of
maiden, well along in life, who, while she spun her yarn into one "blue
stocking," spun herself into another. [Laughter.] But perhaps my toast
forbids me to touch upon this well-known class of Yankee
women--restricting me, rather, to such women as "comforted" the
Pilgrims. [Laughter.]

But, my friends, such of the Pilgrim Fathers as found good women to
"comfort" them had, I am sure, their full share of matrimonial thorns in
the flesh. For instance, I know of an early New England epitaph on a
tombstone, in these words: "Obadiah and Sarah Wilkenson--their warfare
is accomplished." [Uproarious laughter.] And among the early statutes of
Connecticut--a State that began with blue laws, and ends with black
[laughter]--there was one which said: "No Gospel minister shall unite
people in marriage; the civil magistrates shall unite people in
marriage; as they may do it with less scandal to the church." [Loud
laughter.] Now, gentlemen, since Yankee clergymen fared so hard for
wedding-fees in those days, is it to be wondered at that so many Yankee
clergymen have escaped out of New England, and are here to-night?
[Laughter.] Dropping their frailties in the graves which cover their
ashes, I hold up anew to your love and respect the Forefathers of New
England! And as the sons of the Pilgrims are worthy of their sires, so
the daughters of the Pilgrims are worthy of their mothers. I hold that
in true womanly worth, in housewifely thrift, in domestic skill, in
every lovable and endearing quality, the present race of Yankee women
are the women of the earth! [Applause.] And I trust that we shall yet
have a Republic which, instead of disfranchising one-half its citizens,
and that too by common consent its "better half," shall ordain the
political equality, not only of both colors, but of both sexes! I
believe in a reconstructed Union wherein every good woman shall have a
wedding-ring on her finger, and a ballot in her hand! [Sensation.]

And now, to close, let me give you just a bit of good advice. The
cottages of our forefathers had few pictures on the walls, but many
families had a print of "King Charles's Twelve Good Rules," the eleventh
of which was, "Make no long meals." Now King Charles lost his head, and