ports is not going to make any difference. The right
thing to do is to apply old principles to a new condition and get out of
that new condition something that will effect a practical remedy. I do
not pretend to be a doctor with a nostrum. I have no pill against an
earthquake. I do not know how this thing is going to be done, but it is
not going to be done by having stomachs easily turned by the truth; it
is not going to be done by merely blinking the situation. If we blink
the situation I hope we shall have no more celebrations in which we talk
about our Puritan ancestors, because they did not blink the situation,
and it is easy to eat and be happy and proud. A large number of persons
may have square meals by having a properly adjusted currency.

We are very much in the condition described by the reporter who was
describing the murder of a certain gentleman. He said that the murderer
entered the house, and gave a graphic description of the whole thing. He
said that fortunately the gentleman had put his valuables in the safe
deposit and lost only his life. We are in danger of being equally wise.
We are in danger of managing our policy so that our property will be put
in safe deposit and we will lose only our lives. We will make all the
immediate conditions of the nation perfectly safe and lose only the life
of the nation. This is not a joke, this is a very serious situation. I
should feel ashamed to stand here and not say that this is a subject
which deserves your serious consideration and ought to keep some of you
awake to-night. This is not a simple gratulatory occasion, this is a
place where public duty should be realized and public purposes formed,
because public purpose is a thing for which our Puritan ancestors stood,
yours and mine. If this race should ever lose that capacity, if it
should ever lose the sense of dignity in this regard, we should lose the
great traditions of which we pretend to be proud. [Applause.]

JOHN WINSLOW

THE FIRST THANKSGIVING DAY

[Speech of John Winslow, in the capacity of presiding officer, at
the eighth annual dinner of the New England Society in the City of
Brooklyn, December 21, 1887.]

GENTLEMEN OF THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY OF THE CITY OF BROOKLYN, GUESTS
AND FRIENDS:--This is the eighth anniversary of our Society and the
two hundred and sixty-seventh of the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers. It
will please you all to learn of the continued growth and prosp