I do mine. I know of no actor who stands
higher in the esteem, who exists more durably in the affection of those
who know him, than does John Lawrence Toole.

[Illustration: _HORACE PORTER_

_Photogravure after a photograph from life_]

HORACE PORTER

MEN OF MANY INVENTIONS

[Speech of Horace Porter at the seventy-second annual dinner of the
New England Society in the City of New York, December 22, 1877. The
President, William Borden, said: "Gentlemen, in giving you the next
toast, I will call upon one whom we are always glad to listen to. I
suppose you have been waiting to hear him, and are surprised that
he comes so late in the evening; but I will tell you in confidence,
he is put there at his own request. [Applause.] I give you the
eleventh regular toast: 'Internal Improvements.'--The triumph of
American invention. The modern palace runs on wheels.

'When thy car is loaden with [dead] heads,
Good Porter, turn the key.'

General Horace Porter will respond."]

MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY:--I
suppose it was a matter of necessity, calling on some of us from other
States to speak for you to-night, for we have learned from the history
of Priscilla and John Alden, that a New Englander may be too modest to
speak for himself. [Laughter.] But this modesty, like some of the
greater blessings of the war, has been more or less disguised to-night.

We have heard from the eloquent gentleman [Noah Porter, D.D.] on my left
all about the good-fellowship and the still better fellowships in the
rival universities of Harvard and Yale. We have heard from my sculptor
friend [W. W. Story] upon the extreme right all about Hawthorne's tales,
and all the great Storys that have emanated from Salem; but I am not a
little surprised that in this age, when speeches are made principally by
those running for office, you should call upon one engaged only in
running cars, and more particularly upon one brought up in the military
service, where the practice of running is not regarded as strictly
professional. [Laughter.] It occurred to me some years ago that the
occupation of moving cars would be fully as congenial as that of
stopping bullets--as a steady business, so when I left Washington I
changed my profession. I know how hard it is to believe that persons
from Washington ever change their professions. [Laughter.] In th