Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 6.djvu/381

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My dear Horace: This is to congratulate you on your seventieth birthday [August 10, 1904]. What sort of landmark the seventieth birthday in one's life is, I know from personal experience. It is true, as Bismarck once said to me, the first seventy years of a man's life are the best. But those who have made good use of the first seventy may hope heartily to enjoy some years of the second series. And I am sure you richly deserve that enjoyment. We have known one another now for well-nigh fifty years and I can say in all soberness, without the slightest exaggeration, that I have never known a truer gentleman, a trustier friend, and an unofficial statesman and public teacher who wore his high eminence with a deeper feeling of responsibility and greater modesty, than you. I love you like a brother, and it is with this warmth of feeling that I wish you many more birthdays in health and happiness. I am, my dear Horace,

&emsp; 



&emsp; My dear Schurz: It is true that I have reached my seventieth birthday. It is true, too, as Bismarck said to you, that the first seventy years of a man's life are the best. But best of all is it to receive on one's seventieth anniversary a letter like yours.

Among the many kind greetings that have been sent to me yours is the one which comes nearest to my heart. It is also the one which my family most highly prize. I thank you for it, and I give you in return the full measure of affection which revolving years have ever strengthened and consecrated between us. &emsp; 