Page:The autobiography of a Pennsylvanian.djvu/244

 “Poor fellow!” said the Senator with genuine sympathy. “He was a worthy man.” And then: “I was just arranging a plan to beat him.”

October 21st, I delivered the annual address before the Law Academy upon some early decisions of the courts of the province, and this address was afterward expanded into a volume of reports entitled Pennsylvania Colonial Cases.

On the 22d of December the New England Society of Pennsylvania gave their eleventh annual dinner. My speech was as follows:

It must be understood at the outset that I am not here as a “regular,” nor yet as a “volunteer,” nor even as an “emergency man,” but as a sort of substitute. My earnest and persuasive friend, Mr. Mumford, came to my house last evening and said to me, the youngest member of a court of three judges, two of whom are down with the grippe, that there was a likelihood of there being a scarcity of speakers here tonight and that I must come and furnish relief. I have come; but from what I have seen and heard since I have been here, and being aware that if I am known at all it is as an avowed Pennsylvania Dutchman, I am inclined to think that what your secretary had in mind in bringing me forward was a species of bear-baiting. If, therefore, you should be disappointed in the tone or substance of what I have to say you may at least entertain the hope that if I had had plenty of time and nothing to do, I might have prepared something entertaining, instructive and complimentary as did the speakers who have preceded me.

Before coming away from home I put into my pocket a little book, compiled by Nathaniel Dwight, and published at Hartford, in the State of Connecticut, in the year 1807. It is entitled A System of the Geography of the World—By Way of Question and Answer, Principally Designed for Children and Common Schools. Its substance was administered to babes and growing children, and they were expected to commit to memory the answers given here and to recite them to their attentive teachers. I read from the Questions and Answers:

“What are the general characteristics of the people of New England?”

“They are an industrious and orderly people. . . they are well informed in general. . . . They are humane and friendly, wishing well to the human race. They are plain and 230