AN AMERICAN RESPONDING TO THE TOAST OF "THE LADIES."

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 317, 28 April 1877, Page 4

AN AMERICAN RESPONDING TO THE TOAST OF "THE LADIES."

The following was delivered by My. Mark Twain at the Correspondents' Club Dinner, Washington :—"* Mr. President, I love the sex I love all women, irrespeci tive of age or colour. (Laughter.) Mean intelligence cannot csth'v.tc what wc owe *o women, sir. Site sews on our buttons, ! mends our clothes, ropes us in at the church fairs, she confides in us, she tells us whatever she can find out about the little private affairs of the neighbours. She gives us advice, and plenty «>f it ; she gives a piece of her mind—sometimes all of it. (Laughter.) Wherever you place a woman, sir. she is an ornament t«» that place which she occupies, and a treasure to the world. (Here the speaker paused, looking around upon the audience enquiringly). The applause ought to come in at tins point. (Great laughter.) Look at Cleopatra, look at Desdemona, look at Florence Nightingale, look at Lncretia Borgia. (Voices : ' No, no.') Weil, suppose you let Lncretia slide. (Laughter.) Look at Mother Eve. (Cries of ' Oh, oh/ and laughter.) Von need not look at her unless yon want to ; but Eve was an ornament, sir, particularly before the fashion changed. (Laughter.) I repeat, sir, look at the illustrious Widow Machrec, look at Lucy Stone, look at Elizabeth Stanton, look at George Francis Train—(great laughter)—and. sir, I say it with bowed head and deep veneration, look at the mother of Washington : she ' e dragged Up " a boy that could not He. Could not lie I I npeat, sir, that in whatever position yon place a woman, she is an ornament to society and a treasure to the world. As a sweetheart she has few equals, and no superiors. (Laughter.) As a cousin she h convenient; as a wealthy grandmother with an incurable distemper she is unspeakably precious. What would the people of the earth be without women f They would be scarce, sir, perfectly scarce. (Renewed laughter.) Then let us cherish her, let us protect her, and let us give our support, our encouragement, our sympathy, ourselves if we get a chance. (Laug..t-<r.) But jesti.ig aside, 3lr. President. « »iuan is lovable, kind of fevrt, gracious, beautiful, worthy of all respect, of all deference. Not any here will refuse to drink her health right cordially in this goblet of wine, for each and every one of us has known, loved, and Honoured the best of them all—his mother. (Great applause.)