HARDWOOD RECORD 



35 



SKCRETAKY 



flons I will he excopdingly interested to knon-. If tliei'e ai'e to be nny 

 debates at whicji that question will be up, will you kindly notify tbe 

 mayor of the time and the hour, in order that be may be a listener. 

 instead of being listened to? [Applause.] 



Now, Mr. President, I am not going to weary you with any iU-timcil 

 remarks, boeause while your address is splendidly studied out, mine neces- 

 sarily must lie genei-al. I see .iust a few of the ladies present today. I 

 wish that you might have brought more of them with you. You know that 

 1 sort of think when you take the ladies along you are just a little wee 

 bit safer. I would feel worried about their absence if it w-ere not for the 

 fact that we have such a splendid moral city. [Applause.] I know- 

 there are no pitfalls here as to which I need warn you. It goes without 

 saying that if the mayor can, by any special petition on your part, 

 accord you greater protection if you find it necessary, all you have to 

 do is to tap a wire, and it will go without any further signal. 



Now, get together, and have a pleasant time. Let your business interests 

 just draw out of you all the energies of your minds and all the better 

 attainments of your soul. Go into your own work, which must i)e 

 important, otherwise it n^ould not have called you from the South, the 

 North, the East and the West in this splendid gathering of still more 

 splendid men. That your stay in our city may be fruitful ; that it will be 

 pleasant : that it will be agreeable enough to induce you to come many 

 more times to visit us, will be the wish of no one so much as the mayor 

 of Cincinnati. Let me, therefore, on behalf of the nearly four hundred 

 thousand of the best people in the world whose homes are here, bid you 

 welcome, nay, thrice welcome to Cincinnati — our Happy Home. 

 [Applause.] 



President Carrier: (ientlemen of the convention, we have with 

 lis this morning an old friend — a friend of all of us — Mr. C. S, 

 Walker, the president of the Cincinnati Lumbermen's Club, who 

 will welcome you in behalf of that organization. [Aiiplause.] 



Address of Welcome by C. S. Walker 



Mr. President and gentlemen: If the mayor had come prepared, 

 what do you suppose you would have heard? [Applause.] 



I appear before you in behalf of the Lumbei'men's Club of Cincinnati 

 to deliver an address of welcome. To make an address properly 

 requires an orator, a smooth and easy talker, such as our beloved and 

 honored mayor. To call upon me to make such an address reminds 

 me of an old stoi'v of the mongoose, which perhaps five or ten of 

 you have not heard. A very curious man traveling on a railroad cai- 

 saw that his fellow-passenger had a ciueer-looking basket, and he 

 could not resist the temptation of asking what the basket contained. 

 The answer was: 



"A mongoose." 



"A mongoose? Pray what is a mongoose?" 



"Why, a mongoose is a very useful animal that eats snakes." 



"What in the world are you going to do with a mongoose in this 

 country?" 



"I am taking it to my brother-in-law who is a very hard drinker, 

 and constantly sees all sorts of snakes." 



"But those are not real snakes?" ' 



"No, and this is not a real mongoose." [Laughter.] 

 So this is not a real address, but it will be a real heartfelt and 

 cordial welcome. 



Mayor Schwab has welcomed you to Cincinnati, with its four 

 hundred thousand people. He said everything that could be said in its 



.1. 11. IIIMMELBERGER. MOREHOUSE. MO., 

 n. M. CARRIER, SARDIS, MISS., RETIRING MEMBER EXECUTIVE BOARD 



PRESIDENT 



favor, and then when he was almost through with the recital of its 

 other merits, he hesitatingly mentioned that this was the greatest 

 hardwood market in the world. I feel that that fact, if no other, 

 would make it one of the greatest honors that I have been given 

 the privilege of addressing you. Mighty glad we are to see you 

 back home again in this greatest hardwood market of the world, 

 because we feel that you are a part of us and also because this 

 great and powerful association is working on the same lines as our 

 local club, with the high aim and purpose of eliminating and correcting 

 any illegitimate practices that may have grown up in the lumber 

 trade. [Applause.] You have declared for a square deal, and we 

 are with you heart and soul. [Applause.] 



This I know, because at repeated meetings of our cluD, composed of 

 over sixty of the leading and foremost corporations in the lumber 

 trade Of Cincinnati, they have unanimously declared that they believe 

 that honesty in trade is not only good morals but good business; and 

 we have determined to put forth every effort to make this an abso- 

 lutely fair market, and to keep it such. 



Gentlemen, I can only say to you how very glad we are to see you 

 back. We are so glad that we hope from the bottom of our hearts 

 that you will come every year. 



President Carrier: On behalf of the association Mr. W. B. 

 Townsend will respond to the addresses of welcome by the mayor 

 of Cincinnati and Mr. Walker, [.\pplause.] 



Besponse to Addresses of Welcome by W. B. Townseud 



Mr. President and gentlemen of the convention, you know there is no 

 reason why a representative of the Hardwood Manufacturers' Association 

 of the United .States should not occupy just as important a position as 

 those welcoming this association, so far as the pedestal on which he 

 stands is concerned (suiting the words to the action, the speaker came 

 to the front of the stage). 



I am embarrassed, as you see, but yet I am comforted, too, I was 

 comforted when I was sitting there in the audience and looked up into 

 the kindly face of his Honor, the mayor, I thought to myself, if I am 

 brought before that man I won't suffer much! [Applause.] I will take 

 my chances. And then our Brother Walker here, who. as I understand 

 it. is the chairman and representative of the Lumbermen's Club of the 

 city of Cincinnati, has. as one of his chief duties, the supplying of bonds 

 whenever it becomes necessary. [Laughter.] 



Now then your Honor (addressing Mayor Schwab), we are all lumber- 

 men : we are not orators, we are not even public speakers ; but we appre- 

 ciate your welcome more than we can tell, and we do not wonder that 

 Cincinnati, a city of four hundred thousand elegant people, should have 

 been selected as the place of this meeting. 



We admire Cincinnati on account of her achievements. 1 have thought 

 kindly of Cincinnati from the days of my early boyhood. I can look 

 back and remember many .years ago when I could first spell the word, I 

 went home to my mother that night from the "little red school house." 

 and was as proud as I have ever l>een at any time since because I could 

 spell the name "Cincinnati," [Laughter.] In my later and more sober 

 years I realized that Cincinnati is a city of wonderful achievements. 

 Perhaps no other city on this or any other continent ever builded a 

 system of railway to command a market all by herself : not only that, 

 but in that same connection I noticed that just the other day a link had 

 been perfected connecting this splendid city with a very Important 

 southern Atlantic seaboard port, bringing as it does this vast industrial, 



