PILGRIM DAY l 



You celebrate tonight one of the great events of his- 

 tory. Great hardships and dangers attended the voyage 

 and final landing of the Pilgrims. The defenders of 

 Port Arthur have attracted the attention and received 

 the homage of the world, but the percentage of death 

 among the crew and colonists of the Mayflower was 

 larger than that of the great siege which has just closed. 

 More than half of these early voyagers were in their 

 graves before the historic ship started on the return 

 voyage. 



Creasy wrote of the Fifteen Decisive Battles of the 

 World. A splendid companion book would be one upon 

 the " Decisive Landings of the World," beginning with 

 Noah at Mt. Ararat and including those of Caesar and 

 William the Conqueror in Britain, iEneas in Italy, Co- 

 lumbus at San Salvador, John Smith at Jamestown, the 

 Mayflower at Plymouth Rock, and the Japanese in Korea. 



I understand that the Boston people are now divided 

 into two classes, the Mayflowers and the Cephalonians. 

 The advantages that our Irish friends, who came over in 

 the Cunarder Cephalonia, have over the pioneers of the 

 Mayflower are that they can land in less than ten days 

 from the old sod, and their safe arrival will be printed 

 next morning in the Tipperary and Cork papers. 



The gentlemen who invited me to dine with you and 

 speak on this occasion inquired of me what connection I 

 had, if any, with the Pilgrim fathers. I was compelled 

 to make the humiliating admission that by ancestry I had 



1 Address at Washington, D. C, by John F. Lacey. 



