302 MAJOR JOHN F. LACEY 



no claim whatever upon such distinction, but that my 

 little granddaughter, Doris Brewster, who is now living 

 under the Arctic circle at Nome, Alaska, is a descendant 

 on her father's side from the man who was described as 

 the "soul of the Pilgrim Company," Elder William 

 Brewster, and bears that historic name. I shall have to 

 claim connection with the Mayflower by ascent, instead 

 of descent, as you do. But, lest my little granddaughter 

 should grow vain over such distinction, I have taken time 

 to compute the degree of relationship that attaches 

 through ten generations from those pioneers. By de- 

 scent, on one side only, the Pilgrim blood in one of the 

 present generation is only one ten hundred and twenty- 

 fourth part. This would seem to be a very small, vulgar 

 fraction of Pilgrim stock, but we must recognize that a 

 very little leaven leaveneth the whole lump, and there has 

 never been a more controlling strain of blood on earth 

 than that which these forefathers transported to the 

 rocky shores of New England. 



It is estimated that there are something over a million 

 descendants of the Mayflower immigrants, but they have 

 dominated for a hundred years in all parts of the Union. 



The builders of nations may be uncultured and rough 

 but they must be strong. They must be strong if they 

 would lead the strong. They may direct but, after all, 

 the winds and the currents move the ship. 



The New Englander, like the Scotchman, seems to have 

 been able to maintain his dominating virility in every 

 climate. The Scotchman at Hudson Bay and in Pana- 

 ma is the same controlling force, not enervated by cli- 

 mate, or led astray by his environments. 



It is so with the Pilgrim stock. Colonel Ingersoll said 

 that if you should send a colony of Yankee school teach- 

 ers to San Domingo, the next generation would be seen 

 with a fighting cock under each arm, riding bare-backed 



