TWENTIETH ANNUAL MEETING. 109 



Baldwin apple as one of the worthy products of Xew Eng- 

 land, while sons from other states preached about the festive 

 claiu and the frisky lobster and things of that sort. As a 

 result of that conference, the great New England I'^niit Show 

 was carried out in Boston a year and a half ago, and what is 

 the result? The clams have shut up pretty well down at 

 Oyster Bay, (Laughter and applause.) while lobsters are 

 still among us in a small way. But the Baldwins are all over 

 the hills of Connecticut, even Capitol Hill. And while the 

 worthy governor is not h.ere to-night, I am going to ask his 

 secretary, Mr. Edwin S. Thomas, to have a word to say for 

 the governor and the State of Connecticut. (Applause.) 



Mr. Edwin S. Thomas: Air. Toastmaster, ladies and 

 gentlemen. Coming as I have from the busy scenes of court 

 to-day, I was wondering, as your toastmaster referred to the 

 politicians and the near politicians sitting at his left, who he 

 was referring to. I knew it could not be me, and as I saw 

 those on my left who had been actively engaged in politics in 

 the years gone by to my personal knowledge, I concluded 

 that he must have referred to my friends at the end of the 

 table. When one speaks of politicians, I don't know^ what they 

 refer to, it is something with which I am not acquainted. 

 (Laughter.) To-day I am able to prove an alibi, having been 

 busy to-day entertaining the judge of the Supreme Court, 

 it occurred to me as Mr. Aliles, your secretary, had asked me 

 to say a few words for the governor, I was at sea, entirely 

 lost, because anyone who could attempt or presume to say a 

 few words for Governor Baldwin, recognizing their own lim- 

 itations, and being familiar with his ability, would feel en- 

 tirely lost, to attempt to say a few words in his behalf. But, 

 as a lawyer, I was thinking coming up on the train, of a cer- 

 tain inscription that I read upon a tombstone in Connecticut, 

 I think it was down in the town of Milford. a town which is 

 renowned for the inscriptions upon its tombstones. (Laughter.) 

 Perhaps some of you have read them. But the one that I had 

 particular reference to ran something like this: "Here lies 

 a lawver and an honest man." Just then a fellow who 



