TIVEXTIETH ANNUAL MEETING. i 57 



Xew York State to the western Xorth Carolina lines, so that 

 the Mohawk \'alley in New York, the Cumberland A'alley in 

 Pennsylvania, and the Shenandoah \'alley in \'irginia are 

 practically one and the same country, and for all couimercial 

 purposes her people are the same class of people. 



In the earlier days the people from Pennsylvania, moving^ 

 along" the lines of least resistance, passed down south into the 

 Shenandoah Valley and settled that country, sO' that if you 

 should go through that valley to-day you would find a list of 

 good old Pennsylvania names such as "Van Housen," "Diefen- 

 dorfer," and "Cooperstein ;" indeed, in a part of the valley of 

 Virginia the people still speak quite broken English. We have 

 no colored population in that valley to speak of, only a few 

 of that race living in the pines, and in the cities, but practical- 

 ly none at all in the country. The labor is entirely American, 

 entirely white and entirely native. In fact, my friends, you 

 would be surprised to know what a fine class of citizens the 

 Pennsylvania Yankee makes after he has lived for a hundred 

 vears or so in A'irginia. ( Laughter. ) 



Now ^Ir. President, I am especially partial to that word 

 Yankee. To me it is a better word than American. We have 

 enough Americans. — '"South Americans,'' and "Central Ameri- 

 cans," but they are all different people. P)Ut there is but one 

 breed of Yankee, and in my interpretation of that word he is 

 a fellow that is always doings things. I don't think, my friends, 

 that I have ever seen a genuine Yankee that was lost, he 

 always seems to know where he is going, and generally knows 

 when he gets there. (Applause and laughter.) 



Another peculiar thing about a Yankee is that you can't 

 locate him. If I should ask you people here in Connecticut 

 where the Yankee lives, you would undoubtedly tell me in 

 Rhode Island. If you go into Pennsylvania, and ask who the 

 Yankee is. thev tell you : "Why. ccrtainl\'. he comes from 

 Connecticut." If you go down into the valley of ^'irginia 

 where I live, and ask for a Yankee, they would tell you : "He 

 is a Pennsylvania Dutchman," and if you go over the r)lue 

 Ridge Mountains into Ea-fern A'irginia and ask those people 



