American Fislicries Society. 11 



berger asked and insisted that I take his i)lace here and welcome 

 you to onr city, wliich I do, with a great deal of pleasure. I 

 hope you will be as charital)le and nice as certain miners were 

 out in the west, when one of their fellows died, and they dis- 

 cussed among themselves what sort of an epitaph they should 

 put on his tombstone. They argued for some time, and finally 

 one fellow said : — "I tell you, put on there : 'He done his 

 damndest, angels could do no more.' " (Laughter and ap- 

 plause.) 



I am very sorry the mayor is not here, because he is thorough- 

 ly acquainted with your interests, and I am not, and besides he 

 is a great fisher of men. As a vote-getter there is no better man 

 that I know of in the city of Erie. And he is a good fisherman, 

 and I am sorry on that account that he is not here. I know 

 nothing about fishing, not even about fishing for men, Ijut our 

 friend Senator Sisson is thoroughly conversant with that sort of 

 business, and he no doul;)t will entertain you on that subject. 

 But I do want you strangers to know a little about the city of 

 Erie, and before you go away no doubt you will know more 

 about it. 



^^'e consider that we have the gem city of the lakes, one of 

 the most beautiful cities in this country anywhere. We have a 

 population of close to 70,000 people, and no stranger ever came 

 here to visit and went away that was not very anxious to come 

 back again to our city. We consider that we are very hospitable. 

 We sort of l)ank on that. We try to make every stranger who 

 comes here feel at home. While we have quite a large city, yet 

 everybody here almost knows everybody else. It is that sort o^ 

 a town. We have here the largest boiler est-ablishment in the 

 world. Now, that sounds large, doesn't it ; but it is the absolute 

 truth; and we make more boilers and engines in the city of Erie 

 than any one city in this country. Our industries are varied. 

 We have blast furnaces, large paper mills, and all varieties of 

 industries that have built up our city, and I want to say this to 

 3'ou, that I do not know of any city in this country, and I doubt 

 if there is one. where the mechanics and the lal:)oring men of th(3 

 city own as many of tlieir homes as they do in Erie. That is 

 what makes it a good city, because the people own their own 

 homes and they are interested directly in every bit of taxation 



