Repoet of Board of General Managers. 127 



meetings, readings, lectures and other ways promote social, intellectual 

 and friendly relations among the members and their families." How well 

 the sentiment is a})preciated and nurtured can best be understood from 

 the record, which shows a membership living of nearly 700, and a page " in 

 memoriam" of worthy men who have upheld the honor and aided in 

 expanding the mutual and friendly relations of all citizens of their grand 

 old native State. 



We thank the chief executive of that great State and his trusted aids 

 and her ever-kindly board of managers for this opportunity of mingling 

 with all these denizens " fresh from her granite hills and sparkling streams," 

 who bring to us the fragrance of her sun-kissed mountains, and the odor 

 of her salt-sea shoi-es. In extenuation of the principles upon which our 

 society is founded, we cordially open wide its doors, and reaching out the 

 honest hand of fellowship, invite you all within the pale of its domain, 

 whether natives or sons or daughters of a native, all are welcome so long 

 as by their thought and work they glorify the record of the dear old 

 mother State, and raise aloft the standard of Excelsior. 



The reception was one of the most brilliant of the season. Admis- 

 sion was by invitation only, and the spacious rooms were filled with 

 stately men and beautiful women bound by the common tie of an 

 ancestry native to the Empire State. Before the dancing began, the 

 president of the society, Hon. De Witt C. Cregier^ ex-mayor of Chi- 

 cago, spoke as follows : 



The sons and daughters of New York are proud of their native State 

 and no less proud of the great State and city of their adoption — Illinois 

 and Chicago. We recognize New York as the Empire State of the repub- 

 lic. At the same time we do not lose sight of the fact that Illinois is the 

 Empire State of the great west. Within their respective domains are 

 located the two great metropolitan cities of the American continent — New 

 York and Chicago — the former ripe with age and mighty in her achieve- 

 ments, the latter, although comparatively but an infant in years, yet a 

 giant in everything that pertains to an enlightened and progressive 

 civilization. 



As American citizens we are proud of the majesty and grandeur of 

 our common country, of which the States of New York and Illinois, with 

 their grand progressive cities. New York and Chicago, are prominent aijjd 

 important factors. Let us then cultivate the splendid fellowship that 

 inspired the grand old sages and patriots during the formative perioel of 

 our free government. Let not the breath of idle report, however fragrant, 

 obtrude where only comity and fraternity should exist between States and 



