That flag is not unfamiliar in these waters. In the battle summer of 1863--thirty years ago--while we were engaged in a life-and-death struggle for national existence and the preservation of the Union, it floated over the fleet of Admiral Lissoffski in this harbor--a signal of friendship, encouragement and protection against foreign interference, pending the settlement of the issues of our Civil War. No diplomatic declaration was made, no threat was uttered, no sign was given; we only knew the flag was there, and if it meant anything, that the power of one of the mightiest nations of Europe was behind it. We now know from what it saved us:-- "When darkness hid the starry skies, In war's long winter night, One ray still cheered our straining eyes, The far-off Northern Light." No American who loves his country can forget that incident in our hour of agony, nor the friendly significance of that flag. It was an American captain who used the expression which has become historic, when he went to the relief of his English brother-in-arms at the storming of the Pei-Ho forts, that "blood is thicker than water," and while it courses in the veins of a loyal American, he will remember with grateful appreciation the sympathy and the moral support, more powerful than armed battalions or cruisers, of Alexander II, who, like our Lincoln, freed his serfs, and like him, while serving his people, fell by the hand of an assassin. Gentlemen, who serve His Imperial Majesty the Czar, we salute you and your flag under whatever skies or on whatever sea it floats. We remind you that we are not ungrateful. The best we have is yours; the Nation presents arms as you pass in review, and as our borders approach each other in the frozen zone so when we meet you here:-- "Though our hearts were dry as the shell on the sand, They would fill like the goblet I hold in my hand." "Bleak are our shores in the blast of December, Fettered and chill is the rivulet's flow, Throbbing and warm are the hearts that remember Who was our friend when the world was our foe. "Fires of the North, in eternal communion Blend your broad flashes with evening's bright star, God bless the Empire that loves our great Union! Strength to her people! Long life to the Czar!" * * * * * OUR ANCESTORS AND OURSELVES [Speech of Henry E. Howland, President of the New England Society in the City of New York, at their ninety-fourth annual dinner, New York, December 22, 1899.] FELLOW-MEMBERS OF THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY:--It is my agreeable duty to receive this weary, way-worn band of Pilgrims upon the occasion of their 279th landing upon these bleak and arid shores, and, like Samoset on the occasion of your first arrival, to welcome you to the scanty fare and the privations and sufferings that are incident to this ledge of the old Plymouth Rock. [Applause.]