I want you men of Texas, you men of my age, to see to it that exactly as you lift your heads higher because of what your fathers have done, so your children have the right to hold their heads higher because of the way in which you handle yourselves. A glorious memory is the best of all things for a nation if it spurs that nation on to try to rise level with that memory. It is a poor thing for a nation if it uses the memory of the past to excuse it for inaction or failure in the present. Keep it before yourselves ever that the very fact that you are proud of those who have gone before makes it incumbent upon you to leave a heritage of honor to those who are to come after you, and to train up those who are to come after you so that they can do their work in the world. One of the things that has pleased me most in passing through the part of your State that I have passed through this afternoon was to see the care that you are giving to the education of the children, to see the public schools and the private schools that you have built and in which your boys and girls are being trained. Do not forget that besides the training of the school must come the training in the family. Take care the next generation is able to rise level to its duty. You can not make it rise level if you do not give it the proper training. Remember always that this life is certain to contain much that is hard, much that is unpleasant. It is not a kindness to the children, it is a curse, if you train them so that they can not meet any need that arises. I do not believe that we ought ever to try to delude ourselves with the thought that we can make life easy, effortless, and yet keep it worth having. For a nation as for an individual the life is the life of effort. You have made this great State of Texas what it is because your forefathers had in them the spirit which recognized in a difficulty something not to be flinched from, but to be overcome. I can not sufficiently thank you for the way you have greeted me to-day. I am more touched than I can express by it. I come to the soil of this State, hallowed by the great deeds of great men, I come knowing your people already and believing in them with my heart and soul. A couple of years ago I went from the Atlantic to the Pacific. I have now come down to this mighty State, this wonderful commonwealth, which borders on the Gulf, and I shall go away with the feeling that after all, while there are small differences among us, the fundamental fact is that wherever you find the average American, the average American is a pretty good man. It is our unity, not our divergency, that is the great fundamental fact of our national life. I shall go away a stronger and better American for having been in this State of strong and good Americans, this mighty commonwealth of Texas. AT THE BANQUET AT DALLAS, TEX., APRIL 5, 1905 _Mr. Toastmaster, and you, My Hosts_: