That the Scots in America have not been solely devoted to business and the promotion of their own selfish welfare is evidenced by the remarkable growth of their numerous Societies based upon the extension of fellowship among Scots in the New World and for the collection and distribution of charitable funds among the poor and needy of their countrymen. The oldest of these Societies, the Scots' Charitable Society of Boston, was founded January 6, 1657, with twenty-seven members. It was followed by the St. Andrew's Club of Charleston, S.C. (the first to bear the name of St. Andrew), 1729; the St. Andrew's Society of Philadelphia, December 7, 1749; the St. Andrew's Society of Savannah, Ga., 1750; the St. Andrew's Society of the Province, afterward of the State of New York, November 19, 1756; and the St. Andrew's Society of Albany, N.Y., November 10, 1803; until at the present time, there is no city of any size or importance in the country that does not have its St. Andrew's Society, or Burns or Caledonian Club, which serves to keep alive the memories of the home-land, to instil patriotism toward the adopted country, and to aid the distressed among their kinsfolk. There are now more than one thousand of these Societies in America, including the Order of Scottish Clans (organized, 1878) a successful fraternal, patriotic and beneficial order, with more than one hundred separate clans, and the Daughters of Scotia, a rapidly growing order for women of Scottish blood, organized in 1898. CONCLUSION "It is the knowledge that Scotsmen have done their share in building up the great Republic that makes them proud of its progress and inspires them to add to its glories and advantages in every way. Scotsmen, as a nationality, are everywhere spoken of as good and loyal citizens, while Americans who can trace a family residence of a century in the country are proud if they can count among their ancestors some one who hailed from the land of Burns, and it is a knowledge of all this, in turn, that makes the American Scot of to-day proud of his country's record and his citizenship and impels him to be as devoted to the new land as it was possible for him to have been to the old had he remained in it. In America, the old traditions, the old blue flag with its white cross, the old Doric, are not forgotten, but are nourished, and preserved, and honored, and spoken by Scotsmen on every side with the kindliest sentiments on the part of those to whom they are alien. Americans know and acknowledge that the traditions and flag and homely speech have long been conserved to the development of that civil and religious liberty on which the great confederation of sovereign republican States has been founded. In the United States, Sir Walter Scott has more readers and quite as enthusiastic admirers as in Scotland, and if Americans were asked which of the world's poets came nearest to their hearts, the answer would undoubtedly be--Robert Burns."