When the programme for my testimonial was perfected, a joint delegation from the city governments, the chambers of commerce, and the ministers’ associations of the five towns waited upon me to invite me to a grand joint reception and banquet to be held in the largest town. They invited my wife, also, but I did not permit her to accept. In the first place, she had done nothing to entitle her to divide the honour with me; and, in the second place, she would have had her head even more utterly turned than it now is. On the appointed day I went up in my private car, taking Burridge and Jack Ridley with me. I had outlined to Ridley what I wished to say, and he had expanded it into the necessary three speeches. In the main he caught the spirit of my ideas very cleverly. The only editing I had to do was in striking out a lot of self-deprecatory rubbish which would have made me minimise my part in the new era for the towns. A man is a fool who assists his enemies to rob him of what is justly his. How could I expect any one to have a proper respect for me if I did not show that I have a proper respect for myself? Where this so-called modesty is genuine it is a dangerous weakness; where it is false, it is hypocritical cowardice. As the train carrying my car drew into the station I stared amazed, much to the delight of the reception committee, which had joined me at the station below. Before me I saw ten or twelve thousand people. The schoolgirls, each dressed in white and carrying flowers, occupied the front space--there must have been a thousand of them. “Wonderful! Wonderful!” I exclaimed. “There hasn’t been such an outpouring of the people,” said a gentleman who stood near me, “since Mr. Blaine passed through here when he was a candidate for the presidency.” I noted that several of the committee grew red and frowned at him. Afterward Ridley told me why--the Blaine demonstration had led them to expect that he would carry the county by an overwhelming majority; instead, he had lost it by a “landslide” vote against him. When the train stopped, a battery of artillery began to fire a salute of one hundred guns. Several bands struck up, the children sang “The Star-Spangled Banner,” and the crowd burst into frenzies of cheering. I was overcome with emotion and the tears streamed down my cheeks. At that the cheering was more tremendous and I saw many of the women and little girls crying.