in size, and known as "Le Petit Marot," to distinguish it from a larger and still rarer volume with the same title. It was published without date, but certainly after 1650. The cover of the Dinner List also deserves mention. It offered a very beautiful border, used by the Masons of Wilkes-Barré in the dedication programme of the new Masonic Temple of that city, kindly loaned to the Society by Mr. Harold N. Rust.

A word as to the number present. The company not only filled every part of the grand ballroom, but spilled over into the adjoining West Foyer. It was impossible to squeeze another table or another person into the main room. All told places were provided for 986 persons. But in addition to those on the ground floor, the charming occupants of the boxes should be noted. The Society of Pennsylvania Women in New York, headed by its President, Mrs. Joshua A. Hatfield, and a notable group of official guests, filled most of the boxes on the grand tier, while many other ladies occupied the boxes of the second tier. The room was crowded in every part, and it was a superb company that greeted President Beck when he rapped for order.

It is no part of the duty of the present chronicler to comment on the speeches at the Dinner. They speak for themselves and are

printed in full elsewhere. But it may be permitted to point out that the Society has never offered a stronger programme. The speakers and their addresses were received with boundless enthusiasm and constant applause, and the significant fact that the larger part of the company remained until after midnight was the finest possible compliment not alone to the speakers, but to the high significance of the meeting.

In a very true sense it was a "Diner français." Not because of the decorations, nor the French designs for the Programme and Dinner List, nor for the little French flags substituted for the customary boutonnière; these were but minor matters in a great whole. Nor did even our French guests, headed by the distinguished Ambassador, create in themselves a "Diner français." But it was the beautiful French spirit, brought to us, no doubt, by our honoured guests, intensified by the occasion, magnified and acclaimed by our company and permeating the whole affair; this made it a "Diner français," a tribute to heroic France!

On the afternoon of the Sunday immediately following the Dinner, the members of the Society who had participated in it were invited to view the art galleries of our fellow member, Mr. Henry C. Frick. It was a rare and beautiful courtesy that was eagerly availed of. Mr. Frick's mansion houses one of the largest and most beautiful art collections in the world, being filled with master works of paintings and objects of art of the utmost beauty and interest. The extraordinary interest of these lovely things is greatly heightened by their admirable disposition in beautiful rooms. It was a delightful conclusion to an occasion that must long remain in memory as notable in every way.

The Speaking

The speaking of the evening was prefaced by the three toasts of honour, offered by the President, and responded to by three verses of National hymns, led by Mr. Andrea Sarto, formerly of the Metropolitan Opera Company.

The President of the United States. Responded to by one verse of "The Star-Spangled Banner."

The President of the French Republic. Responded to by one verse of "The Marseillaise."

The Members of the Society and the Sons of Members in the War. Responded to by one verse of "America."

In proposing the second of these toasts President Beck stated that the Society had received from the Foreign Minister of France, Mr. Pichon, a cable message that the President of the French Republic had knowledge of this gathering, and desired to send to The Pennsylvania Society an expression of his entire sympathy with its purposes and objects.

Address of the Honourable James M. Beck, President of the Society

Your Excellency and Gentlemen of France:

The Pennsylvania Society is greatly honoured in having you as its guests tonight and extends to you a heartfelt welcome. You need no other passport to our hospitality than that you come from France.

We greet you tonight as fellow-citizens. This is no unmeaning phrase. While our soldiers fight side by side in the trenches, while our women behind the lines give to the great cause the very treasures of their souls, while our statesmen meet in joint council and combine the common resources to a common end, while our flags are intertwined in the comradeship of battle, there is, to the eye of imagination, a new state called into being which we may call the United Free States of the world, and of that State we are fellow citizens. Your Minister of War Painlevé recently gave fitting expression to this ideal, when he urged that "a single front, a single army, a single nation, that is the programme for future victory," and to this the great Prime Minister of England fittingly replied: "if after forty months of war, after all the lessons the war has taught us, the Allies are not capable of that sacred international union, then in spite of their sacrifices they would not be worthy of victory."

That sacred union, so finely characterized by our President as a "partnership of the democratic nations," will continue and all the powers of Prussianism and Hell will not prevail against it.

Our soldiers who fight side by side in the trenches can claim a more sacred relation, for it is true of them as they stand guard tonight on the far-flung battle line, as Shakespeare made his Henry V say to his soldiers on the eve of Agincourt

"We band of brothers

For he who sheds his blood this day with me
He is my brother."

The Pennsylvania Society meets each year to pay a tribute of affection to the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Tonight,

however, our theme is France; but in making this notable departure from a policy of many years, we need not forget the Commonwealth, to whose honour this Society is dedicated, for France has written notable chapters of her epic history upon the soil of Pennsylvania. It was in Philadelphia that Lafayette tendered his sword to Washington; it was at Brandywine that he gave his blood for our cause; it was from Philadelphia that the greatest son of Pennsylvania, Benjamin Franklin, went to France to seek aid for the infant republic, and it was there that he received a welcome such as France never gave before or since to any man from a foreign country. The glory of Valley Forge is that of France as well as of America, and when the long, dreary and terrible winter had ended, it was in this sacred place, in the Valley of the Schuylkill, that news came to Washington that France had staked her very existence as a nation upon the success of the American arms; and it was then that Washington, with his own hand, wrote the order that the little army should be assembled, and that to the rolling of the drums, and the jubilant roar of the cannon every American soldier should give three cheers—one for “France," one for "the friendly European powers," and one for "the American States." That cheer, which awoke the echoes in the Valley of the Schuylkill nearly 140 years ago, we take up tonight; and again from our heart of hearts, we, descendants of the Pennsylvania line, cheer for "France," for "the friendly European powers" (now most happily including Great Britain), and for "the American States."

We are met tonight especially to honour the Ambassador of France, who greatly honours us with his presence. For many years he has represented his noble country in the capital of our nation, and at all times he has enjoyed the respect and confidence of each successive President of the United States. We honour him not merely as an accomplished and noble-minded diplomat, but also as an author of distinction, who has promoted the great cause of Franco-American fraternity, by interpreting the literature of the English-speaking races to France, and the literature of France to England and America.

I shall not at this time attempt to say all that is in my heart with reference to His Excellency's contribution to the welfare of civilization, a contribution never more conspicuously useful than in