[Speech of Rev. Dr. T. DeWitt Talmage at the seventh annual dinner of the Holland Society of New York, January 14, 1892.  The President of the Society, George M. Van Hoesen, said:  “The next regular toast is:  ‘What I Know about the Dutch,’ which will be responded to by a gentleman who needs no introduction—­the Rev. Dr. T. DeWitt Talmage.”]

Oh, Judge Van Hoesen, this is not the first time we have been side by side, for we were college boys together; and I remember that there was this difference between us—­you seemed to know about everything, and it would take a very large library, a library larger than the Vatican, to tell all that I didn’t know.  It is good to be here.  What a multitude of delightful people there are in this world!  If you and I had been consulted as to which of all the stars we would choose to walk upon, we could not have done a wiser thing than to select this.  I have always been glad that I got aboard this planet.  There are three classes of people that I especially admire—­men, women, and children.  I have enjoyed this banquet very much, for there are two places where I always have a good appetite—­at home and away from home.  I have not been interfered with as were some gentlemen that I heard of at a public dinner some years ago.  A greenhorn, who had never seen a great banquet, came to the city, and, looking through the door, said to his friends who were showing him the sights:  “Who are those gentlemen who are eating so heartily?” The answer was:  “They are the men who pay for the dinner.”  “And who are those gentlemen up there on the elevation looking so pale and frightened and eating nothing?” “Oh,” said his friend, “those are the fellows who make the speeches.”

It is very appropriate that we should celebrate the Hollanders by hearty eating, for you know the royal house that the Hollanders admire above any other royal house, is named after one of the most delicious fruits on this table—­the house of Orange.  I feel that I have a right to be here.  While I have in my arteries the blood of many nationalities, so that I am a cosmopolitan and feel at home anywhere, there is in my veins a strong tide of Dutch blood.  My mother was a Van Nest, and I was baptized in a Dutch church and named after a Dutch Domini, graduated at a Dutch theological seminary, and was ordained by a Dutch minister, married a Dutch girl, preached thirteen years in a Dutch church, and always took a Dutch newspaper; and though I have got off into another denomination, I am thankful to say that, while nearly all of our denominations are in hot water, each one of them having on a big ecclesiastical fight—­and you know when ministers do fight, they fight like sin—­I am glad that the old Dutch Church sails on over unruffled seas, and the flag at her masthead is still inscribed with “Peace and good-will to men.”  Departed spirits of John Livingston and Gabriel Ludlow, and Dr. Van Draken and magnificent Thomas de Witt, from your thrones witness!