No one who has witnessed the heroism of America’s daughters in the field should fail to pay a passing tribute to their worth.  I do not speak alone of those trained Sisters of Charity, who in scenes of misery and woe seem Heaven’s chosen messengers on earth; but I would speak also of those fair daughters who come forth from the comfortable firesides of New England and other States, little trained to scenes of suffering, little used to the rudeness of a life in camp, who gave their all, their time, their health, and even life itself, as a willing sacrifice in that cause which then moved the nation’s soul.  As one of these, with her graceful form, was seen moving silently through the darkened aisles of an army hospital, as the motion of her passing dress wafted a breeze across the face of the wounded, they felt that their parched brows had been fanned by the wings of the angel of mercy.

Ah!  Mr. President, woman is after all a mystery.  It has been well said, that woman is the great conundrum of the nineteenth century; but if we cannot guess her, we will never give her up. [Applause.]

* * * * *

FRIENDLINESS OF THE FRENCH

[Speech of Horace Porter at the banquet given by the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, June 24, 1885, to the officers of the French national ship “Isere,” which brought over the statue of “Liberty Enlightening the World.”  Charles Stewart Smith, vice-President of the Chamber, proposed the following toast:  “The French Alliance; initiated by noble and sympathetic Frenchmen; grandly maintained by the blood and treasure of France; now newly cemented by the spontaneous action of the French people; may it be perpetuated through all time.”  In concluding his introduction, the Chairman said:  “We shall hear from our friend, General Porter.”]

MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:—­[3]_Voulez-vous me permettre de faire mes remarques en francais?  Si je m’addresse a vous dans une langue que je ne parle pas, et que personne ici ne comprends, j’en impute la faute entierement a l’example malheureux de Monsieur Coudert.  Ce que je veux dire est que_—­this is the fault of Coudert.  He has been switching the languages round in every direction, and has done all he could to sidetrack English.

What I mean to say is, that if I were to mention in either language one tithe of the subjects which should be alluded to to-night in connection with the French Alliance, I should keep you all here until the rising of another sun, and these military gentlemen around me, from abroad, in attempting to listen to it, would have to exhibit what Napoleon considered the highest quality in a soldier:  “Two-o’clock-in-the-morning courage.” [Applause.]