regarded as, originally and quite distinctively, a ScotchIrish settlement; and yet, when we come to examine the records we find that from the beginning of the little settlement which has grown into this fair city and all down through its history, the presence and influence of the Germans must be taken largely into account. The first church erected in this then sparsely built village was erected in 1787 by the Germans; the first chief burgess of the incorporated town was a German; and of the Kunkels, Hummels, Fagers, Bruas, Egles, Kelkers, Kellers, and a host of others whom we might name, Harrisburg may gratefully say, "Have they not been always with us?"

Ten years ago you were welcomed to our city, on the occasion of the first annual meeting of the Society. A decade is not a long period in the history of such an organization, nor in the life of a city, yet in these ten years many changes have taken place in both. The Society has steadily grown in membership and influence, and, as the bulky and attractive volumes of its annually published Proceedings abundantly attest, has been doing a work of very great and abiding value. This city, too, has grown, having a population in excess of that of ten years ago of not less than ten thousand souls, and having extended its borders in a manner somewhat surprising even to some of us who dwell within its gates.

It is to be regretted that your stay here will be so brief and your attention so occupied by the duties which have brought you among us that we will be unable to show you, as we would like to do, how beautiful for situation is our city, how attractive many of its homes, how manifold and prosperous its industries, how picturesque its surroundings and how hospitably disposed our people.

Although your sojourn with us will be short we never

theless indulge the hope that pleasant recollections of it may remain with you long. I take great pleasure in assuring you that in whatever else, as your hosts, we may possibly fail, nothing shall be lacking in either the sincerity or the warmth of our old-fashioned Pennsylvania-German welcome.

But, as Portia says to Antonio, in bidding him welcome to her house:

"It must appear in other ways than words,
Therefore, I scant this breathing courtesy."

RESPONSE TO THE ADDRESS OF WELCOME.

The Rev. F. J. F. Schantz, D.D., of Myerstown, Pa., ex-President of the Society, made the following fitting response to the kindly welcome extended the Society:

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen:

The exceedingly cordial address of welcome on behalf of the good Harrisburg friends of the Pennsylvania-German Society, who have not only invited the Society to hold its Eleventh Annual Meeting in this city, but also secured these elegant quarters in the Board of Trade Building for its sessions and made other most considerate and liberal arrangements for the entertainment of the Society, truly deserves a response, that fully expresses the pleasure and gratitude of the members of the Society in view of the welcome given and the favors extended. But who of the members of the Society here to-day is able to give full expression of the appreciation of the kindness shown and service rendered to the Society? To Lancaster belongs the honor of the meeting of the Society on the day of its organization and for its entertainment at an annual meeting; to Harrisburg belongs the credit for the arrangements

for the First Annual Meeting and now for the Eleventh Annual Meeting.

As I have been appointed to respond to the address of welcome I find that the most expressive response to be given to this single word "Welcome" - that conveys so much-can and is made by the words "Herzlichen Dank."

As long as the Pennsylvania-German Society has no fixed habitation-a fine large building erected in one of our central cities or inland towns with proper arrangements for the annual meetings of the Society, for meetings of its Executive Board, for the preservation of a fine library and the founding of a museum, a resort for all its members who may desire to make researches or to meet each other socially—the program of the annual meeting must provide for the address of welcome and response to

the same.

The cordial reception and excellent entertainment given the Society in the various cities and towns in which it has held its annual meetings has, to a great extent, relieved the Society from anxiety to secure a fixed habitation, however important such a building would be for other purposes than holding annual meetings; and as long as the Society will be as cordially welcomed and entertained as at Harrisburg to-day and in other localities in past years, it need have no care as far as annual meetings are concerned. And should it secure a fixed habitation, the interests of the Society would not suffer if annual meet'ngs would now and then be held in other localities.

Harrisburg is of interest to all Pennsylvanians. Here the state government has its habitation. Here the laws of the commonwealth are made and changed. Many have earnest longings for the offices that are filled at this place. Many desire to become lawmakers. Many seek

favors at this place to be for their benefit in their respective homes. Citizens of the commonwealth are favorably or unfavorably affected by what is transacted in this city.

This is Pennsylvania-German Day at Harrisburg. We are not here to ask special favors from the government at this time, and yet the Pennsylvania-German Society might justly ask the state government to make the most careful provision for the careful preservation of the records that pertain to the history of the commonwealth.

Some of us here to-day are specially interested in Harrisburg, for in the State Library are the very valuable and important records of early immigrations. I personally feel thus interested for I have seen in said library a list of immigrants of October 1, 1770, who took the oath of allegiance, and on that list I saw the name of Joh. Schantz, the name of my ancestor, my great-grandfather. I have no doubt that many here to-day would find the names of their ancestors on similar lists.

When I learned that the Rev. Dr. Gilbert was to deliver the address of welcome I thought of the fact that he is the honored pastor of the Lutheran congregation in this city, in which church building, standing in the year 1810, the Evangelical Lutheran Ministerium of Pennsylvania and adjacent states, the Mother Synod of the Lutheran Church in America, held its annual meeting. On the list of lay-delegates appears the name of J. Schantz, White Hale, my grandfather. Pennsylvania-Germans here assembled in that year had no idea that in the year 1901 a Pennsylvania-German Society, that would preserve the history of ancestors, would meet in this city, that the pastor of the first Lutheran congregation would deliver the address of welcome and that a grandson of one of the

lay-delegates at the synodical meeting would respond to such address.

When at Gettysburg, 1855-57, in the theological seminary, a number of students were regarded as English. I always included student Gilbert in said number. As I had come from a county east of the Schuylkill bounded on the north by the Blue Mountains I was not included in that number. Soon after entering the seminary I received an anonymous letter advising me to study Webster's Dictionary daily. To-day student Gilbert, now the Rev. Dr. Gilbert (as I learned this morning, a descendant of Bernhard Gilbert, of Gettysburg, a German), and I both rejoice in being members of the PennsylvaniaGerman Society.

The friends at Harrisburg have kindly welcomed the Pennsylvania-German Society. We feel deeply grateful. I have no doubt that after all the program promises has been delivered, the friends at Harrisburg will be so much pleased with the Society, that they will say: "Komt bold wieder und bleibt net so lang" and we will ask: "Sollen wirs nächst Jahr wieder komme?"

God bless the Harrisburg friends of the PennsylvaniaGerman Society and also prosper the Society in which we are all so deeply interested!

PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS.

The annual address of the President, Prof. Charles Francis Himes, Ph.D., LL.D., containing an obituary eulogy of William Henry Egle, M.D., A.M., ex-President of the Society, was then read.