Fine speech by De-Armond.
This was not to be the end of the feast of good things, however, though in the ordinary course it would have concluded the prearranged programme.
At the request of many of those present,
Captain Lamb introduced the distinguished congressman from
Mississippi.
In doing so he paid a very warm tribute to that
gallant and heroic soldier, a true and tried friend, and a hero in peace as well as in war. Judge DeArmond said:
If I could choose my place I would rather listen than speak.
I would gather inspiration from these noble surroundings rather than mar this occasion by any feeble words that I might utter.
Never, he said, had he felt more honored than he did at being asked to speak, and never had he gazed into the faces of an audience such as that.
There was everything there present calculated to inspire.
‘From the walls,’ he said, ‘looks down the heroism of the past.
What thoughts of history!
What heroes!
I feel it is a proud privilege to address the noble sons of sires so noble.’
A thousand things might determine a contest, without regard to the justice of the cause, the speaker said, but the thing that lives is the story of heroic deeds and heroic men. Perhaps nowhere on earth were there gathered together so many noble achievements as in this historic city of
Richmond.
