Happy St. Andrew's Day everyone. Here, for anyone interested, is last night's speech.
If I were to write for this occasion I'd like there to be sufficient repetition of sound for people to recognize, about now, a brief speech in the making, and so settle down. The words would have to be cut and honed, checked for accuracy. Thus a few amongst us, one or two or three, those with the better hearing, may in minutes when its done be heard to say, "well that, at least, was clear enough. No wonder they pay him the big bucks."
The natural place to begin might be when a society was mooted in 1871 or two and three, historic efforts that failed on account of there being an insufficiency of Scots in Portland, the text says. Then in 1875, suddenly there were enough. "Scottish immigration had reached such large proportion" that William MacBeth and friends felt ready to place two ads, one in the Daily Bulletin and one in the Daily Oregonian as follows:
"All Scotchmen [this is a Victorian term] and the sons and Grandsons of Scotchmen, resident in Oregon are invited to attend a meeting, blah, blah, in order to appoint a Committee of organization to frame Constitution By-Laws and Regulations..."
I was thinking as I sat sewing a button onto this very jacket, brushing the cat hair off as I went, that one could easily be forgiven for assuming that when they reached this stage, our founding fathers--alas in those days they allowed no mothers in--our founding fathers would abandon all sweet words in favor of the plain. For example, "The purposes of this corporation are to provide financial assistance to natives of Scotland and the descendants of the natives of Scotland who are in need of material aid, and to preserve and nurture for the benefit of its members and other persons, the literature, music and other culture of the peoples of Scotland."
Don't get me wrong. I do not mean to criticize the drafters of our second round of articles of incorporation, those who in 1962 came up with this perfectly plain language and eschewed all parties of the first part who shall be hereafter...etcetera, but here's the original, an excerpt from the 1875 version, "[We] are desirous of being created a Body corporate...whose duration shall be perpetual as a Benevolent, Literary and Charitable [all these with capital letters] Institution, also for the encouragement and practice of the ancient games, customs and language of Scotland, the preservation of copies of its ancient Laws, Literature, Science and Art, and maintenance of social links and relations of friendly intimacy among those of Scottish birth or their descendants from time to time, as the members may elect..."
And how did these eloquent people begin their task?On January 25 1875 Messers Ballantyne, Barclay, Bennet, Camerson, Campbell, Clayton, Collier, three Macleays, two McKays, McPhee, Meachen, Collier, Cran, Cumming, a Mr. Fairfowl and thirty three others in a room possibly in the Ankeny building, signed the articles of incorporation, cheered when it was done, and flung blue bonnets in the air or waved handkerchiefs. There is no mention of spirits, drinking or toasts. The closed by singing, "God Save the Queen."
They resolved to start a library and reading room with subscriptions to the Weekly Scotsman, the Glasgow Herald, the Daily Mail, the Dundee Advertiser, the People's Journal and a weekly from Aberdeen, the name of which we have lost. They also added for good measure, the London Times weekly, two or three Scottish monthly magazines, the Scottish American, which was published in New York and, of course, the two local papers in which they had advertised their original intentions. All this they set up in two rooms of the Washington Trust Investment Company of Scotland, right next door to the State Board of Immigration.
A relief committee was formed. Scottish immigration to Oregon reached a peak between 1876 and 1882. In Oregon there was work and opportunity and, thanks to the St. Andrew's Society, there was relief, there were concerts and lectures and moonlight excursions by steamer, and picnics "with Scottish games."
The first annual banquet, with 61 "persons and invited guests" present was held in 1875 at the St. Charles Hotel.
So that, ladies and gentlemen, is how our society began and coincidentally, this is where our evening also begins. Welcome one and all to the 133rd Anniversary Banquet of the Saint Andrew's Society of Oregon.
(Toasts.) David Ritchie, Portland, Oregon
