[D8850ADW], Speech, George Edward Gouraud, October 5th, 1888
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Title
[D8850ADW], Speech, George Edward Gouraud, October 5th, 1888
Editor's Notes
[PHONO TRANSCRIPTION; marked #7] "Little-Menlo ### The Phonograph's first appearance in the "role" of Toast-master and Speech-maker. ### At a dinner given by Colonel Gouraud at his residence Little-Menlo, Beulah Hill, Upper Norwood, England, on the evening of October fifth, 1888, his guests being Her Majesty's Postmaster General, Mr Cecil Raikes, Sir Arthur Sullivan, Mr Edmund Yates, Dr A.M. Broadley, Mr J.C. Parkinson, The Emperor Augustus Harris, "Drureolanus" and Acting Grand Chamberlain, Mr. H. de C. Hamilton. ### The Phonograh standing upon a table behind the Host gave forth aloud the following toasts and speeches with perfect distinctness and fidelity to nature xxx especially as regards the tones and mannerisms of the professional British Toastmaster, as to so paralyize the company that the electrical energy of a Schanschieff primary battery had to be applied to the guests to restore their mental and physical equilibrium. ### My Lords and Gentlemen, my Lords and Gentlemen. Pray, silence for our Host Colonel Gouraud. ### Ahem, ahem. My Lords and Gentlemen, ### I confess to some embarassment upon this occasion, ahem, speaking as I do for the first time in public, and in the presence of so distinguished a company. Ahem, I feel greatly honoured by your presence here tonight. A company distinctly representative in its character, Her Majesty's Post-master General, Mr. Cecil Raikes is here to pseak not only for Politicain its highest sense, but for that great department oer which he so worthily presides, and to whose administrative ability we confidently lookfor the means of sending innocent phonograms from point to point throughout the World without their being opened en route or being otherwise tampered with by over-inquisitive officials. There is in the association with the name of the Postmaster General the name of Mr Edmund Yates, a peculiar fitness, he having served with distinction for less than a quarter of a century in the same important department of the public service. In welcoming Mr. Yates at Little Menlo, my English home, for the first time, I fel that I am meeting an old friend, for it was my pleasure and my honour to be one of that vast army of Americans who welcomed him in America now some twenty years ago. Nobody can better answer than Mr Yates for literature and who better could answer for music than that distinguished composer Sir Arthur Sullivan, and to whom the Phonograph takes this earliest opportunity of expressing its delight at the great success achieved but a few nights since by that distinguished composers latest production. ### Mr Toast Master, ahem, and Gentlemen, ### I thank you very sincerely for the cordial manner in which you have received the toast just proposed and for the very kindly expressions with which it was accompanied by by its proposer, but I confess that in my reply I am thinking rather of another than of myself. I am thinking of him, that great genius, in whose real honour we have met here to-night, and of whom I am but a feeble shadow in Europe. I am but expressing aloud what I feel must be in the mind of each of you when I say he is in the spirit and as he will presently be in the voice. I thank you in the mane of Edison first, and then for myself, and in conclusion I would say that I sincerely trust that this will be but the beginning of many more interesting meetings under similar interesting circumstances, and with your permission I should like to take this occasion to express my thanks to Mr. Hamilton and his assistants for their able co-operation in the preparation of the intersting matter with which we have been entertained and are yet to be. I will now only ask you to drink to the health of Edison, standing, bumpers and cheers. Those cheers and any kind words which any of you may like to say to Mr Edison in response to this toast, will be recorded on another instrument in the adjoining room and will be sent to America through the kind agency of----"
Author
Mentioned
Date
1888-10-05
Type
Folder/Volume ID
D8850-F
Microfilm ID
124:793
Document ID
D8850ADW
Publisher
Thomas A. Edison Papers, School of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers University