New Yorkers .......

Music to sooth ..................

For all of those in the path and aftermath of this storm ...... Vestal Goodman

Till the Storm Passes By

Words of wisdom from Teddy Roosevelt

In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.

Theodore Roosevelt

Mules and Speeches

The mules were hee-hawing the other day in the lower chamber – I mean lower stall. They were kicking and bucking something terrible. There was so much commotion and noise that there wasn’t even a need for microphones – you could hear ‘em clear across town. They was all bunched up in groups, trading oats back and forth until enough mules joined the group with the most oats.

The leader was a stubborn old mule, with a hee-haw so terrible loud, it would scare the hair off your ears. Listening in on all the noise, I couldn’t understand a thing they were braying, but there wasn’t any need to. Everyone knew that new leader was going to be the old leader. The only reason I was there was for the entertainment!

Categories: Will Rogers Daily Quote for iPhone November 19, 2010 by Frank

The mules were hee-hawing the other day in the lower chamber – I mean lower stall. They were kicking and bucking something terrible. There was so much commotion and noise that there wasn’t even a need for microphones – you could hear ‘em clear across town. They was all bunched up in groups, trading oats back and forth until enough mules joined the group with the most oats.

The leader was a stubborn old mule, with a hee-haw so terrible loud, it would scare the hair off your ears. Listening in on all the noise, I couldn’t understand a thing they were braying, but there wasn’t any need to. Everyone knew that new leader was going to be the old leader. The only reason I was there was for the entertainment!

A rare speech

NEW YORK, N. Y., Dec. 4, 1924 - Will Rogers, the cowboy sage who has become America's leading comedian through the simple technique of reading the newspapers and thereafter commenting upon events of the day from the stage of the Ziegfeld Follies, tonight made one of his rare "speeches" at a formal dinner. The occasion was a memorial to Alexander Hamilton arranged by Nicholas Murray Butler, university president.

While Mr. Rogers wove his theme largely around the wealth of the Columbia alumni among whom he sat - the poor boy from Claremore, Oklahoma - some of his auditors were aware of the fact that he long ago joined the ranks of millionaires himself.

President Butler paid me a compliment a while ago in mentioning my name in his introductory remarks, and he put me ahead of the Columbia graduates. I am glad he did that, because I got the worst of it last week. The Prince of Wales last week, in speaking of the sights of America, mentioned the Woolworth Building, the subway, the slaughterhouse, Will Rogers and the Ford factory. He could at least put me ahead of the hogs.

Everything must be in contrast at an affair like this. You know, to show anything off properly you must have the contrast. Now, I am here tonight representing poverty. We have enough wealth right here at this table, right here at the speaker's table alone-their conscience should hurt them, which I doubt if it does-so that we could liquidate our national debt. Every rich man reaches a time in his career when he comes to a turning point and starts to give it away. I have heard that of several of our guests here tonight, and that is one of the reasons I am here. I would like to be here at the psychological moment.

We are here, not only to keep cool with Coolidge, but to do honor to Alexander Hamilton. Now, he was the first Secretary of the Treasury. The reason he was appointed that was because he and Washington were the only men in America at that time who knew how to put their names on a check. Signing a check has remained the principal qualification of a U.S. Secretary of the Treasury.

I am glad President Butler referred to it in this way. The principal reason, of course, was that the man he fought against wanted to be President. He was a Princeton man-or I believe it was Harvard-anyway it was one of those primary schools. In fighting a duel, he forgot that in America our men over here could shoot. So unfortunately one of them was killed, which had never happened in the old country. So they did away with dueling. It was all right to protect your honor, but not to go as far as you like.

If you are speaking of finance here tonight, I do not believe that you could look further than President Butler. Butler is the word - to dig up the dough. Columbia was nothing twenty years ago. Now, he has gone around and got over a hundred buildings, and has annexed Grant's Tomb. He was the first man to go around to the graduates and explain to them that by giving money to Columbia it would help on the income tax and also perpetuate their names.

We have an Alexander Hamilton Building. He landed these buildings and ran the place up to ninety millions or something like that.

There are more students in the university than there are in any other in the world. It is the foremost university. There are thirty-two hundred courses. You spend your first two years in deciding what courses to take, the next two years in finding the building that these courses are given in, and the rest of your life wishing you had taken another course. And they have this wonderful society called the Alumni Association, a bunch of men who have gone to school and after they have come out formed a society to tell the school how to run it.

The men he didn’t like. Will Rogers speech to bankers in 1923

 Will Rogers speech to bankers in 1923.

Loan sharks and interest hounds—I have addressed every form of organized graft in the United States, excepting Congress, so it’s naturally a pleasure for me to appear before the biggest. You are without a doubt the most disgustingly rich audience I ever talked to, with the possible exception of the bootleggers’ union, Local No. 1, combined with the enforcement officers.

Now, I understand that you hold this convention every year to announce what the annual gyp will be. I have often wondered where the depositors hold their convention. I had an account in the bank once, and the banker, he asked me to withdraw it. He said I had used up more red ink than the account was worth.

I see where your convention was opened by a prayer, you had to send outside your ranks to get somebody that knew how to pray. You should have had one creditor there; he’d have shown you how to pray. I noticed in the prayer the clergyman announced to the Almighty that the bankers were here. Well, it wasn’t exactly an announcement. It was more in the nature of a warning. He didn’t tell the devil, as he figured he knew where you all were all the time anyhow.

I see by your speeches that you’re very optimistic of the business conditions of the coming year. Boy, I don’t blame you. If I had your dough, I’d be optimistic too.

Will you please tell me what you all do with the vice presidents the bank has? I guess that’s to get anybody more discouraged before they can see the main guy. Why, the United States is the biggest business institution in the world. They got only one vice president. Nobody’s ever found anything for him to do.

You have a wonderful organization. I understand you have 10,000 here, and what you have in federal prisons brings your membership up to around 30,000. So goodbye, paupers. You’re the finest bunch of shylocks that ever foreclosed a mortgage on a widow’s home.