THE RENAMING OF WOLHURST.
The following remarks were made by President Taft in renaming “Wolhurst,” the estate of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas F. Walsh, “Clonmel,” on September 22, 1909:
Ladies and Gentlemen:
I think our bounteous and generous and lovely hostess and our host should have called in the clerical profession rather than a politician to baptize this new home, for it is a part of their profession, I think, to make sacred places that we all venerate; but I hope to be able to prove equal to the occasion, because a politician is subject to every sort of exigency. Because I am asked I re-baptize with great pleasure this beautiful estate and call it “Clonmel.” “Clonmel” is a beautiful place in the County Tipperary. The determined immigrants from Tipperary and from every part of the Emerald Isle have come to the front as they deserved in America. There is no element and no strain in our civilization that has manifested itself to be stronger, more enterprising, more shrewd in business, more tenacious of its principles than the Irishmen, from North and South, who come to this country to make it their own.
I have the greatest pleasure in calling this place after that beautiful town in the golden vale of Tipperary. I consecrate this the estate of “Clonmel.” I wish I could connect with it in some way the name of Walsh, but as that goes without saying, both in Denver and throughout the country, it is unnecessary.
I congratulate the people of this vicinity that Mr. and Mrs. Walsh are their neighbors. We in Washington feel delighted that they are neighbors of ours. Their generosity and kindly courtesy are known the country over.