AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A PENNSYLVANIAN
upon ground rents. I have been vice-president of the Colonial Society and am a life member of the Society of Colonial Wars and a member of the Society of the War of 1812.
An exceedingly interesting society of this character, of which I have repeatedly been the president, is the Netherlands Society of Philadelphia, before referred to. Its membership is not so large as to be cumbersome and there are an intensity and fervor about the spirit manifested at their annual dinners on the 23d of January, the anniversary of the Convention of Utrecht in 1578, which I have found nowhere else. It is partly due to a real belief in the value of their Dutch ancestry and to the impressive music of the songs called forth in the struggle of Holland with Spain and of their own song of The Dutch on the Delaware.
Among my friends in the city was Godfrey Keebler, a Swabian, who in his youth came to America and for a time worked on the place of my Grandfather Pennypacker. Later he went to Philadelphia and there prospered, doing a large business as a baker. He was president of the Cannstatter Volksfest Verein, and being active in all of the movements in which the Germans were interested, he had me invited to all of their festivities and balls and made me an honorary member of the “Verein.” It was through him that I was invited to deliver the address at the dedication of the Schiller Monument in Fairmount Park. He died in 1893.
On the second of November of the same year the Art Club gave a reception to Joseph Jefferson which Mrs. Pennypacker and I attended. We found him the same genial personality on the floor which his acting indicated on the stage. It is doubtful whether any other actor ever awakened more kindly feeling for himself or greater admiration for his art. In Rip Van Winkle, Cricket on the Hearth, The Rivals and Lend Me Five Shillings he seemed to me to be perfect. It is a satisfaction to have seen the stage in these days of Jefferson and Booth when the intelligent analysis and pre-
