New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1846-04-04


Around my Childhood's Home
Aprl g. le45
Letters
From sThe Old Man of the Mountain '....NO. II.
Mr.. TRIBUNE: They tell me you printed my let
ter 10 you If you did, take it it is all one as ii
YOU asked me to write again; for they tell me you
never write back when they send you letters, but
only print them when you like. Any how, Will
send you this one more.
writ you rather at arms end, in my other letter.
If remember right, spoke of New Hampshire
LAWYERS. don't know how 1 come to, unless it
was speaking about DANIEL WEBSTER and L
spoke of him, speaking about the White Mountains.
was going to say something about the Mountains
that lay heaped up round about me here 1t kind OF
stretched out nay idea, the thought of them so high,
so wild so solitary and the notion OF this ebster
came to me. He is q mountainous sort OF creature,
Mr. Tribune, if you've ever seen him. There s one
of the mo untains out here by the great White
Mountain Gap, that has got forehead exactly Ike
him, and the mighty dark woods that skirt it all
about are about as dark he know little about
the man since he left his native State. Indeed 1
do MT care much. A man that can quit his BIRTH
place and forget the hills and woods he was among
when he was boy, would forget his own mother
would mt leave New Hampshire if could /
would mt leave any where, where was born and
grew II man is driven away, and can t help it,
that is another thing. I mean when he quits for
money or ambition. I'd quit my skin as soon as |
would where was born. One is as much part
of man as the other.
There g a town q little South of me about FIVE
and-tbirty miles of. in plain sight where they We
held Courts for the County. It's the County OF
Grafton. They We held Courts there these seventy
years This Webster us'd TO come to Court there
when he was young lawyer. They say he went
to his fret Court there | do MT know how that is
but he went there when he was almost boy
could see him plainly from here He was singular
in his look. Him and his brother Zeke" us'd to
come to Court together after year or two Daniel
came first, though Zeke' was the oldest. | can
see them now driving into that little village in their
bellows.top chaise--top thrown back-driving like
Iehu the chaise bending under them like closetop
in n high wind I had heard tell of Domed and
Ulysses, couple of old Greeks that used TO ride in
some such looking car they did, though believe
the Creeks didn't ride together. But Daniel and
Ezekiel w ebster made me think Of them two Greeks
Daniel us'd to drive very fast. They'd come in as
if thew had started long before day, and il was
sight, in small place. to them two ride in TO-
eether. 1 could have told either OF them thirty
miles among thousand men,
The Cour, House was n little one-story build
ing that stood on a hill They took the steeple OF
twenty wears ago and turned it into wheelwrght
shop. Daniel made his first speech, they tell me, In
that house, and had his first case there. twas
small case and the only one he had. He wanted to
get it put by. The lawyer on the other side was OPP
posed to il and Daniel got up and made speech to
the Court that made that little old house ring again
They all eaid-Lawyers and judges and people
that they never heard such speech or any thing like
it. They said he talked like different creature
from any ofthe rest of them great small and there
were men there that were not small There was
man tried for his life that Court, soon after,
and the Judges chose Webster to plead for him, and
from what can learn, he never has spoken better
since than he did there when he first began. He
was black, raven haired fellow, with an eye as
black as death and as heavy as Lions and no Lion
in Africa ever had voice like him, and his look was
like Lion g. that same heavy look, not sleepy, but
az If he did mt care about any thing that was gong
on about him, or any thing any where else He didn't
look az il he was thinking about any thing but
az if he ,could think like hurricane, if he once got
walked up to it. They say the Lion looks so when
he is Quiet. Twas MT m empty look, this of Web
sers but one that did MT seem to see any thing going
on worth his while.
Ezekiel did MT use to speak in the Courts for great
MANY years The talk was that he couldn't say any
thing. They said he "was a better judge OF law
than Daniel, but couldn't speak" He didn't need
to sneak much for he generally put diseases into such
shape that he cot EN- without coming to trial. No.
body ever knew how or why, but 'Zeke " eoster
cases hardly ever came to trial. Alter some years
he cot to helping try other lawyers cases. and then
he smoke, and as well as man could speak-more
sensible. they said, than Daniel himself II was not
till after Daniel left the State, and some thought he
didn't sneak before because Daniel was present
There was lawyer by the name of Parker Noyes
that us'd to go to Court the same time with the
Websers-a better lawyer twas said than either OF
them, bu, he had MT Daniels terrbe power OF talk
a nicely read LAWYER and fatal pleader Webster us
to dread 10 NEE, him, he said He knew the books
and the cases and was authority about the Court
I house. Webster would sometimes be engaged 10
argue a cause jus, as il was coming TO trial. That
would set him thinking. 1t wouldn't wrinkle ms
! forehead but make him restless. He would shit
his feet about and his hand up over his forehead
i through his Indian black hair and lift his upper lip
and show his teeth, which were as white as a
4 hounds He would get up aud go across the bar
! and sit down by Parker Noyes and ask him tchere
such and such law was decided and the names Of the
cases. no, toh at the law but Oherei, was in the
books. TVhatit was he decided for himself Noyes
would tell him where il was and then he would go
back to his seat and when the case came up for trial
he would up and pour out the law and cite ms au-
thoitics as ii he had spent months poring upon it
his own mind arriving at the decisions of the Sages
of the Law without having seen the books and on
the spur OF the moment. But for the sake of the
Judge he would ask Parker Noyes to tell him where
the authorities had writ il down.
Parker Noyes was great advocate himself
You probably never heard of him in your State