The Perrysburg journal. [volume] (Perrysburg, Ohio) 1853-1861, 1858-05-27

no drew up remarkably largo one, he was heard
to exclaim Venerable men you have come
down to US from former generation Heaven
has bounteously heightened out your lives, that
you might behold this joyous day. or Dux.
bury and Cohassett with q party Of friends. he
loved to troe for blue. fish, or sink for cod aud
he prided himself quite as much in compounding
the elements of a successful chowdor, as he did in
extractiOg order from an intricate case These
little incidents illustrate the character OF the man.
Now, | believe with Izaak Walto,--I regret that
| have not the DO )k at hand TO quote tho precise
lpassage--that successful fisherman cannot DO n
bad man. that he must Of necessity have many
great and redeeming qualities, Show ME the man
who sneers ut the rod and the gun, who regards
these amusements as waste Of time, aud mark
him. at once, as cold, unfeeug wretch.
| MIR. Webster had studied the habits and disri-
button OF nshcs aud it was theme on which he
delighted to dilate On one occasion he applied
to member Of the Boston Natural History So.
ciety to know 1t a paper upon the subject nom
him would be kindly received. Ho was member
for two three weeks OF the Massachusetts, legis-
lature, and he boasted that the most important
service he rendered the sia,e was the introduction
OF bill, which was enacted into a law. providing
that pickerel aud trout should be taken only in a
Legitimate way, and at the appropriate season.
In the summer of 1882, sick and weary, ho re-
tires to Marshiell. His friends fondy hope that
removed from public cares, beneath the shelter OF
his own roof in the midst OF his fields and trees,
surrounded by his hocks and herds aud breathing
IN the breath of the great ocean, he will survive
but to him there comes no reviving breath, Oc-
tober approaches, the most delightful month OF
the year, when day after day the sun beams with
u warm elfugence, ere yet his race assumes win.
try aspect, when the leaves stirred by an invisible
power rustic in the forest, when hazy light robes
each object in tho landscape" and all the air a
solemn stiffness holds, "--remudng us that the
glory OF the summer is passing away. The inva
lid holds communion with nature, conscious that
he, too, is passing away. Soon tho rumor spread,
that Webster is dying Public attention i:
aroused snd startled. Men pause with suspended
breath. The voice OF obloquy is hushed, Each
day there is, at every village post.oificc anxiou,
inquiry as to the condition of the sufferer and
when at length, every church bell throughout the
commonwealth tolls forth the knell OF his depart
ure, there is one universal express on of sympathy
and regret. The old affection and venerltion o
the people revive. His virtues only are remem
bered. All parties unite in paying him poshu
nous houors.
The soeno of his death-bed is ons Of the mobiles
and most impressive on record. Calmly he awaits
the inevitable hour, aud goes down to tho grave
crowned with honors aud leng tn of days. Among
his last requests is that Grey's Elegy might b
read to him and as the mOurnful cadences fel
upon bis ear, he must have thought that it ha
been his lot
"The applause of listening senates to command,
The threats OF pain and ruin to despise,
| To scatter plenty 'er n smiling land,
And read his history In u nations eyes"
He '!ecps fast by the ocean, and in sight o
Plymouth Rock--ft sepulcher for such man.
In Mr.. Webster were combined the elements Q
greatness. He was not, like Washington o
Hampden, pattern of moral excellence, or politi
cal recttuyle, nor will he occupy even a niche Of
the same level with Franklin, or Jay He ha
transcendent merits, as well US glaring defects.-
The historian while he will dwell upon tho one
will pass lightly over the other. The cloud whic
dims the setting sun ought not to make us OBJ
livous of the many hours in which he has shon
in full l-orbed splendor