Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1876-09-14


garments, including always several coats
ofvarious and indescribabie hues, which
he dofied and donned in the progress of
a cause according to the amount of per-
spiration which he was secreting, and a era.
vat which has been said to meet in an indie
scribable tie which seems like fortuitous
concurrence of original ATOMS He pos
sessed a wonderful capacity for labor and
study, but was martyr to sick headaches
ali his life.
Nc less extraordinary in style than in
appearance and manner was this pheno.
menal being. His wild soarings were
strange to an audience accustomed to the
majestic aud regular flights of Webster
and the silvery utterances of Everett. But
the style betitted the man and the manner.
he delighted in strong contrasts. As in
Shakespeare's plays kings and clowns jos
tie each other, so in Choate's rhetoric the
homely and the magnificent are frequently
in juxtapositon. Doubtless his style lacks
simplicity. 1t IS fervid, impassioned, orien-
tai in its richness and luxuri ance, often ex-
agserated, but always poetic and sugges-
tive. His vocabulary abounded In recon
dite and hish-sounding words. His imag-
nation converted the commonest objects
into things OF beauty and described the
planest acts in phrases that haunt the
memory. Speaking of person hesitating
TO commit small offence when contempla-
ting great crime, he said: ''Is il possible
to think, nationally, that il a person was
going To plunge into cataract below the
preciptce he would be over careful not to
moisten his feet with dew?' OF an impro-
bable narration he said: The story is as
unlike the truth as pebble Is unlike star
a witch's broomstick unlike a banner
stan. OF cunning witness He is quick,
keen, knows when to hold his tongue, with
the cunning of q bushy-tailed iox-alrs 5
right OF a lonely place: 1T was as lone
ly as the desert behind Algiers.' or a cap
tain deceived in his reckoning: Il suppose
if the philanthropy of two hemispheres
shall find only the grave IN which Sir John
Franklin's body has warmed place, every
coNcomb clerk will pass an opinion, judg-
IN by after facts, and say precisely where
the error in Judgment was OF an unSea-
worthy vessel; The vessel after leaving
the smooth water OF Boston harbor encoun-
tered the eternal motion of the ocean,
which has been there from creation, and
viii be there till land and sea shall be no
more. She went down the harbor paint
cd aud pertidous thing, soul-treighted but
a coitir for the living, coffin for the dead
VI captain sailing past St. Helena: Such
we're his meditatlonS as the invisible cur
rents OF the ocean bore him by the grave
OF Napoleon OF a dry-goods merchants
bankruptcy he said 50 have | heard that
the vast possessions OF Alexander the con-
qucror crumbed away in dying dynastics,
in the unequal hands OF his weak heir In
regard To the people OF DanverS. several
miles from railroad, he sad: Her peo-
pie are just near enough To hear the whi.-
tie Of the locomotive and gaze at the sparks
OF that lying giant; yet tor all practical
purposes they might as well stand under
the sky at midnight, gazing at a armament
OF falling meteorS' When Choate e>sayed
the pathetic he was always simple. There
is no more beautiful instance OF this than
his remarks on Webstcr's love OF New Eng
land: He loved New HampShire.-that
Old granite world,-the crystal hills, gray
and cloud-toppcd; the river. whose mur-
mur luIled his cradle the old hearthstone;
the grave Of father and mother He loved
Massachusetts,, which adopted and honored
him, sounding SeashOre, that charm
ed elm-trte scat. that reclaimed farm.
that choice herd, that smell of earth, that
dear library. those dearer friends but the
sphere OF his duties was his true country.
ot thoate's It u volume might be com
piled. y few examples must answer. OF
party in II suit he said why don't he
pay back the moneys he has i'll got: He is
so much OF a villain that he woulden't if
he could, and so much OF Il bankrupt that
he couldn't if he would OF a verv crook
ed flight OF stairs he said: How drunk
man mus, be 10 climb those stairs" or
one OF his female clients he said She is IA
sinneT-no not sinner, for she is our
client; but she is very disagreeaby saint"
Tie defined the lawyers vacation as the
space between the question put to a wit
ness aud his answer OF the hOmely
Chief Justice shaw; Il yenerate him as
the Indian does his log, cuiously carved;
| acknowledge he's ugly. but l feel that
he is great OF the constable who repeat
ed the word having many times in his re-
turn: He has greatly overworked the
DartIciDIr II Albany Law journal