Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-06-06
MOtley's BOyhOOd.

John Lothrop Motley was born in
Dorchester, Massachusetts, on April 10,
1914. His biographer tells us that tho
historians life was saved q hundred
years before he was born. One Of his
maternal ancestors, child living in
Haverhill, Massachusetts,, was hidden
by q house. maid under wash.tub in
the cellar of her fathers house. whom it
was assailed by Indians in 1908. The
savages missed their prey by this conf
cal continuance, and Motley thus became
q possible human being hundred and
six years before he entered life. His
father was prosperous Boston mer-
chant who had Irish blood in his veins,
and his mother was q daughter of that
race of Lothrsp which has given so
many excellent Protestant clergymen to
New England churches. Thomas Mot.
Icy, the father, is still remembered in
Boston as one of the finest of that old
school of commercial men who were
prominent in society as we'll as in COM
merce, and in whom the sagacity of the
merchant was combined with the man.
ners and the sentiments of the accom-.
plished and genial gentleman. The
mother, by the testimony of all who
knew her, was remarkable for her some
what regal beauty, for "the charm of
her serene and noble presence, and for
the admirable way in which she per-
formed all the duties of matron. The
son was one of those pre-eminently
handsome boys who, as the world goes,
seem doomed to be ruined because for
tune has saved them from laboring for
a living, and nature has been prodigal
in lavishing upon them physical beauty.
When Motley had grown to mans es-
tate, Lady Byron declared that he more
resembled her husband than any person
she had ever met; but Wendell Phil
lips, his playmate and classmate, objects
to this opinion on the ground that Mot
ley was handsomer than Byron. And
here it may be we'll to state that Mr..
Phillips, though the greatest iconoclast
of institutions and regulations that
modern New England has ever seen.
has always been exceedingly tender to
Motley, though Motley must have often
offended him by the course he took in
political affairs. 1t may also be said
that Motley never said harsh word OF
Phillips. The affection between them
was so close that though they took
widely divergent roads, which led
eventually, however, to the same goal,
each instinctively recognized the integ.
rity of the other, while they seemed
Numerically opposed in methods as
we'll as aims. There can be no stronger
evidence than this of Motley's strong
hold on the hearts of all his classmates
during the "ups and downs" Of his
subsequent career.
The beautiful boy was saved from
being spoiled by combination in his
nature of an immense intellectual
ambition with a corresponding self
distrust. To the end of his life he wsf
consumed with desire to perform
great things, and to the end of his life
he was painfully sensible that he had
not come up to his lofty ideal. Like
many other young men of genius, he
was desultory in his studies, and in
school and college never reached the
standard of the good boy" or tie dill
igent student. His intellect developed
by Q process of intellectual irritation
A certain swiftness of mind, catching
quickly at the spirit of what he studied,
but neglecting the orderly technical.
ties which denote the progress OF stu.
dent in his class, distinguished his
course through school and college. All
his schoolmates and classmates had i'm.
mense confidence in the brilliancy OF
his talents, but his "grade" did not
correspond with his reputation. His
fellow. students were also sometimes Of.
Tended by the almost cynical haughti-
ness of his behavior. Still his reserve
would so often give way to o hilarious
sympathy with their pursuits, that he
never lost popularity amid all the eccen-
tricities Of seclusion in which he in.
dusyed. His great distinction, in which
he excelled all his playmates and class
mates, was his knowledge of foreign Ian.
guages. His early familiarity with Ger
man impressed even Geo. Bancroft while
Motley was boy in his school at Round
Hill and afterward, when Motley was
q student in Harvard College. an ad.
dress by him on Goethe in one Of the
college exhibitions was 80 good as to in
duce such trained scholar as Joseph
Cogswell to send it to Madame Goethe.
Her reply was significant. IT wish, VI
sue said, "to see the first book that
young man will write."-E. p. Whip.
pile, in Hnper's Magazine.
QUIET HRRorsM.-Msgdalena Stoil, Q
chambermaid in New York family, and
young woman of what was said to be re-
markable beauty, was burned to death
while attempting to take away from a
little boy stick he was thrusting into
the parlor fire. He put the burning
stick against her clothing and set it on
fire. She was horribly burned and