Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1889-02-15
WEBsTER's STRONG PERSONALITY.
The Deep Impression He Left on an Old
Bostonian's Mind.

Bostonian's Mind.
Though there are thousands, doubt
less, who have seen this great man
and heard him speak especially in
Faneuil hall, where he was grand
beyond description, yet there are
thousands of others, of a later
generation, who have never had
this privilege and to whom, therefore,
a few words of description may be ac-
ceptable;. though, of course, it is to be
presumed they have seen many pic
lures of Mr. Webster. He was rather
above the average height, stoutly
formed, with small hands and feet
(Choate had large ones, large head,
swarthy complexion, large, black,
deeply sunben owl like eyes, very
heavy eye brows and mouthful of
teeth white as the driven snow. And
his smile, playing upon his swarthy
countenance and exposing these splen-
did teeth, seemed at times like the sun
bursting through a dark cloud. 1t
was said of him that he looked greater
than any man ever was, and, the jolly
Rev. Sydney Smith, l think it was, de-
clared, when he was in England, that
he reminded him of steam engine in
trousers. The comparison, though,
was not only coarse, but there were no
points of resemblance except it may
have been the suggestion of power.
There was none of the fuss or the
snort of the steam engine about him.
lie was quiet repose and dignity il
Illustrated. His bearing was grand
and his carriage gentleman like and
stately-sometlmes majestic.
The occasion, above all others, on
which Mr. Webster appeared to me
so far as his appearance and bearing
were concerned-to be absolutely ma
Jestic was one evening at the Revere
house, where the lawyers of the Mas
sachusetts bar had assembled from all
parts of the state to take counsel to-
gether as to the methods by which
they might meet oftener and become
better acquainted with each other
Chief Justice Shaw and the other
judges of the supreme court stood to-
gether at the end of the large dining
room, and as the lawyers one after an
other came in, they proceeded toward
them t } pay them their respects And
as one leader of distinction after an
other did SO each received his due
share of respectful salutation and def
erence from his brethren as he passed
along on his way.
The great secret of his power was
his clearness and force of statement,
and that he made everything so plain
to his auditors no matter whether he
addressed farmers or fnanciers, a
popular assemblage or a senate. He
always seemed to say what it appears
to us we should have said under SINH
lar circumstances, good common sense,
in fact
When | heard him, l would say to
myself would naturally think to
myself, and SO would every one
We'll, that's just what l think. "
That's common sense" That's So"
Very well. We all agree with Ham
let when he says, What a piece of
work is mani How noble in reason,
how infinite in faculties, in form and
moving how express and admirable,
in action how like an angel and APP
prehension how like a God" etc, but
in some way or other Master William
Shakespeare seems to have gotten the
start of us in saying it, just as he did
In lntlmatlng that gentle sweet, low
voice is AN excellent thing in wo-
man."
What Clay was to Kentucky, Web
ster was to Massachusetts,, and in his
quiet and peaceful grave at Marsh
field, down by the borders of the sea,
whose waves utter their mournful re-
QUEEN over it by day, and where
the stars, like angels eyes, look down
from heaven, and watch over it by
night,
After life's fitful fever he sleeps well.
Boston Journal.