Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1890-09-04

porasy absence from home, but on hi.
turn at niss't he found the labor NM
formed, and frowning. said: What bar,
you been doing, Ezekiel?' ..N otb;ae
SIR, was the reply, We'll Daniel wy,
have you been doing?" Helping z aLa'
sir. And there are many more nnA Ae,
sayings OF his boyish days. It is said LET
sone years afte- Webster reached 'b bi1
zenith he went out early in the morn; us
over his Marsh6eld home, and saw an nIs
woman picking cranberries. "Wbat o o,u
you about?' said the great iurist; "d,nt
you Know its against the law to do VIII.
you are doing?' She turned ronnd "a nas
him. and fixing her feble old ewes n pOn
him, said - 1p0h
Men make laws but don't mind EN-.
PICK cranoerrles wherever find en-
Webster said not word, but turned unor
his heel, and the old woman picked cT py"
berries there as long as she lived
when Webster was about seven vaars
OF age, his father kept house of nnb;c
entertainment, where the teamsters wero
IN the habit OF obtaining dinner and
feeding their horses. and the in ,ipient ora.
tor and statesman frequently entertained
his eather's guests by reading aloud tba
Psalms of David, to the great deliobt 90
his rustic listeners, and it was a freonant
remark, when teamster pulled IN his
horses at the Webster tavern. Lets On IN
and hear psam from Dan Websfer !"
Only few months before his death Web.
ster, bending under the weight of vaarO
and p painful illness, told these and otbar
things at Marshfeld to his private secra.
tary.
Then came Webster's college DAYS, or
rather, first, his days at Exeter under DR..
BenJa men Abbott. when he recited his FIRST
Latin lessons to the late Joseph Stevens
Buckminester, at that time tutor al
Philips. His first attempt to speak in
public on the stage" was a decided failure
For the moment he became embarrassed
and then burst into tears. The man. af
terward giant in everything he under
took, who chould repeat psalms to few
teamsters at the age of seven, had an
antipathy to public defamation almost in.
surmountable. But he overcame il, az
Lanman goes on to say, by the triumph of
his will, and from the laughing stock of
the school, he became one of the best re-
citers.
When Is years old he went to Boscawep.
N. H., and his preceptor, DR.. Wood.
thought proper to give Daniel scolding
for spending to much of his time upon the
hills and along the streams, hunting and
fishing faiings which he never got over.
for he has often been heard to say ''he
would rather fish than eat" On this
particular occasion lie was assigned a hun
dred lines of Virgil to commit to memory.
He spent the entire night over his books.
When the recitation hour arrived he recit-
ed his hundred lines with appreciation.
But have few more lines that | can
recite, said the boy Daniel. "Well, let
US have them, said the tutor and forth
with the boy reeled of another hundred.
Very remarkable. You are, indeed, a
smartboy. But have another hundred"
said Daniel, land five hundred of them if
you please. "
Webster never took to farm work. His
father once sent him from Exter to go up
to the old homestead and assist him in
haying few days. He went up and start
ed in and worked until about II o clock in
the forenoon. He complained to his
mother that his hands were blistered and
he didn't like the work His kind mother
excused her favorite son, and about an
hour after dinner tnlS father De1ng away
young Daniel tackled up the family horse,
packed two of his sisters in the wagon.
and drove off after huckleberries Thi,
ended his farming days. Back to school
went the incipient statesman.
Webster was only a few months prepar-
ing for college. during which brief period
he mastered the study of Greek, so that
his tutor said in that short time he acquir-
ed what it took other boys an entire year
to accomplish. Daniel was, as boy, the
sickliest and most slender of all his fathers
children, yet from his earliest boyhood ne
was a great devourer of the standard
books of the day, such as Pope's transa..
ton of Homer the Essay on Man,
and Addison's Spectator, the second of
which he committed to memory in Dart
mouth college. Although he had not look
ed this through since his 18th year, he
was, SAYS Lanman. short time before
his death in 1852, able to recite most Of 1t
from beginning to end. The Bible and
Shakespeare was his great favorltes, and
he would almost to the day of his death
recite from memory many VI the palms