The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1890-08-16
ANECDOTES OF WEBSTER.


father to perform some kind OF farm
lobor during his temporary absence
from home, but on his return at
night he found the labor unperform
ed, and, frowning, said: "What
have you been doing, Ezekiel?'
" Nothing sir, was the reply.
"Well. Daniel, what have you been
doing" 'Helping Zeke, sir" And
there are many other queer sayings
of his boyish days. 1t is said that
some years after Webster reached
his zenith he went out early in the
morning over his Marshiield home
and saw an old woman picking cram
berries. "What are you about -
said the great jurist; don't you
know it's against the law to do what
you are doing?" She turned round
upon him and fixing her feeble old
eyes upon him, said:
| L
pick cranberries wherever find 'em.''
Webster said not word, but turned
upon his heel, and the old woman
picked cranberries there as long as
she lived.
When Webster was about seven
years old his father kept house of
public entertainment, where the
teamsters we're in the habit of OBJ
tanning a dinner and fe- ding their
horses, and the insipient orator and
statesman frequently entertained his
fathers guests by reading aloud
some of the Psalms of David, to the
great delight of his rustic listeners,
and it was frequent remark, when
a teamster pulled up his horse at the
Webster tavern, Lets go in and
hear a Psalm from Dan Webster"
Only a few months before his death
Webster, bending under the weight
of years and painful illness, told
these and other things at Marshfeld
to his private secretary.
Then came Webster's college days,
or rather, first, his days at Exeter
under DR.. Ben AMIN Abbot, when he
| recited his first Latin lessons TO the
late Joseph Stevens Buckminister, at
that time a tutor at Phillips. His
first attempt to speak III public on
the stage" was decided failure.
For the moment he became embar-
rassed, and burst into tears. This
man, afterward giant in everything
he undertook, who could repeat
Psalms to few teamsters at the age
of had an antipathy to public dec
lanation almost unsurmountable
But he overcame it, as 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
reciters.
When fifteen years old he went to
Boscawen, N. H., and his preceptor,
DR.. Wood, thought proper to give |
Daniel scolding for spending too
much of his time upon the hill and
| along the streams, hunting and fish
ing-failines which he never got |
over, for he has often been heard to
say he would rather fish than eat"
On this particular occasion he was
assigned one hundred lines of Virgil
to commit to memory. He spent the
entire night over his books. When
the recitation hour arrived he recited
his hundred lines with appreciation.
"But haye few more lines that |
can recite,'' said the boy Daniel.
"Well, let us have them," said the
tutor, and forthwith the boy reeled
off another hundred. Every re-
markable. You are, indeed a smart
boy" "But l have another hun
dred," said Daniel, "and five hun
dred of them, if you please"
Webster never took to farm work
His father once sent him from Exeter
to go up to the old homestead and
assist him in haying few days. He
went up and started in, and worked
until about II o'clock in the fore
noon. He complained to his mother
that his hands were biistered and he
didn't like the work. His kind
mother excused her favorite son, and
about an hour after dinner (his father
being away young Daniel tackled
mp the family horse, packed two of
his sisters in the wagon, and drove
off after huckle-b berries. This ended
his farming days. Back to school
went the incipient statesman.
Webster was only few months
preparing for college, during which
brief period he mastered the study of
Greek, so that his tutor said in that
short time he acquired what it took
other boys an entire year to accom-
plish. Daniel, was as a boy, the
sickliest and most slender of all his
fathers children, yet from his earliest
boyhood he was great devourer of
the standard books Of the day, such
as Pope's translation of Homer the
Essay on Man," and Addisons S
Spectator" the second of which he
committed to memory in Dartmouth
College. Although he had not look
ed this through since his fifteenth
year, he was, says Lanman, a short
time before his death in 1852 able to
recite most OF it from beginning to
end. The Bible and Shakespe re
we're his great tavorites, and he
would almost to the day of his death
recite from memory many of the
Psalms and hymns of DR.. Watts.
What delightful idea we get from
these boyish traits? How lovely does
the character of Webster appear to
us, and what an example to the