The Irish standard., 1899-06-10
The Energetic Patrick Henry
An 1ndolent Boy.
THE FAMOUS SPEECH HE DELIVERED
A Biographer Declares Him of
Scotch froestly.

AT Studlcy, in Hanover County, Va,
was born May 20, 1885, Patrick Henry,
one OF the most eloquent OF Our Amer;-
can statesmen. His father, John Henry,
was Scotchman, cousin OF the moth
er OF the famous Lord Brougham, and
the historian Robertson, SO Patrick in
herltcd goodly amount OF intelligence
from his fathers family His father him
self was man OF prominence in his
nelgllborhood, holding the Offices of
county surveyor, Colonel of the rcgi-
ment and presiding judge. His mother
was one OF the Winstons, a good old
Virginia family, noted for their viyacity
and conversational powers, which no
doubt gave the son his happy control OF
language upon every occasion, says a
writer i'll the St. Louis Gobe-Dcmocrat.
The little boy grew up an indolcnt
lad, dreaming all day long after the
peculiar manner of men OF genius,
whose ways can not be comprehended
by ordinary plain people. He hated
books and he loved his fishing rod and
shotgun. In appearance he was a
slouchy, disordery child, whose things
were always in all parts of the house,
and whose books were never to be found
when he needed them Until he was ten
years old he attended the village school
and got a limited knowledge of arith-
metic, reading and writing. At this time
his father withdrew him from the school.
and undertook his education himself,
with the aid OF his uncle, the Rev. Pat
rick Henry. Under his fathers watch
iul eye the boy did better and as Ills
father and uncle were both fine classical
scholars, he learned Latin and Greek
quite we'll He continued at the home
school until the age OF fifteen, and at
that time read Virgil and Livy,
and had become fond OF mathc-
mates. Years aftcrward Thomas
Jefferson sought to give the i'm
preston that Patrick Henry was an ex-
trcmcly ignorant boy when he dscon-
tnucd his studies. Boys in these days
who read Livy at IS are not SO very
numerous and would not be considered
as lacking the elements OF an education.
When Hcnry's school days were over
his father apprcnticcd him to trades
man with whom he remained year. At
the end OF the year the father, wishing
to give him a start in life, bought a
small store and gave it to his brother
and himself. The brother, William, was
equally as thriftess as Patrick, and the
store lasted about a year. Then the
boys went home to live, which they had
in fact never left, as their efforts at
trade had not been successful enough to
support them. With nothing in the
world to do but to amusc himself, Pat
rick, at the age OF 18, fell in love with a
sweet young girl, Sarah Shelton, and to
add to his recklessness they were mar
ried. Her father, plying the young
people, gave them little farm, which
it took the thriftless Henry two years
to get rid of. He was only 20, and had
proved failure at storekeeping and at
farming, but he concluded that he pre-
fcrred the store, so he was given the
opportunity to redeem his record in that
direction. At the end OF three years he
was bankrupt, but 23, and the father
OF a family. About this time Jefferson,
a young fellow of 16, home from the
college of William and Mary, met Pat
rick Henry for the first time.
The next year Jefferson was surprised
to see him come up to his examinations
for admission to the bar. Henry told
some one himself that he only studied
law one month. 1t is very probable that
he did not study longer than that for his
examinations. Such genius as Henry
could learn in month what other
young men would take six months to
learn.
In his old age Jefferson seemed to
have made many mistakes, for he said
that Patrick Henry had little or no cases
for the first three years of his practicing,
and many persons have the idea from
this statement, that he was not good
lawyer, and that it was only chance
which favored him. A carefully kept
record of the cases which Henry tried,
and was paid for, during the first three
years, shows a total of nearly 1900,
while Jefferson in four years, at the be-