The Washington times., 1904-06-26
An Editors Son Put to the Task of Proving
Himself Worthy of Harvard Educa-
ton and New England
Culture.
In College at Thirteen, a Journalist at
Seventeen, a Clergyman at Twenty
and a Reformer All His
Life Long.

ward. became a renowned physician, and
put aside his herbs TO fight the French.
Robert, in his turn, had a grandson.
Nathan Hale, who was fitted for the
ministry, and died a spy for rebel
general named Washington in the small
town the Dutch had founded as their
New Amsterdam The last link in this
chain Of ancestral influences is supplied
by that Nathan Hale's nephew and
namesake Nathan Hale. of Boston.
According to Edward EveI EFT rIale. his
father was born with the nation" The
Constitution was adopted three years
later. All she stretching which the
nation did in the next half-centuIy was
reflected in the home Nathan Hale
founded in Boston The family was not
smaIl-Edward had two brothers and
two sisters-and Indeoendence OF thought
was freely encouraged. The Hale house
accordingly was a sort of a hive Of
thinking and working id debating, with
the first daily newspaper In New Eng
land a family enterprise, the first rail-
roads family project. and the first
thought Of service to the Almighty
family conservation.
In Boston Latin School.
Edward was entered at the Boston
Latin Schoul, an institution Aot 50 large
as che OF Washingtons eight-room
buildings. but large enough then to have
trained Samuel Adams, John Hancock.
BENJAMIN Franklin. William Hooper,
and Robert Treat Paine, of those whose
names helped declare the principles OF
American independence. and to add
Henry Knox. Harrison Gray Otis, Ed
ward Everett, Charles Sumner, Wendell
Phillips. Ralph Waldo Emerson, and
William Henry Furness to the roll in
later years. The boys sat on lettering
green settees and droned Latin-it was
the language of the school as far as
| practicable-while they heard the rum
| BILE OF Bostons illimitable commerce. on
the rough-paved streets outside
| It's boys continued their sessions
while the Red Coats occupied Boston
and sent a remonstrance TO the briga-
/ der commanding when one of his men
put ashes on their slide. In the CSm-
men not far away, Edward Hale saw a
redoubt which Cages troops had built.
From the old people who talked 20 the
bovs they heard. at first hand. the story
! Of Washington's inactivity while Howe
removed all his men and many Of the
/ towns best citizens to Halifax. "Ye
would ba' thocht he would ha' stopI
thim.' they would say with chuclQe
while the boys listened. no doubt. with
their mouths open, but he ha' got a
nobler plan whin they were oil in
! Halifax yeaeould hear the ConHnentaIs
singin':
And what have ye got for all your
But a town without dinner to sit down
and dine in?' -
''In my life it happened" says DIR
Hale himself almost by accident, thai
7 went to college while I was still a boy
NV fathers fancy OF starting me OF
Latin when 1 was quite young had
gained for me a year from the cours'
Of the Boston Latin School. So II cam'
about that the year was thirteen
had finished that course REASONABLE!
we'll"
That reasonably weII'' covers a grea
deal Young Hale had grown so fas
! he could not attend the school regular
". He was going at the age of thir
. teen 10 the great corporation" Of Har
] ward, then poverty-stricken. exactine
J barren. country college. Yet he was s
! well grounded that he was one Of 81
e boys out OF seventy who passed with
3 out conditions, and this IN spite Of IN
e fact that he was examined in tn
p Greek testament at almost the identica
= time he learned what the phrase mean;
e but like all other well-bred boys.
D says he. Il knew the four gospels near
q " by heart in English and I neither ex
pected nor had any difficulty there"
e Il remember that on a pleasant Sur
- day afternoon in September. the sunda
= before we were to be examined" ID