II.

DANIEL WEBSTER.

THERE are three scenes in the life of Daniel Webster which may be regarded as marking three stages in his long and wonderful career:

1. His father's means were limited, and the narrow circumstances of the family seemed to restrict his boyish ambitions to the humblest walk of life; but his father, without saying a word to the boy, had resolved that Daniel should have a college education; and one day, riding in the farm wagon to the town where the lad was to be put under the tutorship of a competent teacher, the father briefly, almost grimly, communicated his intentions to the boy. Young Daniel, overcome by the unexpected good fortune opening before his eyes, laid his face upon his father's shoulder and burst into tears. The homely homespun country lad saw before him the possibilities of a high career.

2. In January, 1830, while he was a United States Senator from Massachusetts, it fell to his lot to defend his native New England from the attacks of a representative Southerner, General Hayne, of South Carolina, in the Senate. It was a momentous period in the history of the country. That reply was made at the zenith of Web

ster's life. It is the place of all others where he grandly stood forth as a parliamentary orator, a master of eloquence. The world even now turns and looks upon that historic scene with awe and admiration. At this point doubtless culminated the fame and the intellectual power of Daniel Webster.

House where Webster was Born at Salisbury (now Franklin), N. H.

3. In May, 1852, Webster, now past his manly prime, crippled by an untoward accident, stood on the grand rostrum of Faneuil Hall, in Boston, an entrance to which had been previously denied him by the city authorities. He had not long since lost a part of his great popularity in consequence of his course upon the slavery question, and many of his former friends. had fallen away from him. Whittier had writ

ten of him that sad, bitter rebuke contained in the poem entitled "Ichabod." Five months later the great Webster was laid to rest by the sea he loved so well.

The condition of the country at the time of Webster's boyhood (he was born in 1782) was one of extreme poverty and bareness of the luxuries of life. In one of his later addresses he said: "It did not happen to me, gentlemen, to be born in a log cabin, but my elder brothers and sisters were born in a log cabin and raised amidst the snowdrifts of New Hampshire at a period so early that when the smoke first rose from its rude chimney and curled over the frozen hills there was no similar evidence of a white man's habitation between it and the settlements on the rivers of Canada." School facilities were few and far between, and sometimes it was necessary for the lad to follow the schoolmaster from hamlet to hamlet, boarding away from home, in order that he might secure the primitive education thus put within his reach. The hard and barren soil of New Hampshire did not yield rich returns to the farmers who struggled for a living in the region of the "frozen hills" of which he spoke. His school-days were days of privation, and yet he made great advances in acquiring knowledge, and was considered the quickest boy in school. His memory was astonishingly retentive, and he seemed to have considered that a book was not merely to be read, but to be committed to memory. He tells in his diary of his gaining the reward of a jackknife offered to

the boy who should be able to recite the greatest number of verses from the Bible. When his turn came he arose in his place and reeled off verses until the schoolmaster was fain to cry "Hold! enough!" A cotton handkerchief, on which was printed the Constitution of the United States in colored letters, gave him the means of reading and fixing in his mind forever the words of that famous instrument. He was reckoned in the sparsely settled neighborhood as a prodigy of learning, and his delicate frame, big eyes, and musical speech were famed throughout the region. Of that period of his life he says: "I read what I could get to read, went to school when I could, and when not at school was a farmer's youngest boy, not good for much for want of health and strength, but expected to do something." He tended the saw-mill and “did the chores" of the house and farm.

His brother Ezekiel and himself divided be tween them the humble labors of the home. Ezekiel, who was Daniel's best-beloved friend and brother, usually took the laboring oar. There is an anecdote of the father calling out to the boys who were playing in the barn, "What are you doing, Daniel?" His reply was, "Nothing." "And what are you doing, Ezekiel? " "Helping Daniel." And so through life it was Ezekiel who helped Daniel. On another occasion the two lads were allowed to go to a fair in a neighboring town, each furnished with a little pocket money. When they returned in the evening Daniel was overflowing with animal spirits

and enjoyment. Ezekiel was silent. The mother, inquiring as to their day's doings, finally asked Daniel what he had done with his money. "Spent it," was the reply. "And what did you

do with yours, Ezekiel?"

"Lent it to Daniel,"

said the elder brother. As one of his biog

raphers has said, "that answer sums up the story of Webster's home life in childhood. Everyone was giving or lending to Daniel of their money, of their time, their activity, their love and affection. This petting was partially due to Webster's health, but it was also in great measure