as
usual there are two sides to this question. George Ticknor of Boston
told my father that he had been with Webster on many public occasions,
and never saw him overcome but once. That was at the Revere House in
Boston, where he was expected to speak after dinner. "I sat next to
him," said Ticknor; "suddenly he put his hand on my shoulder and
whispered, 'Come out and run around the common.'" This they did and
the speech was a success. There is a wooden statue of Daniel Webster
that has stood for forty years in Hingham, Massachusetts. It is larger
than life and called a good portrait. It was made more than sixty
years ago as a figurehead for the ship _Daniel Webster_ but never put
on. That would have been appropriate if he was occasionally half seas
over. Daniel's devotion to his only brother "Zeke" is pleasant to
remember. By the way, there are many men who pay every debt promptly
and never take a drop too much, who would be proud to have a record
for something accomplished that is as worth while as his record. When
Daniel Webster entered Dartmouth College as a freshman directly from
his father's farm, he was a raw specimen, awkward, thin, and so dark
that some mistook him for a new Indian recruit. He was then called
"Black Dan." His father's second wife and the mother of Zeke and Dan
had decidedly a generous infusion of Indian blood. A gentleman at
Hanover who remembered Webster there said his large, dark, resplendent
eyes looked like coach lanterns on a dark night.

Mrs. Ezekiel Webster told me that her husband asked her after their
marriage to allow his mother to come home to them at Boscawen, New
Hampshire. She said she was a strikingly fine-looking woman with those
same marvellous eyes, long straight black hair, high cheekbones; a
tall person with strong individuality. Mrs. Webster was sure where the
swarthy infusion came from. This mother, who had been a hard worker
and faithful wife, now delighted in sitting by the open fire evenings
and smoking an old pipe she had brought with her.

Webster saved his Alma Mater, and after the favourable decision on the
College Case, Judge Hopkinson wrote to Professor Brown of Dartmouth
suggesting an inscription on the doors of the college building,
"Founded by Eleazer Wheelock, refounded by Daniel Webster." These
words are now placed in bronze at the portals of Webster Memorial
Hall.

To go back, as I did, from Andover to Hanover, I pay my tribute to
Professor John Newton P