dly, that he sometimes acted
as host, especially in the absence of his father-in-law,--receiving
all comers, and providing for their entertainment; and it was from
this circumstance that the tradition arose, as Jefferson bluntly
expressed it, that Patrick Henry "was originally a barkeeper,"[23] or,
as it is more vivaciously expressed by a recent writer, that "for
three years" after getting his license to practice law, he "tended
travelers and drew corks."[24]

These statements, however, are but an exaggeration of the fact that,
whenever visiting at the tavern of his father-in-law, he had the good
sense and the good feeling to lend a hand, in case of need, in the
business of the house; and that no more than this is true may be
proved, not only from the written testimony of survivors,[25] who knew
him in those days, but from the contemporary records, carefully kept
by himself, of his own earliest business as a lawyer. These records
show that, almost at once after receiving his license to practice
law, he must have been fully occupied with the appropriate business of
his profession.

It is quite apparent, also, from the evidence just referred to, that
the common history of his life has, in another particular, done great
injustice to this period of it. According to the recollection of one
old man who outlived him, "he was not distinguished at the bar for
near four years."[26] Wirt himself, relying upon the statements of
several survivors of Patrick Henry, speaks of his lingering "in the
background for three years," and of "the profits of his practice" as
being so inadequate for the supply of even "the necessaries of life,"
that "for the first two or three years" he was living with his family
in dependence upon his father-in-law.[27] Fortunately, however, we are
not left in this case to grope our way toward the truth amid the ruins
of the confused and decaying memories of old men. Since Wirt's time,
there have come to light the fee-books of Patrick Henry, carefully and
neatly kept by him from the beginning of his practice, and covering
nearly his entire professional life down to old age.[28] The first
entry in these books is for September, 1760; and from that date onward
to the end of the year 1763,--by which time he had suddenly sprung
into great professional prominence by his speech in "the Parsons'
Cause,"--he is found to have charged fees in 1185 suits, besides many
other fees for the preparation of legal papers out of