ally
inquired why he wanted so much money? 'To spend; to buy
bread and meat,' replied Mr. Webster, a little annoyed at
this speech.

"'But,' returned the cashier, 'you already have upon deposit
in the bank no less than three thousand dollars, and I was
only wondering why you wanted so much money,'

"This was indeed the truth, but Mr. Webster had forgotten
it."

Mr. Lanman's assertion that Mr. Webster, with all this recklessness,
was religiously honest, must have excited a grim smile upon the
countenances of such of his Boston readers as had had his name upon
their books. No man can be honest long who is careless in his
expenditures.

It is evident from his letters, if we did not know it from other
sources of information, that his carelessness with regard to the
balancing of his books grew upon him as he advanced in life, and kept
pace with the general deterioration of his character. In 1824, before
lie had been degraded by the acceptance of pecuniary aid, and when he
was still a solvent person, one of his nephews asked him for a loan.
He replied:

"If you think you can do anything useful with a thousand
dollars, you may have that sum in the spring, or sooner, if
need be, on the following conditions:--1. You must give a
note for it with reasonable security. 2. The interest must
be payable annually, and must be paid at the day without
fail. And so long as this continues to be done, the money
not to be called for--the principal--under six months'
notice. I am thus explicit with you, because you wish me to
be so; and because also, having a little money, and but a
little, I am resolved on keeping it."

This is sufficiently business-like. He _had_ a little money
then,--enough, as he intimates, for the economical maintenance of his
family. During the land fever of 1835 and 1836, he lost so seriously
by speculations in Western land, that he was saved from bankruptcy
only by the aid of that mystical but efficient body whom he styled his
"friends"; and from that time to the end of his life he was seldom at
his ease. He earned immense occasional fees,---two of twenty-five
thousand dollars each; he received frequent gifts of money, as well as
a regular stipend from an invested capital; but he expended so
profusely, that he was sometimes at a loss for a hundred dollars to
pay his hay-makers; and he died forty thousand dollars in debt.