He should know exactly how to spell and pronounce the English language; and should understand the art of composition and the construction of sentences. In the language of Dean Swift, he should have 'proper words, and they should be put in proper places.' The worst taught child in the world, is he who is taught by a miserable country schoolmaster; and I will appeal to the experience of every man here, who ever went to those schools, to say how hard it is to get clear of the habits of incorrect reading and pronouncing they have contracted at these country schools. For myself, I will say it cost me nearly as much labor as the study of the legal profession itself, to get clear of this miserable mode of pronouncing, contracted before I went to a collegiate school-at the age of seventeen-your would, and could, and SHOUld, and all of that.

"I knew a man in Grayson who was called to prove a settlement between two litigants, in a case where a small amount, some thirty, forty, or fifty dollars was involved. He gave in his testimony, and every now and then he would throw in a word of four, five, or six syllables, utterly inappropriate to the sense; like putting a magnificent, gilded saddle and splendid bridle, with plated bit and curb, on a miserable, broken-down pony, or an ox; there was just about as much propriety in his application of these words; and I saw at once he was a country schoolmaster. He had proved the making of the settlement, and said I, 'When did it take place?' 'On the 39th of October,' said he. 'Oh! the 39th of October, you say.' 'Yes, sir.' 'Are you not mistaken; was it not the 29th ?' 'No, sir. I know the use of words as well as you do, Mr. Hardin, and say it was the 39th.' I then asked him how many days there were in October. He said he did not exactly recollect, but somewhere between forty and fifty. How many months are there

in the year?' 'Oh! there you are a little ahead of me, but I know there are over ten and under fifteen.' 'You are a schoolmaster?' 'Yes,' said he, placing his hands on his hips, and looking very self-important, thank God, that is my vocation, and I am making an application for a free school up here, and I want you to help me, if you will.' 'Sir,' said I, 'I will do it with all my heart, for you come exactly up to my notion of a free-school teacher."

Mr. Hardin thus distinguished between beautiful and effective speakers: "The speech of the first," said he, "is like music. It charms you while listening to it, but its effect is transient, and when the speech ends the impression passes away with the occasion. The effective speaker does not, or may not please so well while he speaks, but he furnishes his hearer something to think about and carry away with him."

Speaking of biographies, he said there were only two he knew of worth reading: "Boswell's Life of Dr. Johnson," and "Southey's Life of Lord Nelson."

Mr. Hardin was not of those who delight to exalt all that is ancient at the cost of all that is modern-who habitually depreciate the present and praise the past. He enjoyed his surroundings and the virtues of his generation, and appreciated them at their worth. "The world is advancing," said he, "the world is improving. We appear to be standing still, but we move as the world moves in all the arts and sciences. We do not see our advancement, but we are advancing. The world is improving as well in the arts and sciences generally, as in the science of government."

That great occasions develop great men was never so often and singularly illustrated as during the late unhappy civil war. For the matter of that, the history of all nations and ages furnishes argument to the same purport.

"Mankind," said Mr. Hardin, "is equal to any emergency. When our revolution broke out, how was it? Great Britain said, you have not a man in America who can command a company of regulars; you have no talents; but the moment we struck for independence, a thousand, aye, ten thousand, showed themselves on the theater of action, both in the cabinet and in the field. Do you think the Almighty creates men for particular purposes? No, but it is the natural genius of men to resist slavery and bondage, and man in America walked abroad in his own grandeur and majesty. It was

the occasion that made Washington and all the generals, and all the statesmen of that day. It was the occasion that made Massena, who fought fourteen years in the royal ranks of Louis XVI., and never knew what energy he had. So it was with Bernadotte, who fought in our ranks. It was the occasion that made Massena, and Bernadotte, Mirabeau, and others."

Speaking of the imperfections of the new constitution in the closing days of the convention, he said: "There is no paper in the world that ingenious men can not find fault with; there is no language used that they can not pick holes in; even the Almighty himself, when he delivered his divine laws to the Jews, was not always understood."

The omnipotence of the reporter in 1835 was as fully established as in this year of grace 1887. Goldsmith evidently had the power of a reporter in mind in the lines:

"Princes and lords may flourish or may fade,

A breath can make them as a breath has made."

If the "pen be mightier than the sword," how infinitely more effective is the reporter's pencil than all implements of war? Mr.

Hardin felt all this. "It is a melancholy reflection," said he in Congress, "to see and know how much a man's fame and reputation in this House is made to depend upon the attention or neglect of the reporters of the debates, or upon their whims and caprices, or their good or bad feelings toward the speaker or the cause he is advocating. The public good, however, requires their attendance here, and we must bear with them as a necessary evil."

These illustrations of Mr. Hardin's powers of thought and force of expression could be indefinitely extended. Some of them are common-place, and others express principles and sentiments open to criticism. Yet, so he thought and spoke-and from these fragments, measure may be taken of the intellectual proportions of the man.

CHAPTER XXXV.

M

PERSONAL TRAITS.

His head was unusually

R. HARDIN was of striking personal appearance. Stalwart is the one word that most nearly describes him. He was full six feet in height, of large bone and frame, but not fleshy. "He did not appear," said one who knew him in 1851, "to be a tall man, but he was strongly made, and had evidently been a powerful man, physically, in earlier life." Prior to his fiftieth year, he was erect, but about that period, from habits of study and inclining his head in deep reflection, he acquired a decided stoop in the shoulders. His complexion was fair, and reddened by exposure; hair light and reddish in huefine in texture and worn rather short for that period, and loosely thrown from the broad and high forehead. large and well set on his shoulders—the latter inclining to droop, giving the neck apparently increased length. shouldered, but thick and round chested. latter hinting at neighborship with the firm-set chin. In his profile there was a decided suggestion of Knickerbocker caricatures. The nose was long, slightly aquiline, and when in a speech he paused and pressed the end to one side with his thumb-it seemed to share in the humor that twinkled in the eye. Eyebrows slightly bushy and projecting over the clearest and keenest of grayish blue eyes, which many, in describing their penetrating power, called "goose" eyes. Thin lips of a rather large mouth bespoke an iron will about the corners. The full development of the lower part of the face betokened strength and firmness-physical and intellectual. Mr. Webb, who from childhood

had known Mr. Hardin, says:

He was not only broad Ears and nose large, the

"In person he was tall, and as I first remember him, straight and active. Afterward-from 1836-he walked with a confirmed stoop. He was of a spare physique, with much angularity in his general make-up, including his He was careless in respect to dress, and in general appearance His face was thoughtful at all times, and rarely vivacious."*

features. slip-shod.

In early life, the habitual expression of his face was confident, placid humor, but later, in moments of reflection, it wore a saddened

Letter to Author

thoughtfulness. Yet always, when in conversation, none was more genial in look and manner. His face was capable of a wonderful variety of expression. To strangers, he seemed austere, but was really not so, except to the impertinent and foppish. In his early life, it was the fashion of Western hunters and farmers to wear no coat, but instead a short outer garment of the pea-jacket type. This fashion still prevails among the elite of Mexican caballeros. Mr. Hardin was long addicted to this mode of dress. Ex-President Buchanan spoke of seeing him on one occasion, at an early period of life, thus arrayed at Elizabethtown, the material of his apparel being linen, of home manufacture. In later life, he habitually wore blue dress-coats, with brass buttons, varying his other wardrobe with the season. While his garments were of the best material, they were not always unexceptionable in style or fitting. But his favorite tailor

was an old friend, from whose taste he never appealed. A new garment on him quickly assumed the appearance of age, but he did not discard a faithful friend because of loss of good looks. One who remembers him well, says: "As to shoes, he preferred comfort to shapely tightness." Because his wrist-bands were often unbuttoned, and his shoes untied, he has had an exaggerated posthumous reputation for slouchiness altogether undeserved. Foppishness was his aversion. and he was fond of antagonizing it; but in person and habits, he observed that cleanliness that one with the instincts of a gentleman can never lay aside.

It was very much a matter of course that Mr. Hardin's habits, disposition, and tastes should undergo modification in the course of life

His

from youth to age. In youth, he was fond of manly sports requiring physical strength, skill, and activity, such as running, jumping, wrestling, and throwing, and in these surpassed. He loved hunting and fishing, especially the latter. He always kept himself supplied with fish-gigs, seines, and bird-nets. He was an excellent marksman. taste for these sports he retained to the last. It is related that he would take his negro servants and go seining in the Beech Fork, a small tributary of Salt river that ran through his lands, supplying not only himself, but his neighbors, with abundance of the delightful fish that then stocked those waters.

His ardor in pursuits requiring physical exertion was not only abated by increasing years, but, also, by an injury to his right hand, received in middle life. He was one day in a "clearing" on his farm, busily engaged in burning log heaps and brush, with a view of preLord Macaulay resembled Mr. Hardin in this respect.