Life — April 5, 1888 — page 7: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE BOYHOOD OF DEPEW. Condensed interview from New York Herald.~ oe D” you know Chauncey M. Depew when he was a boy, Gen. Husted ?” “Did I know him? Did I Anow him? Well, I should say I aid know him! Why we were Damon and Pythias, Scylla and Charybdis, David and Jonathan together as boys! Why his father’s farm in Peekskill—old Captain Isaac Depew was his father— joined my father’s, lapped over on it, in fact. Well, I rather guess I knew him! Why, as babies we used to be on the most intimate terms—I was six months older than he was—and I remember, as if it was yesterday, lending him my milk-bottle when he was eight weeks of age after he had broken his own in a burst of eloquence during a post- prandial speech. He was the brightest, smartest, wittiest, most brilliant baby at six months it has ever been my fortune to know. When he was a year old he knew ‘ Thanatopsis’ by heart, and at eighteen months he won the gold medal in the Peekskill High School for his delivery of Patrick Henry’s speech over the body of Abraham Lincoln.” “Then he developed his talent for speaking early in life, did he, Gen. Husted ?” “Developed that talent early, did you say ? Well I rather guess he did develop it early. Why I knew him when he was a baby—his father’s farm in Peekskill being next to my father's—and I tell you that when he was only three months old—I was six months older than he was—I made up my mind that he was destined for a brilliant future. I said to myself: There is a baby that is going to amount to something! Zhere is an infant that is bound to be President of the United States! But you asked me about his talent for public speaking. Why, Demosthenes at his age was an oyster by compar- ison! Did you ever hear of the farmers for miles about Peekskill coming in in their wagons, with their wives and hired girls, to hear Demosthenes speak? Well, I rather think not, and yet that is just what occurred to Chauncey M. Depew every time that the school trustees made their annual visit. And such speaking! Such orating! Why, Ican hear him now in ‘Marc Antony's address to the Gladiators ’—what is that about a boy looking into the merry eyes of a laughing girl like a man bucking the fierce Numidian tiger? He used to recite that so that the audience would almost go wild with a burning desire to strike down the guards and gain the mountain passes. And then you should hear him recite ‘Mary had a Little Lamb!’ Why the women wept with such copiousness that it dampened the atmosphere so as to mildew the wall-paper. “Was Chauncey a good boy when he was young?” “« He was one of the best boys ever raised in the vicinity of Peekskill. Everybody admitted that. Why the minister used to pat him on the head, and they never thought of watching him when he got close to the raisin box in the grocery store.” ““Was Chauncey fond of fighting when he was a boy 2” “No, sir, he was not. He was a peacemaker. He always would make peace. When he was only THE UNEXPECTED. Teacher, having taught the class to read the word**rat,” pauses before introduc- ing the word “cat,” for the following conversation = Teacher: WHAT CAN THE RAT DO? Class: THE RAT CAN RUN, Teacher; COULD YOU CATCH HIM IF HE WERE RUNNING ABOUT THIS ROOM ? Class: No, Ma'am. Teacher: TELL ME WHAT IT IS RaT? Very Small Boy: Gov! eight years old John L, Sullivan was going to fight Sayre, London prize-ring rules, on his father’s farm. Chauncey went out and got between them, told them it was wrong to fight, gave them each a Sinner-you-are-going-to-hell tract, and had the pleasure of seeing them shake hands and divide the stakes, though they had to thrash the referee to get the money. Chauncey would have saved the referee only he had sprained his wrist pulling a poor widow's cow out of a well. It was after that that we made him vice-president of the Young Men’s Christian Association.” “Was he a truthful boy ?” “Truthful? Truthful? Chauncey Depew ¢ruth- Jul? Why he was truthfulness itself! Everybody in Peekskill always remarked that as one of his most peculiar characteristics. Why he was chasing a.cat across the roof of a photograph gallery one day when he was about ten years old—he was try- ing to catch the cat because he was afraid it would fall off the roof and hurt itself; he was always a kind-hearted boy—when he broke through the sky- light and fell right down on the camera in front of the photographer. He asked Chauncey if he did it, and Chauncey got right up and said: ‘Yes, sir. THAT RUNS AND JUMPS AND CAN CATCH THE THE QUESTION OF THE HOUR. “TILLY, HOW ARE YOU GOING TO HAVE YOUR NEW SPRING HAT TRIMMED 2” comicbooks.com