Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 July 1884 — Stories of Webster. [ARTICLE]

Stories of Webster.

Mr. Webster used to consider Piney Point, on the lower Potomac, a delightful retreat. He could find relaxation from the turmoil and anxiety of state affairs—comfort, quiet, and merriment were to be found in the magnificent groves and spacious saloons of this romantic region. Fishing was his great pastime. One day, on his return from an unsuccessful effort to capture “sheep’s-head,” he remarked, in reply to a question, that “he had only secured one sheep’s-head, and that was his own.” “Were such sheep’s-head as yours to be caught here,” remarked the proprietor of the Pavilion, “I would be angling or drawing the seine all day.” Mr. Webster had a very vague idea of the “GreafrWest” of his day. On occasion when he was in the Senate a* proposition was before it to establish a mail ronte from Independence, Mo.* to the mouth of the Columbia River, some

three thousand across plains anr 1 - mountains, about the extent of whicl the public then knew no more than they did of the interior of Thibet. Mr Webster, after denouncing the measnrt generally, closed with a few remark • concerning the country at large “What do you want,” he exclaimed “with this vast, worthless area? Thi region of savages and wild beasts, 01 deserts, of shifting sands and whirlwinds of dnst, of cactus and prairie dogs ? To what use could we ever hop* to put these great deserts or those endless mountain ranges, impenetrable and covered to their very base with eternal snow. What can we ever hope to do with the western coast, a coast of three thousand miles, rock-bound, cheerless, uninviting, and not a harbor on it? What use have we for this country?”— Ben: Perley Poore.