DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68288#0060
36 MEMORIES OF A SCULPTOR’S WIFE
ings, and others which brought him in touch with interest-
ing people. He cared little about positions of great re-
sponsibility. ‘They talk,* he writes upon one occasion,
‘of making me Attorney-General. I don’t want to be At-
torney-General. I want to be Marshal.’ He liked to ride
a horse, like a child to be in the midst of things. He was
the first President of the Morse Telegraph Company, or,
as they called it, the Magneto Telegraph, and was a Mason
of the thirty-third degree. As I remember him, he always
seemed to me a jolly, plump ‘Colonel Newcome.’ He was
tender-hearted, impetuous, violent of speech, with a vio-
lence at which we children smiled because it was so frankly
of a surface nature. He was pleased by the most trivial
attentions; he was moved by the most barefaced tale of
distress.
He was greatly given to swearing, as were many of the
men of that period. I believe it has become rather a lost
art in these days, except upon the golf links, where I hear
it is still rampant. There were stories about his swearing
in which even at that time we delighted. He would say of
his most dignified first wife, ‘Betsy told me she’d be
damned if she’d do any such thing,’ and then, when he
realized how he was misquoting her, he would laugh and
add, ‘Wasn’t that the way you expressed it, Betsy dear?’
On another occasion, also, when his attention was called
to some urchins who were swearing in front of the house,
he called to them from the window, telling them to stop
and go away. Not being obeyed, he shook his fist at them,
hurried from the house, down the steps, gesticulating and
muttering along the walk, and some one watching him al-
ways claimed that he admonished them: ‘ If you little devils
don’t stop that swearing, I’ll knock your damned little
ings, and others which brought him in touch with interest-
ing people. He cared little about positions of great re-
sponsibility. ‘They talk,* he writes upon one occasion,
‘of making me Attorney-General. I don’t want to be At-
torney-General. I want to be Marshal.’ He liked to ride
a horse, like a child to be in the midst of things. He was
the first President of the Morse Telegraph Company, or,
as they called it, the Magneto Telegraph, and was a Mason
of the thirty-third degree. As I remember him, he always
seemed to me a jolly, plump ‘Colonel Newcome.’ He was
tender-hearted, impetuous, violent of speech, with a vio-
lence at which we children smiled because it was so frankly
of a surface nature. He was pleased by the most trivial
attentions; he was moved by the most barefaced tale of
distress.
He was greatly given to swearing, as were many of the
men of that period. I believe it has become rather a lost
art in these days, except upon the golf links, where I hear
it is still rampant. There were stories about his swearing
in which even at that time we delighted. He would say of
his most dignified first wife, ‘Betsy told me she’d be
damned if she’d do any such thing,’ and then, when he
realized how he was misquoting her, he would laugh and
add, ‘Wasn’t that the way you expressed it, Betsy dear?’
On another occasion, also, when his attention was called
to some urchins who were swearing in front of the house,
he called to them from the window, telling them to stop
and go away. Not being obeyed, he shook his fist at them,
hurried from the house, down the steps, gesticulating and
muttering along the walk, and some one watching him al-
ways claimed that he admonished them: ‘ If you little devils
don’t stop that swearing, I’ll knock your damned little