Page:Famous Living Americans, with Portraits.djvu/130

 CHAMP CLAEK 111 made the rag carpets, the linen sheets and the bedspreads. The farmer of that day sent his wheat and com to the near- by water mill for grinding ; he likewise grew his tobacco and practically all that went on his table, itself covered with a doth the product of his own hemp patch. His need for money was mainly for the purchase of pepper, salt, needles, buttons, and for the payment of taxes. Most farmers made the family shoes. In the sections outside the growing cities, the purchase of a chicken, a ham, a dozen eggs or a quart of milk, was unknown. Even whiskey, uncolored from a charred barrel, was home-made and placed before the guest without thought of evil. It was the simple life, a life of the greatest measure of independence. Clark's father. Dr. John Hampton Clark, who was born where Atlantic City now stands, had been compelled to forego the benefits of a schooling by reason of his father's business failure and had had to work to support his widowed mother. After leaving home he had worked as a carriage maker, and tradition says he was a good one. Though denied schooling he could not be deprived of an education. He got it from everything he touched; he read omnivorously and formed vigorous opinions. He picked up dentistry, and rode about the country with one end of his saddle bags filled with the in- struments of his profession, while the other contained a Bible, Macaulay's Essays and copies of the speeches of Douglas and Breckinridge. He delighted in disputation and could easily hold his own. Many political opponents have learned to their sorrow that the son inherited this char- acteristic in Scriptural measure. Champ Clark's mother died when he was but a small child. While the father was riding the surrounding counties, young Clark and his little sister were cared for in the neighborhood around Lawrenceburg, where they were bom. In the winter they went to the old field schools, where the boy soon outstripped all of his fel- lows. Ambition found him early. I once heard him say that at fifteen he would gladly have walked to West Point for the privilege of taking the entrance examination there. He added that he believed almost any of his classmates could have