Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 04.pdf/21

6 industry. Thomas H. Benton once said to the writer that he thought himself the most industrious man he had ever known in public life with the exception of John Quincy Adams. Yet neither of these men was more industrious than Caleb dishing. After his return from his early visit to Spain he was blessed with good health and a remarkably vigorous constitution, and would toil all day and study or journey at night, and never seemed to know fatigue. I never went by his house at Newburyport, when he was at home, be it ever so late, that I did not see a light in his room; and it was known to be his habit to work till after midnight, then throw himself on a lounge for a few hours' rest, and at daylight resume his labor. Whatever point came up, however trivial apparently, he would not rest till he was satisfied. A bank officer said that Mr. Cushing once asked him what name was given to the part left after a check had been torn from a check book, and he could not inform him. A few days after he received a letter from Mr. Cushing with the single word "stub." If Mr. Cushing wished for information, he was not above seeking it from every source. An associate in Washington told me he would go into the street and ask the meanest-looking negro, if in that way he could learn what he wished to know. His thirst for knowledge that might be useful to him was universal, and he gave away his plants because they drew too much attention from other things. He was omnivorous in his reading. I took tea with him at the house of his niece not long before he died, and during the conversation he turned to a niece and said, "Margaret, I see the ladies are to wear so-and-so the coming season," giving in detail the new fashions. It was not easy to start a topic of which he was ignorant. When Webster's Unabridged Dictionary first appeared, he read it all through, word by word, and corrected its mistakes.

He had a remarkably retentive memory that never seemed to lose what it had once gained. Few could quote so freely and accurately from ancient and modern authors. His speeches are full of classical allusions, and show how familiar he was with all classes of literature. His ready memory enabled him to call up as occasion required all the stores of his long and eventful life, and this made him a formidable antagonist. This power made John Quincy Adams so much dreaded by his opponents in debate during his closing years in the House of Representatives. What others knew imperfectly he knew fully. The opportunities of both these men had been large and fully improved, and it would be difficult to name any other of our public men who could be compared with them in the extent of their acquirements.

Mr. Cushing was a methodical man; every paper was in its place, and nothing disturbed him more than to have any one disarrange the order of his office. He used often to speak of the time lost by many from a want of this habit. He was punctual in his appointments. A Washington real-estate man once wished to show him a piece of property, and asked at what hour he should call for him. The reply was at five the next morning. The man was not accustomed to such early hours, but was advised by one who knew Mr. Cushing to be prompt; and as he drove to the door at the appointed time, Mr. Cushing was on the steps.

Mr. Cushing excelled as a linguist, speak ing French, Spanish, and other modern languages with fluency, and was said to be able to converse with all the foreign ministers at Washington in their own tongue. It has been stated even that in China he transacted his official business without the aid of an interpreter. One of the last times I saw him was in a railway car, and he was reading a French newspaper.

Mr. Cushing' s mind was so well disciplined that he could at once arrange his thoughts and bring his knowledge to bear on any given point. Some of his best efforts were extemporaneous, in reply to an opponent, for then he was in his clement. The Hon. E. F. Stone,