Frederick Douglass, the Orator - Monroe County Library System

Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Monographs Collection
9O LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS.
—at times of the driest kind; it is of a quaint
kind ; you can see it coming a long way off in a
peculiar twitch of his mouth; it increases and
broadens gradually until it becomes irresistible
and all-pervading with his audience." The humor
of Mr. Douglass is much like that of Mr. Joseph
Jefferson, the great actor, who never makes an
effort to be funny, but his humor is of the quiet,
suppressed type. Like Mr. Jefferson, now he
excites those emotions which cause tears, and
now he stirs up those which produce laughter.
Grief and mirth may be said to reside in adjoining
apartments in the same edifice, and the passing
from one apartment to the other is not a difficult
thing to do.
The biographer of Webster gives the following
amusing anecdote to show the simplicity of expressing
thought for which that Colossus of American
intellect is distinguished in his speeches: " On
the arrival of that singular genius, David Crockett,
at Washington, he had an opportunity of
hearing Mr. Webster. A short time afterwards
he met him and abruptly accosted him as follows:
1 Is this Mr. Webster ?' * Yes, sir.' ' The great
Mr. Webster of Massachusetts ?' continued he,
with a significant tone. * I am Mr. Webster of
Massachusetts,' was the calm reply. * Well, sir/
continued the eccentric Crockett, ' I had heard
that you were a great man, but I don't think so;