Daniel Webster in the very height of his fame, just after
his famous Bunker Hill speech, took a run down to his native
village which he had not visited in so many years that he found
himself quite unrecognized by his former cronies. Accosting an
old friend of the Websters, he gradually, after due discussion
of the weather and the crops, turned the conversation upon his
own family. Thereupon his companion burst out into enthusiastic
encomiums upon the virtues and abilities of Daniel’s elder
brother Ebenezer, who had died young and whose early death
he fittingly deplored. Daniel slipt in a modest query as to
whether there was not a brother named Dan. “He never was much
account,” said the old gentleman, with a shake of his head.
“I believe he went up to Boston and became some kind of a
lawyer.”--_Lippincott’s Magazine._
(1305)