Harvard memorial biographies ...

Nathaniel Bradstreet Shurtleff.

43

the face by the most athletic boy in the class, who had been
taunted and provoked to the assault by others. He received
the blow without flinching, though his face became crimson
and his eyes nearly closed with passion and struggle of feelings; but though his voice quivered a little, yet with a few
adroit words he saved his reputation from reproach, himself
from a beating, and made the other ashamed of his assault.
Though a city boy, he was very fond of pet animals and of
country life; and a letter written during a vacation at Wareham,
when he was but thirteen years old, is comical from the earnestness with which he remonstrates against returning "to the
gloomy, dull, and pleasureless Boston, leaving the land of
promise for the land of woe, a paradise for a desert, the country for the city, in short, Wareham for Boston." In truth the
boy was full of spirit, life, and frolic, keenly enthusiastic in all
his pleasures and plans, having already a warmth of expression,
half fun and half earnest, that contrasted strongly with the
staider style of ordinary New England boys; - there was
nothing commonplace about him. His disposition was affectionate and yet obstinate, hard to be driven, but easily
influenced by any show of kindness.
At school he was a good scholar in a good class, was gifted
with a remarkably retentive memory, took prizes for a translation from Ovid, for a Latin Essay, for Declamation, - a " third
prize," followed the succeeding year by the highest, - and for
the second time received on graduation a Franklin Medal.
But that for which he was really famed at school was his talent
for extemporaneous speaking. His instructor, Francis Gardner, Esq., whose experience of boys runs back over thirty-four
or more successive classes, says, that not only for fluency, but
for power as an impromptu speaker, for the ability to identify
himself with his subject, and carry into it all the enthusiasm
of his warm nature, Nathaniel excelled any one that he has
ever known. It is the usual custom at the Latin School to
have upon "Public Saturdays" what are termed debates, -
original discussions previously prepared by the boys, and
spoken before the audience. Nathaniel created a sensation at