 | John Randolph |  |
SELF-CONSCIOUS GENIUS.
There is no doubt that Randolph was intensely self-conscious,
which is usually a result of physicial disease and abnormal
sensibilities. There is no doubt also that his strong
passions or mental intensity often carried that self completely
out of his miserable body. But even as a young
man the first impression left upon strangers, after they had
recovered from his remarkable appearance, was that he was
one who appreciated the fact that he was not as others are.
A Charleston, S. C., bookseller has described the wonderful
transformation which came over Randolph's face, when
he passed, like a flash, from his impudent to his rapt state
of being; it may be said that the young man was at the
time on a visit to a companion and that he had formed the
acquaintance of a handsome, hearty old Scotch baronet,
who was as fond of horses and horse racing as he—the
Scotchman being probably his companion of the narrative:
"On a bright sunny morning, early in February, 1796,
might have been seen entering my bookstore in Charleston,
S. C., a fine looking, florid complexioned, old gentleman,
complexion, showed him to have been a free liver, or bon
vivant of the first order. Along with him was a tall, gawky-looking
flaxen-haired stripling, apparently of the age from
sixteen to eighteen, with a complexion of a good parchment
color, beardless chin, and as much assumed self-consequence
as any two-footed animal I ever saw. This was
John Randolph.
"I handed him from the shelves volume after volume,
which he tumbled carlessly over and handed back again.
At length he hit upon something that struck his fancy. My
eye happened to be fixed upon his face at the moment, and
never did I witness so perfect a change of the human
countenance. That which before was dull and heavy, in a
moment became animated and flushed with the brightest
beams of intellect. He stepped up to the old gray-headed gentleman,
and, giving him a thundering slap on the shoulder,
said, `Jack, look at this!' I was young then, but I never
can forget the thought that rushed upon my mind at the
moment, which was that he was the most impudent youth
I ever saw."
| John Randolph | |