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BATTLE CREEK BY A. D. P. VAN BUREN
Thomas Kewney was born on the Isle of Man; he was a genuine descendant of the ancient Briton, and the only one we ever knew in this part of the country. He spoke the true Gaelic. His ancestors were instructed in religion, morals, and law by the Druids, who preached to and taught the Britons under their native oaks. ' He would most readily render English sentences into Gaelic. He was ever proud of his birthplace. He would exultingly exclaim: "There is no such island in the world as the Isle of Man; it is gooverned entirely by itself—it is gooverned by the Arl of Darby!" It was always a puzzle to his friends to tell by his accent or brogue to what nation he belonged; whether Irish, English, or Scotch. He usually set all such queries right by this assertion: "I am a Manx, sir; I was born on the Isle of Man. " Douglas said Vermont was a good State to be born in, if you emigrated early. It mattered not what State or country might have claimed old Kewney's "birthplace, or how early or late he emigrated; he would have made his mark in life wherever his lot was cast. Nothing delighted him more than to meet with some person who was considered a scholar or learned in any branch of knowledge. No sharp lawyer ever gloated more over the cross-examination of a witness than he did in quizzing and befogging such a person. If he asked them a question that they could not answer, he would tauntingly remark: "Oh, I thought you were a schol-ar!"
Of all the critical quizzing with which he at times has endeavored to hedge me in, there was one on the higher mathematics that I shall never forget. He had an old English work, I have forgotten the name, embracing the circle of mathematics from common arithmetic, including algebra, surveying, geometry, trigonometry, navigation, up to the calculus.
Michigan
Page 59
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