° 1920 J Henshaw, In Memoriam: William Brewster. o 



ing it may be doubted if the lack of it hampered his career to any 

 appreciable extent. Little of the knowledge he himself prized and 

 sought was to be gained in college or gleaned from books. 



As a boy Brewster appears to have been much like the average 

 lad of his time but of gentler mold than most. Though in no 

 respect effeminate he never cared for rude or boisterous sports, 

 and although occasionally he was a contestant on the football field 

 his was usually the part of the onlooker rather than of the partici- 

 pant. In fact, even in later years, his interest in and know- 

 ledge of games of any sort, as cards, billiards and the like was of 

 the slightest, though he had no objection to them on moral grounds. 



His-life long friend, Ruthven Deane, informs me that in his boy- 

 hood William was very fond of horseback riding, and that they 

 frequently rode together before breakfast. He must have relin- 

 quished this form of exercise early, since I never saw him on horse- 

 back or heard of his riding after I knew him. Ruthven also recalls 

 the fact that in the early seventies Brewster joined the Cambridge 

 Rifle Club, became fond of target shooting, and for a time was a 

 regular attendant at the contests among the members and with the 

 Harvard Rifle Club. 



He never greatly cared for the theater, although, on the rare 

 occasions when he went, he showed that he could enjoy a well-acted 

 play, or good concert, as well as most. He attended dancing school 

 as a youth, but apparently cared little for this social accomplish- 

 ment, and after a time entirely gave up dancing. 



It is always of interest to trace the influences that have induced 

 a man to follow a given career or to take up a certain line of study. 

 Brewster seems to have given no signs of any special bent towards 

 the study of Nature until he was about ten years old, when he 

 made the acquaintance of Daniel C. French who was about the 

 same age. During the next four years he and Dan came to be 

 close comrades, and in that period was laid the foundation of a life 

 time intimacy and friendship. 



Mr. French has kindly communicated to me some interesting 

 facts in regard to this period of Brewster's life when they were 

 inseparable chums. William's father, it appears, in his younger 

 days had been something of a sportsman. When William was about 

 ten his father gave him a single barreled gun, and taught him 



