In those days the faculty and pupils were wont to call him 'the second Webster,' and the remark was common, 'He will fill the White House yet.' In the Lyceum he early took rank far above the others as a speaker and debater.
"During the month of June the entire school went in carriages to their annual grove meeting at Randolph, some twenty-five miles away.

On this trip he was the life of the party, occasionally bursting out in an eloquent strain at the sight of a bird or a trailing vine, or a venerable giant of the forest.

He would repeat poetry by the hour, having a very retentive memory.
"At the Institute the members were like a band of brothers and sisters, all struggling to advance in knowledge.

Then all dressed plainly, and there was no attempt or pretence at dressing fashionably or stylishly.
Hiram was a little country place, with no fascinations or worldly attractions to draw off the minds of the students from their work." Such is an inside view--more graphic than any description I can give--of the life of James Garfield at Hiram Institute..