His friend dissuaded him, however, and henceforth Page concentrated on more worldly studies.

In many ways he was the life of the undergraduate body.
His desire for an immediate theological campaign was merely that passion for doing things and for self-expression which were always conspicuous traits.

His intense ambition as a boy is still remembered in this sleepy little village.

He read every book in the sparse college library; he talked to his college mates and his professors on every imaginable subject; he led his associates in the miniature parliament--the Franklin Debating Society--to which he belonged; he wrote prose and verse at an astonishing rate; he explored the country for miles around, making frequent pilgrimages to the birthplace of Henry Clay, which is the chief historical glory of Ashland, and to that Hanover Court House which was the scene of the oratorical triumph of Patrick Henry; he flirted with the pretty girls in the village, and even had two half-serious love affairs in rapid succession; he slept upon a hard mattress at night and imbibed more than the usual allotment of Greek, Latin, and mathematics in the daytime.

One year he captured the Greek prize and the next the Sutherlin medal for oratory.