There are different customs.

There are many men of fair abilities in public life; many more than there used to be; and there is sharper criticism and more of it." "Was I right in thinking that you have a strong resemblance to Daniel Webster in your way of speaking?
You come from the same neighbourhood, do you not ?" Mrs.Lee here hit on Ratcliffe's weak point; the outline of his head had, in fact, a certain resemblance to that of Webster, and he prided himself upon it, and on a distant relationship to the Expounder of the Constitution; he began to think that Mrs.Lee was a very intelligent person.

His modest admission of the resemblance gave her the opportunity to talk of Webster's oratory, and the conversation soon spread to a discussion of the merits of Clay and Calhoun.

The Senator found that his neighbour--a fashionable New York woman, exquisitely dressed, and with a voice and manner seductively soft and gentle--had read the speeches of Webster and Calhoun.

She did not think it necessary to tell him that she had persuaded the honest Carrington to bring her the volumes and to mark such passages as were worth her reading; but she took care to lead the conversation, and she criticised with some skill and more humour the weak points in Websterian oratory, saying with a little laugh and a glance into his delighted eyes: "My judgment may not be worth much, Mr.Senator, but it does seem to me that our fathers thought too much of themselves, and till you teach me better I shall continue to think that the passage in your speech of yesterday which began with, 'Our strength lies in this twisted and tangled mass of isolated principles, the hair of the half-sleeping giant of Party,' is both for language and imagery quite equal to anything of Webster's." The Senator from Illinois rose to this gaudy fly like a huge, two-hundred-pound salmon; his white waistcoat gave out a mild silver reflection as he slowly came to the surface and gorged the hook.