-"Sympathetic child." Don't know what that means. That is what his mother always called him according to his son.
-"hands which never struck save to avenge personal insult." Don't know how many times that happened.
-"used the rod unmercifully." Ouch. Not his father, a schoolmaster named Warren. AAH grew up in what was the Dickensian era in England where brutal corporal discipline was expected in the schools and Warren was an Englishman. "Receiving punishment from Warren for an act not committed by himself, Humphreys left the school. No entreaty or persuasion could induce him to return...Humphreys played truant from school many times; and with one David Sparks..."
So maybe it all began there. "Sympathetic" child could mean "sensitive" child, weak. Humphreys was short, only 5'7" fully grown, and slight. A tyrant schoolmaster beating a small, sensitive boy repeatedly--maybe Warren knocked something loose. Some kids literally roll with the punches, others, lots in England, are permanently scarred psychically. He refused to go back and started hanging with "one David Sparks." That one must have been a one to make it into HHH's bio.
-"When his father went to Europe in connection with shipbuilding, his brother Clement and he ran wild. Their mother, unable to control them, cast about for some school where both would be under better restraint..."
Right after the above descriptions of AAH's childhood HHH writes this about the fully-grown man:
"His shoulders carried loads which would have broken down other men. Such loads did impair his health for a time..."
Looks like he was broken as a boy. Stayed broken. They still gave him a division at Fredericksburg. Jesus Christ. His health was impaired several times "for a time" as an adult. We will get to those next time.
