When, later, Walker came to New York City, in his
honor Broadway from the Battery to Madison Square was
bedecked with flags and arches. "It was roses, roses all the way."
The house-tops rocked and swayed.
In New Orleans, where in a box at the opera he made his first
appearance, for ten minutes the performance came to a pause,
while the audience stood to salute him.
This happened less than fifty years ago, and there are men who as
boys were out with "Walker of Nicaragua," and who are still active
in the public life of San Francisco and New York.
Walker was born in 1824, in Nashville, Tenn. He was the oldest
son of a Scotch banker, a man of a deeply religious mind, and
interested in a business which certainly is removed, as far as
possible, from the profession of arms. Indeed, few men better than
William Walker illustrate the fact that great generals are born, not
trained. Everything in Walker's birth, family tradition, and
education pointed to his becoming a member of one of the
"learned" professions. It was the wish of his father that he should
be a minister of the Presbyterian Church, and as a child he was
trained with that end in view. He himself preferred to study
medicine, and after graduating at the University of Tennessee, at
Edinburgh he followed a course of lectures, and for two years
travelled in Europe, visiting many of the great hospitals.
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