Al Smith was an indifferent student distinguished mainly by his loud speaking voice

Evidence

At the age at which Bob Moses was being taught by private schools and private tutors, Al Smith was being taught by the good nuns of the St. James Parochial School and trying to avoid Father Kean’s stern eye. And while Moses’ tutors reported that he was brilliant, the nuns had a very different story to tell about the Smith boy. As one chronicler put it: “The boy had no great fondness for books…and showed no inclination to study…. He never cared much for school. A passing mark was all he ever desired—and all he ever achieved.” And he didn’t always achieve that. Al Smith had bright, cheerful eyes and an appealing smile, but there was only one characteristic that set him apart from his classmates—his unusually loud voice. It was no surprise to the nuns that he won medals in citywide parochial-school public-speaking contests. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 498

Categorization

• XREF: Foreshadows Caro’s continuing Moses-vs-Smith contrast, which frames the later chapters on Smith’s rise and Moses’s parallel power grab. — connects to: Al Smith mastered Albany not through oratory but by solitary study of obscure texts — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 526