The mountain sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1844-1853, 1853-05-12
LAST DAYS at MT. VERNON.

The year 1899 was in its last month: Wash
ington had nearly completed his sixty-eighth
year; the century was fast drawing to close,
and with it this great mans life. Yet the swim
ter of his age had shed its SHOWS $50 kindly
upon him as to mellow without impairing his
faculties, both physical and mental, and to give
fair promise of an additional length of days.
Nor Washington unmindful of the sure
progress of time, and of his liability be called
at any moment to ..that bourn from which no
traveller returns" He had for years kept a
will by him, and, after mature reflection, had so
disposed Of his large property to be satifac
tory to himself and to the many who were so
fortunate and happy as to share in his tesla
mentary remembrance.
1 1e vfa me- r"sil MeIu
devoted to constant employment. After the ac-
tive exercises of the morning in attentohte te ag-
ricuiture and rural affairs, i'm the evening came
the postbag, loaded with letters, papers and
pamphlets. His correspondence at home and
abroad WIS immense, yet was it promptly and
fully replied No letter was unanswered.
One of the best bred men of his time Washing
ton deemed it grave offence against the rules
of good manners aud proprety to leave letters
unanswered He wrote with great facility, and
it would he a difficult matter to find another,
who mad written SO much. who has written SO
well. His epistolary writings will descend to
posterity models of good TASTE as well as de-
veloping superior powers of mind. General
IlcHTy once observer 10 tDe cDie1, I'VE are
amazed, sir, at the vast amount of work that
you accomplish" Washington replied, s.Sir,
rise ut four o'clock, and great deal of my work
is done while others asleep"
So pusctual man delighted in always having
about him good time keeper. In Philadelphia
the first President regularly walked up to his
watchmaker's Clarke, in Second street, to
compare his watch with the regulator. At
Mount Vernon the active, yet always punctual
farmer, invariably consulted the dial when re-
turning from his morning ride, and before enter
ing his house.
The affairs of the household took order from
the masters accurate and metAedieal arrange
ment of time Even the fisherman the river
watched for the cooks signal when to pull in
shore, MS to deliver his scay products in time
for dinner.
The establishment of Mount Vernon employ
ed perfect army of servants yet to each one
was assigned certain special duties, and these
were required to be strictly performed Upon
the extensive estate there was rigid discipline,
without severity. There could be no confusion
where all was order; and the affairs of this vast
concern, embracing thousands of acres. and hun
dreds ofdependants, were conducted with as
much ease, method and regularity as the affairs
of an ordinary homestead.
Mrs Washington, accomplished Virginia
housewife of the olden time, gave her constant
attention to all matters of her domestic house,
hold, and, by her skill and superior manages
ment greatly contributed to the comfortable re-
ception and entertainment of the crowds of
guests always to be found in the hospitable man
sion of Mount Vernon.
Invariably neat and clean in his person, with
clothes of the old-fashioned cut, but made of the
best materials, Washington required less wait
ing upon than any man of his age and condition
in the world. single bedy-servant attended
in his room to brush his clothes, comb and tie
his hair, (become very thin in his last days,
worn IN the old-fashioned queue and rarely with
powder and to arrange the materials of his
toilet. This toilet he made himself, in the sim.
plest and most expeditions manner, giving the
least possible amount of his precious time te
anything relative to his person. When rising al
j four o'clock he lighted his own candles, made
up his fire, and went diligently to work without
disturbing the slnn.bers of his numerous house
hold.
In the last days at Mount Vernon, desrous o.
riding pleasantly, the General procured from the
North two horses of the Narragansett breed
celebrated saddle horses. They were well t.
look at, and were pleasantly gated under thu
saddle; but were scary, and, therefore unfttee
for the service of one who liked to ride quietly
on his farm, occasionally dismounting and walk
ing in his fields to inspect his improvements
From one of these horses the General sustained
a heavy fall, probably the only fall he ever hae
from horse in his life. It Was IN November
] late in the evening. The General, accompanict