The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1859-03-10
A Visit 90 Mount Vernon.

| banle, who has been visiting the Mt. Vernon
estate, furnishes the following account of it.
If the writer's representations concerning
the sacred spot are correct the present pro-
/ prietor must be wanting, in singular
degree, in decent veneration forssthe MEM
ory of his immortal relative, and so entirely
! devoid of taste as to be on a common level
with the most groveling and vulgar of his
| speeies
Where is Mount Vernon passengers
! asked each other, from time to time, but no
one knew. At length, We were landed up
on the rotten planks of pier, through the
| interstices of which good sized child
might easily drop into the Potomac. A
plank foot-road of a similar description led
up gully-the picture of neglect, fit en-
blem of the Valley of the Shadow of Death
-untrimmed trees, rotten trees, lying
where they had fallen years ago matted
vegetation-dry and sere now-and shrub
berry choking up the passages between the
larger trunks. Never, except in the witch
hazel swamps in the Northern forests of
Maine, not upon New England wood-lot,
miles from its owners residence, certainly
house, had | seen such utter unthriftiness as
was shown in every inch of this approach
from the water side to Virginia gentle
mans plantation, to the old home and last
resting place of him whom America has
agreed to call her first man. Susceptible of
becoming beautiful grove, with vistas at
the end of which the water should CLEAN
as it CLEANS between the trees that adorn
f,o cI,n Of fba 81 elo al
along the river is in such condition that
it withdraws the eye from the yellow stream
to its own ugliness Nature alone is al
ways beautiful. Art may be so; but neg
lected, deeaying art has no redeeming fea-
lures.
We wound in long Indian file up the mar
row plank, occasionally giving vent to ex-
Clamations of disgust, occasionally stop
ping to pluck souvenir, but hurrying for
ward in hopes of coming to something bet
ter. The first thing we came to was lit
tie negro boy, some ten or twelve dismal
winters old, clad in greasy, faded woolen,
bare foot, with canes to sell. He affirmed
that he belonged to Mr.. Washington and
that the proceeds of his traffic enriched his
own pocket. At the rate at which he was
selling these sticks, gnarled, knotted pieces
apiece), he would have been able to buy his
own freedom in two years at the furthest
At almost every point of the plantation
which we visited, was colored boy, or a
colored woman, or colored man, selling
canes or cuttings, and one of the shops was
occupied by an old, grey-haired carpenter,
who was deveting his entire energies to the
manufacture of cedar canes. All told the
same story as the first boy we saw. A cred
| ulous person would have concluded that Jno.
| A. " asnlngUon, Esq, was TIE proprietor oIa
| eleemosynary establishment a Liberian
| alms-house, for the elevation of the African
race.
| Next to the black boy came the tomb
| The vault is some feet behind the grated
door, but the remains of George Washing
| ton and wife are in two sarcophagi in front,
which are inscribed with advertisements of
] the donor. Between these sarcophagi are
stones and pieces of broken brick and
and plastering, which had dropped from the
! sides. The CRATE and lock are rusty, as if
never opened, and the inner walls sweat
with damp, and are covered by an unhealthy
mould. A man who should keep his pig
stye in as vile condition would deserve to
/ live in it. The days of hero-worship are
over, it is said. Yes, and the days in which
the tomhs of the prophets are whited and
the sepulcLres of the righteous garnished.
Such Scribes and Pharisees are not at Mount
| Vernon.
The old vault from which the bodies
were removed in 1887, is upon the brow of
a declivity nearer the house, and is in utter
ruin, but, being covered by the kind hand of
nature with verdure, looks much more in
yiting than the new tomb, from which all
turned in disgust.
An hour and a half only is allowed to
passengers by boat-but half time enough
to make a thorough examination of the pre-
misses Visitors are admitted to only two
rooms, both upon the ground floor and front
ing the piazza. These were each ornament
ed with several engravings of historic in
, terest, and one was rendered cheerful by an
open wood fire. In the old-fashioRed hal
was the famous key of the Bastile anG
Washingtons spy glass. All seemed to be
= preserved with some care, as was also {
! room in the back part of the house-seel
through the window. Hair-bottomed chairs
formally set, lined the walls, and in the cen
4 tre stood Washington's rocking-horse, a
d stiff of limb as any old mans hobby. Bu
o the house itself is evidently falling to ruiz
. fast; the piazzas are proped at every pillar
g the clapboards are falling here and there
$. and not window is without a patch-th
plan being, where a pane is broken, to putt
it up and so leave it. Mr.. Washington wa
presumed to be somewhere up stairs, bu
; the mulatto in charge prohibited ascent, an
not sound dropped from above.
The garden, also, was closed to visitors
but its broken walls were easily scaled
Many bricks had fallen from the lower par
some four feet in hight, and the wooden pa
ings above had rotted wholly or PARTIAL
away, and were fallen, or in act to fall
D The little gate at the rear of the garde
was unhasped, and |, being Yankee, el
tered This is not the season in which
examine garden. But some signs are III
mistakable The rough, untrimmed hedge:
the hot-beds-in each of which, perhar
two panes of glass remained-would hay
told the story, even if the condition of Il
fence had not limited it.
What seemed to be a greenhouse q
tracted my attention. There was scarce
one unpatched pane the whole length, b
putty kept out the air and cold well enoug
Two boards formed door, through whi
l entered, to find myself among rare spec
I. mems of tropical plants. They were 9