The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1873-07-18
BRET HARTE.

around. SATURDAY heOeeO'
BRET HARTE.
He Goes n Pilgrimage to Washingt0nS
Headquarters.
I have been to Washington's head
quarters at Morristown. The adult
American who has not at sometime
stood beneath the same roof that shel
tered the father of his country is to be
pitied and feared. The opportunities
for performing this simple, patriotic act
are so ample and varied that studlous
disregard of them is, am satisfied, con-
sistent only with moral turpltude.
Such person may, indeed, offer as an
excuse that he has sat in a chair once
occupied by Washington that ne has
drunk from a mug once used by wash
ington. orthat he hasin his extreme youth
talked with an aged person who distinct
ly remembered Washington but these
are snpererogatory acts which do not
take the place of this primary obllga-
tion. When we consider the number OF
roofs that Washington has apparently
silent 11nder when we reflect upon the
infinite toll and travel which the great
and coed man must have undergone to
place this proud privilege within the
easv reach of every American citizen,
the omission to avail ones self of it is
simply despicable. The Valley Forge
experience has always been deemed
spectacle of noble devotion and unpar-
alleled self-sacrifce, but I have pre-
fered. I confess, to lay awake at nights
thinking of this unselhsh hero, rising
lorz ayUQV a.
companied only by his l5O colored BODY
servants, each with longevity and gar
rulity depicted on their faces, hurrylng
away to reach the next town IN time to
make another roof tree historical.
have thought of him pursuing this no
BILE duty with dignifed haste, pauslng
only to pat the heads of toddlln9 IN
fants, who in after years were destined
to distinctly remember it, until the tears
have risen to my eyes.
So that when / heard that Washing
toms Headquarters at Morrlstown was
to be sold at public auction on the 10Th,
[ determined to go and see 1t. 1t WAS
nv first intimation that it was still in
existence; had, perhaps, often passed
it without knowing the fact, for 1t IS
pecuIiarity of this kind of property that
| It's historic quality is always sprung
upon YOU like trap that you are
hardly safe in any old tenement; that
YOU drop unconsciously into the Wash
ington chair, or imbibe serenely from
the Washington mug, and that the fact
is brought sharply upon you like PIN
in the cushion or fly in the milk. In
the course of time this expectation ma
turally excites a morbid activity of the
intellect but only once do 1 remem.
her being mistaken in the result. IL
was in Sierran solitude, where L had
encamped, and where / was solicited tf
take supper in the newly-built cabin OF
an eastern immigrant. At supper,
was supplied with an ordinary ehlns
mug of a pale blue willow pattern
"That mug" said my host, " has lit
tie story connected on it. 1t has beer
in our family nigh on hundred years
1t belonged to my grandfather. At the
siege of Yorktown he lived convenient
to the battlefield, and the guns wa
posted all around the house. All OF
suddent-'' 81 remember" inter
posed hastily. Suddenly command
ING form darkened the little doorway
and a dignifed but courteous volc'
asked for a drink of water. Your grand
father rose "I was goin' on to say,
continued nv host calmly, THAT tn
boomin' O. them guns broke every bl
of china in the house, and that grand
father had to buy new set next day
and this yer one is the last OF them.
I put down my cup and gazed long ant
earnestly at the man. His face wa
! calm. thoughtful, and even sad, sligh
, tremulousness of the left eyelid, and
, depression of the lower angle OF tn
mouth on the same side, easily attrlbu
a table to historic emotion, were the onl
y evidences of feeling.
9 But here was a veritable headqual
. ters of Washington, based on no loca
. tradition, but standing boldly III hlstC
nv. There had been temporary heac
, quarters at the freemasons tavern
q Q the village green" But the hous
! | was gone, the freemasons were du'
q these fifty years, and on the "vlllae
n green" the gray chaft that commem'
r rated the Morristown dead of the la
!. civil war obliterated the past. HOY
y then. remote and bloodless looked thi
p Jersey campaign of TT, beside IL
+ names on this obelisk. How rus,
q those old blood stains appeared besle
q the bright red, still warm current OF :
o day. / hurried past it, and out into Il
4 leafy road that lead to the histor
IS house.
+ 1t had been my original intention
,t take with me a certain humorlst, mi
% who had made soGe little reputatl'
a by a habit of scoffing at certain I
D. versed objects by humorous analysis
% their effect upon others; man w
70 kept YOU in high spirits, and left y
!" vapid and uncomfortable, man who
Re company was dissipation that brought
le dreadful tomorrow morning after IL
9 man who was always to be depend
m upon. but never to be trusted. &C
a. ciuded, however, not to take hum WI
o. me. "Youll be sorry you dldnt,
9 said gloomily, as he leaned against
NJ fence with the settled melancholy
# his profession. You're not to be trust
Is alone. Tide like to get a shy at u.
or some time. Look around his gard'
g. not a cherry tree to be seen. Tell
1d that he can get over that habit, that
an didn't sleep with hatchet under
n inflow. and get up in the dead OF nle
ps rs TO do it. And then he had no sense
an humor. When the staff we're doing
ar nundrums down there one night, 0
he Green asked him Why a goosebe
It's was like Hessian,' didn't he rep
er sGen. Greene, / cannot tell lie, tn
lr- is certainly no connection In nature
70 tween the two and spoil the boys
ay their little fus ?" And so l left
he muttering, with look in his eye a
N he were even then celebrating hum
no ous account of my visit, based entlr
Of upon speculation of my character,
is bearing every external evidence OF gr'
tIv er truth than my own narrative.
~ But here was the house. A cal
,is- walk and gentle ascent under
ra- old trees led to the porch. On
of bright day of yellow June its hard
tie lines and scant decoration we're so
nd how lost in the gracious atmosph
ck- The door stood open, and / entere'
tie once a spacious hall, almost the
md indication of the dignity of its torl
Oks occupant. It divided the mansion
vr- and west, and through rear door
ne, large as the front gave view upo
DC descending lawn and orchard, an
irl- simmer of the Wippany river IN
,ide lower distance. In the hottest
Che in summer" said the gentle host
ono "there is always breeze through