New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1873-06-29
AN OLD HOMESTEAD.
By BRET EAITE.
from tie New York Tribune.l

patriotic act are SO a!nD ole and varied tina,
a st.dioTs disregard OF them Is. am salts
TED. consistent only with moral turpitUde
Sucn person may. indeed. offer as an eX
crse that he has sat in a chair once occr
rIeE by Washington: that ne has drank
from mug once used by Wash.n gtoa. OF
that he has IN his extreme youth talked
with an aged person who distinctly remem-
bered Wasl!in gtOn. but these are superer
ogatory acts which do not take the place OF
this primary obligation. When We con-
side: the number Of roofs that Washin gton
mas apparently slept under; when we re-
fleet upon the infinite toll and travel which
the great and good man must have under
gone to. place this proud privilege
within the easy reach of every Amer
lean citizen. the commission to avail
oneself Of it is simply despicable. The Val
ley Forge experience has always been
deemed a spectacle of noble devotion and
unparalleled selt-sacrifice. bu: l have pre-
terred. | confess, to lay awake nights think.
ing Of this unseltish hero, rising ere it was
yesterday. hurrying away, accompanied
only by his $50 colored body servants, each
with longevity and garrulity depicted on
their faces, hurrying away to reach the
next town in time to make another roof
tree historical. have thought of him pur-
suing this noble duty with disnited haste,
pausing only to pat the heads Of toddling
infants who, in after years, We're destined
to distinctly remember ii, until the tears
have risen to my eyes.
So that when heard that Washington's
headquarters at MOrristOwn was to be sold
at public auction on the TWEEN ty-ffth, de-
termined to 60 and see it. 1t was my first
intimation that it was still il existence:
had, perhaps. often passed it without know
ing the fact. for it is peculiarly of this
kind o. property that its historic quality is
always sprung upon you like a 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 naturally excites a
morbid activity of the intellect; but only
once do l remember being mistaken in the
result. 1t was in Sierran solitude, where
had encamped and where l was So
iicited to take supper in the newly
built cabin of an Eastern immigrant. At
supper 1 was supplied with an ordinary
looking china mug of pale blue willow
pattern. That mug" said my host, ''has
a little story connected on it. 1t has been
in our family nigh on hundred year. 1t
belonged to my grandfather. At the siege
of Yorktown he lived convenient to the
battle field, and the guns were posted all
around the house. ALI of a student" Il
remember" l interposed hastily. Sud
denly commanding form darkened the
little doorway, and a dignitied but cOurte-
Gus voice asked for drink OF water. Your
grandfather arose''-..I was going on to
say continued my host calmly, that the
boomin' of them guns broke every bit of
china in the house, and that grandfather
had to buy new set next day. and this
yer one is the last of them" l put down
my cup and gazed long and earnestly at
the man. His face was calm, thoughtful
and even sad-a slight tremulOusness of the
left eyelid, and depression of the lower
angle of the mouth on the same side.
easily attributable to historic emo
tons, were the only evidences of feeling.
But here was verita1le headquarters Of
Washington-based on no local tradition.
but standing boldly in history. There had
been temporary headquarters at the Free
masOn's Tavern on 1.-The village green
But the house was gone, the Free MasonS
were dust these fifty years, and on the vii
!age green the gray shaft that commence
rated the Morristown dead of the last civil
war obliterated the past. How then.
remote. and blOodless looked that Jersey
campaign of III. beside the names on
this obelisk. How rusty those old blood
stains appeared beside the bright red, still
warm current Of to-day. l hurried past it,
and out into the leafy road that led to the
historic house.
1t had been my original intention to take
with me a certain humOrist-a man who
had made some little reputation by habit
o; scOffing a: certain revered objects by
humorous analysis of their effect upon
others: man who kept you in high spirits.
and left you vapid and uncomfortable: a
Il hot
brought dreadful tomorrow morning after
it: man who was always to be depended
upon. but never to be trusted. l concluded,
however, not to take him with me. you'll
be sorry you didn't he said gloomily, as
he leaned against a fence. with the
settled melancholy OF his profession.
You're not to DO trusted alone.
I'd like to get shy at G. W. some time.
Look around his garden-nOt cherry tree
to be seen. Tell me that he can get over
tina. habit-that he didn't sleep with a
dead Of nigh. to do it. And then he had
no sense of humor. When the staff were
doing conundrums down there one night,
and Greene asked him Why gooseberry
was like Hessian,' didn't he reply. Gen
eral Greene, l cannot tell a lie-there is
absolutely no connection in nature between
the two and spoil the boys of their little
fun And so left him muttering, with
look in his eye as if he were even then elab-
Grating a humorous account of my visit,
based entirely upon speculation OF my
character. and bearing every external evil
dence of greater truth than my own nara
tive.
But here was the house. A canny walk
and gentls ascent under few old trees
led to the porch. On that bright day OF
yellow June its hard outlines and scant
decoration were somehow lost in the
gracious atmosphere. The door stood open.
and l entered at once spacious hall-al-
most the only indication of the dignity OF
its former occupant. 1t divided the man.
sion east and west. and through a rear door
as large as the front gave a view upon
d descending lawn and orchard and SHIN
mer of the WLippanv river in tho lower
distance. I'm the hottest day in summer"
said the gentle hostess, there is always a
breeze through the hall" Surely, nature.
a, least. was not torgettul. 1t was peasant
to think that when the fervid July sun
the elaborate pink and blue tiled
roofs OF the modern villas in the avenue
vcnder that the mountain breezes from
those wooded heights that he had made
historic. loved to meet and play and linger
here. During his time the door was never
shut" continues the lady, like a pleasant
bftth CIoIus. out dl"d!S optu, .tS YOU
see Was it the Eirginian habit still
strong. or military necessity. Think of it
IN that memorable winter of Ia, when the
stood below zero for weeks
and the Hudson river was frozen over at
the Battery. Yet am somehow thankful
that the humorist is not with me to COM
nent upon this startling discovery OF a new
and painful youthful habit.
Then we went into the reception room or
,r parlor. and saw the elaborate antique
able desk. opening in the middle-a Wash.
ngton relic indubitably-and then into the
bedroom where he slept. the office where |
lie wrote, the dining room in which he ate.
md looked in the glass at which he shaved. |
As no one ever saw Washington with "a
BEARD, and as his habits were methodical, |
perhaps this insignificant bit Of furniture |
> most characteristic and notable. There |