Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1873-07-11
WashingtOn's Headquarters.

WashingtOn's Headquarters.
BRET HARTE writes to the New York
Tribune under date, Morristown, N. j.,
June Gath, as follows
| have been to Washingtons headquar-
ters, at Morristown. The adult American
who has not at any time stood beneath the
same roof that once sheltered the Father
of his Country is TO be pitied and feared.
The opportunities for performing this
simple, patriotic act are so ample and va
ried that a studious disregard of them is,
l am satisfied, consistent only with moral
turpitude. Such a person may, indeed,
offer as an excuse that he has sat in a
chair once occupied by Washington; that
he has drank from a mug once used by
Washington, or that he has in his extreme
youth talked with an aged person who
distinctly remembered Washington, but
these are supererogatory acts which do
not take the place of this primary obliga-
ton. When we consider the numbers of
roofs that Washington has apparently
slept under; when we reflect upon the in
finite toll and travel which the great and
good man must have undergone to place
this proud privilege within the easy reach
of every American citizen, the omission
The Valley Forge experience has always
been deemed spectacle of noble devo-
ton and unparalleled self-sacrifice, but |
have preferred, l confess, to lay awake
nights thinking of this unselfsh hero,
rising ere it was yet day, hurrying away,
accompanied only by his $50 colored body
servants, each with longevity and garruli-
ty depicted on their faces, hurrying away
to reach the next town in time to make
another rooftree historical. l have
thought of him pursuing his noble duty
with dignified haste, pausing only to pat
the heads of toddling infants, who in af-
ter years were destined to distinctly re-
member it, 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 25th, de-
termined to go and see it. 1t was my first
intimation that it was still in existence;
had perhaps often passed it without know
ing the fact, for it is a peculiarly of this
kind of property that its historic quality
is always sprung upon you like trap
that you are hardly safe in any old tene-
ment; that you drop unconsciously into
Ine washington OndlI, "a fmDihS UuvlJ
from the Washington mug, and that the
fact is Brought sharply upon you like a
pin in the cushion, or a fly in the milk. In
the course of time this expectation natural.
ly excites morbid activity ofthe intellect;
but only once do l remember being mis-
taken in the result. 1t was in a Sierran
solitude, where l had encamped, and
where / was solicited to take supper in
the newly-built cabin of an eastern immi
| grant. AT supper / was supplied with an
ordinary looking china mug ofa pale blue
| hot ~ poi1 NaNN
host, "has little story connected on it. Il
has been in our family nigh on hundred
year. 1t belonged to my grandfather. Al
the siege of Yorktown, he lived conven
lent to the battle field, and the guns was
posted all around the house. All of a
student" 81 remember" interposet
hastily: Suddenly commanding form
darkened the little doorway, and digni
fed but courteous voice asked for drinl
of water Your grandfather rose" :"
was goin' on to say" continued my hos
calmly, "that the boomin' o. them gun
broke every bit of china in the house
and that grandfather had to buy new sc
the next day, and this yer one is the las
of them" | put down my cup and gazeC
long and earnestly at the man. His fac
was calm, thoughtful, and even sad
slight tremulousness fthe left eyelid, ant
a depression of the lower angle of tn
mouth on the same side, easily attributs
BILE to historic emotion, were the onl
evidences of feeling.
But here was a veritable headquarters G
Washington-basedo on no local tradition
but standing boldly in history. Their
had been temporary headquarters at tn
: Freemason's tavern on "the village green
the gray shaft that commemorated tn
Morristown dead of the last civil war oil
liberated the past. How then, remote an
bloodless looked that Jersey campaign {
~, beside the names on this obelisl
How rusty those old blood stains appeare
beside the bright red, still warm curreI
of today. hurried past it, and out into tn
/, leafy road that led to the historic hom
II had been my original intention
take with me certain humorist-a ma
D who had made some little reputation by
habit of scotfing at certain revered objec
by humorous analysis of their effect upo
t others; a man who kept you in hig
: spirits, and left you vapid and uncor
n Portable; a man whose company was di
!, sipation that brought dreadful to-mo
e row morning after IL; man who was g
/. ways to be depended upon, but never
It be trusted. / concluded, however, not
J. take him with me. you'll be sorry yC
didn't" he said gloomily, as he lean'
}, against fence with the settled melancho
& of his profession. "YCu'Te not to
Il trusted alone. I'd like to get a shy at
Y w. some time. Look around his gardt
l. not a cherry tree to be seen. Tell Il
q, that he can get over that habit-that
d didn't sleep with hatchet under his p
s. low, and get up in the dead of night to
E, it. And then he had no sense of hume
Y, When the staff were doing conundruI
ir down there one night, and Greene ask
" him why q gooseberry was like HI
n sian,' didn't he reply, Gen. Greene, l ca
r, not tell lie-there is absolutely no &C
n nection in nature between the two,' a.
IS spoil the boys of their little funS' A
n, so left him muttering, with look in
m eye as if he were even then celebrating
q. humorous account of my visit based I
&c tirely upon speculation of my charac
lie and bearing every external evidence
IS, greater truth than my own narrative.
ne But here was the house. A canny wa
W. and gentle ascent under few old trt
I'd led to the porch. On that bright day
of yellow June its hard outlines and SCI
decoration were somehow lost in the g
ey cious atmosphere. The door stood OPP
of and | entered at once a spacious hal
ey almost the only indication of the dign
sh of its former occupant. 1t divided
ur mansion east and west, and through n
N, door as large as the front gave vi
he upon descending lawn and orchard, q
lie. a simmer of the Whippany river in
nut lower distance. "In the hottest day
,ly summer" said the gentle hostess, 18th
sx- is always a breeze through the hal
ht Surely nature, at least, was not forget
AS /. was pleasant to think that when