The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1873-07-24
Washingtoi's Headquarters.

AaNS OSSA " w 3
tiers, at Morristown. The adult American
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
chair once occupied by Washington; that
he has drank from 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
to avail oneself of it is simply despicable.
The Valley Forge X, erience has always
been deemed spe ct Gle of noble devo-
ton and unparalleled selfsacrifice, but /
have preferred, I confess, to lay awake
nights thinking of this unselfish 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. I 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 1 heard that Washington's
headquarters at Morristown was to be
sold at public auction on the 25th, de-
termined to 60 and see it. 1t was my first
intimation that it was still in existence; l
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 a trap;
that you are hardly safe in any old tene-
ment; that you drop unconsciously into
the Washington 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 natural
ly excites morbid activity ofthe intellect;
but only once do 1 remember being mis-
taken in the result. 1t was in Sierran
solitude, where l had encamped, and
where l 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 ola 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 conven-
lent to the tle-field, and the guns was
posted all around the house. All of a
student" II remember interposed
hastily: suddenly commanding form
darkened the little doorway, and digni-
fed but courteous voice asked for drink
of water. Your grandfather rose" II
was goin' on to say" continued my host
calmly, "that the boomin' o. them guns
broke every bit of china in the house,
and that grandfather had to buy new set
the next day, and this yer one is the last
of them" put down my cup and gazed
long and earnestly at the man. His face
was calm, thoughtful, and even sad-a
slight tremulousness ofthe left eyelid, and
depression of the lower angle of the
mouth on the same side, easily attributa-
BILE to historic emotion, were the only
evidences of feeling.
But here was veritahle headquarters Of
Washington- based on no local Tradition,
but standing boldly in history. There
had been a temporary headquarters at the
FreemasOn's tavern ON ''the village green"
the gray shaft that commemorated the
Morristown dead of the last civil war OBJ
liberated the past How then, remote and
bloodless looked that Jersey campaign of
~, beside the names ON this 0belisk.
How rusty those old blood stains appeared
beside tho bright red, still warm current
of to-day. hurried past il, and out into the
leafy road that led to the historic home.
1t had been my original intention to
take with me certain humorist-a man
who had made some little reputation by a
habit of scofing at certain revered objects
by humorous analysis of their effect upon
others; a man who kept you in high
spirits, and left you vapid and uncom-
Portable; man whose company was dis
sipation that brought a dreadful to-mor-
row morning after It; man who was al
ways to be depended upon, but never to
be trusted. I concluded, however, not to
take him with me. "You'll be sorry you
didn't" he said gloomily, as he leaned
against fence with the settled melancholy
Of his profession. "Ycu're not to be
trusted alone. I'd like to get shy at G..
w. some time. Look around his garden
mot q cherry tree to be seen. Tell me
that he can get over that habit-that he
didn't sleep with Ratchet under his pill
low, and get up in the dead of night 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 He's.
sian,' didn't he reply, Gen. Greene, I can.
not tell lie-there is absolutely no con.
nection in nature between the twO,' and
spoil the boys of their little funY And