Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1879-03-05
HATCHETS AND .SUCH.

HATCHETS AND SUCH.
The late George Washington de-
serves our respect and esteem because
he played prominent part in the war
between the American Colonies and
Great Britain, and because he accepted
without any of that dubious hesitation,
80 common nowadays with people to
whom offices are offered, the unsalaried
position of Father of his Country. On
these grounds, the First President ever
will remain first in the hearts of his
countrymen. On these grounds pos
terity is willing 10 pardon and forgive
the lasting injury done TO American
youth by the affair of the Ratchet.
1t has been well said by great
German thinker that every evil deed
wrought by men lives on forever, for.
ever operating in some form or another
in response to its original impulse. The
affair of the hatchet illustrates only
too pointedly the truth of this emf
ncntly philosophic proposition. If the
story as il has come down TO us be
true in its most essential points, George
Washington succeeded in cleverly turn
ing a youthful indiscretion, which any
commonplace little boy would have
expiated by being spanked and sent TO
bed suppcrless, into an exhibition Of
moral courage and exalted rectitude
calculatedto to recall to mind the happier
efforts of the youths of Sparta, and
that will be descanted upon with grave
approval by Sunday school teachers
and others through all time. Even
admitting the charitable view of the
case, that George was wholly sincere
in his words and actions, and altogether
rejecting the not untenable theory
that he knew old Mr.. Washington's
weak points and was sharp enough to
take advantage Of them, his conduct
In connection with his hatchet, the
cherry tree and his father has planted
two distinct germs OF evil in the world.
1t is notorious fact that among Amer.
lean boys the desire common to boys
of oil lands to own hatchet has been
stimulated by the Washington story
to an extent altogether inordinate and
extraordinary. The result of the graft
fication of this desire is all manner of
extravagant destruction. Naturally,
young fruit trees are notable sufferers,
the proud ambition to emulate the ac-
ton OF the great Virginian telling pow
erfully upon the youthful mind-but
in default of fruit trees to operate upon,
the batchet-carrying boy hesitates not
to chop almost anything that his
hatchet will cut into, and to chop with
right good will This reckless misuse
of edged tools has its inconveniences,
as every fond father who pays the cost
thereof knows but too well. Yet is it
one of those manifestations of the de-
velopment of "a growing boy" not too
harshly to be condemned. "Little
ducks will splash when they are learn.
ing to SWIM says the Hindoo proverb,
and if the boy striving to be like
Washington confined himself only to
cutting and hacking, while we could
not approve we could at least condonc
his small iniquliics. II is the moral
evil flowing from the affair of the
hatchet that is 10 be most deplored
The American boy Of today, bred up
in full view of Returning Boards,
Electoral Commissions, cipher dis
patches and the like, looks down with
supreme contempt upon little Wash
ington's ayowed inability to tell lie.
"Not tell lie !" observes the boy of
the period, as he suddenly realizes that
his chopping may get him into a scrapc
unless his wits can keep him out of it.
"Not tella lie! !" "Well, he couldn't
have had much sense, and he deserved
the licking that he didn't get. / know
q thing or two more than that p and
he demonstrates this proposition by an
ingenious statement that altogether
exoncratcs him from evil in his parents
eyes, and so begins to fit himself TO u
Returning Board or TO write cipher
dispatches when he shall grow up to
be q man.
We'll, well, George Washington is
dead, and II is thankless task TO rake
up dead peoples evil deeds. As we
have said, there was much in his life
to warrant posterty in according to
him honor, much to warrant posterity
in bestowing upon him praise. Let us
be charitable towards this worthy
person, now deceased let us offset the
good that he did knowingly against
the evil that he wrought, If not acci-
dentally, at least thoughtlessly, and in
accordance with this system of offsets
let his hatchets be forgotten. Wash