The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1879-08-15

THE NAN WHO INVENTED IT AND SET
-#J1gH 3t'-4..s IE0TE1 -. -

THE NAN WHO INVENTED 1T AND SET 1T
- AG01NG.
[James Parton in the Magazine Of American His
tory.
Toward the close OF the last century an
eccentric bookseller, Weems by name, used
to ride about In the southern States with an
assortment OF literature in his little wagon
and fiddle under the seat. Hesold in the
daytime from house to house and from
county to county, and in the evening,
when he put ND for the night at some plan
tation-house, he was ready with his fiddle
either to amuse the family or to 60 into the
negro quarter and. strike up tune for the
servants to dance to. He seems to have
been.a good-natured, easy-going man, with
a talent for telling stories, talent which
makes almost any man welcome almost
anywhere. ! have called this man a book.
peddler, but that was by no means the title
he gave himself. II he had such thing as
q card about him, it would have borne the
words Rev. Mason Lock Weems. Among
the polite readers OF this periodical, [ pre-
sumo, there are many who have never so
much as heard the name Of this singular
genius. I continually meet well-intormed
people who know nothing oi him, and who
gaze with incredulty when they are told
that he was rot only Vnlumfnous author,
but one OF the most Influential that ever
lived in the United States. Take one re-
markable instance: It was Weems's +" Life
of Washington" that assisted 70 call forth
the latent mind Of Abraham Lincoln, when
be was q ragged, ignorant, barefooted boy
or the frontier, fourteen years OF age.
He borrowed the fascinating little book
from neishbor. and rs often as he
could snatch few minutes he read it
with aYidty, rs hundreds OF thousands OF
boys had done before him, and as thou
sands are now doing. When he began his
't Life OF Washington" lie evidently re-
solvedto give bis readers an abundant sup
ply Of such anecdotes. He said the people
had heard enough OF Washington, "the
hero, the demigod, the sunbeam in council,
and the starm in war;; he meant 10 pre-
sent to his countrymen Washington the
dutiiuk son, the affectionate brother, the
cheerful school-boy, the neat draughtsman,
the widows husband. the poor mans
friend. For this he had two qualifications ::
A style of considerable force and an abso-
lutte insensibiity to the claims of truth, to
which we may add the artifices OF the prac-
ticed stofy-teler. The fiction of the Ratchet
and the cherry-tree is decorated with details
equally absurd but they were such as gave
pleasure to the simple childhood OF past
generations. The comic paragraphist has
now appeared in the world. and this
story, once so ediiying, has fallen before
him as an easy prey. 1t was the
peddler Weems, nevertheless, who
created the traditional Washington, "the
sunbeam in council, and the storm in war " !;
Washington, the greatest Of the great, in
whose overpoweriDg presence no mortal
could stand unabashed Washington, whose
sublime serenity nothing was ever known
to disturb, one OF those majestic command
ers who, in no stress Of circumstances,
could ever use "big, biz D !" The ly-
ing little book had the more weight with
rustic readers Of the earlier time from tic-
ton which the author boldly placed upon
his title. page, where he styles himself " NJ.
L. Wecms, formerly rector Of Mount Fer-
non parish" 1t may be that the term rec
tor was not very accurately defined in old
Virginia, but at later day, as remarked
above, the Bishop Of Virginia regarded this
claim to the rectorship as something ridlcu-
lous. His name," adds Bishop Meade,
g never appears on the journals of any OF
our conventions" II Weems ever officiatcd
at Mount Vernon, it must have been be-
cause there was no other clergyman to per-
| form the duty.