Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1880-03-19
Alexandria and Gen. Washington.

!. Alexandria and Gen. Washington.
The pilgrim who leaves the nations
capital to visit the grave OF Washing
ton arrives, midway to Mount Vernon,
at the quiet town Of Alexandria. There
he may find, if he will but blow aside
the dust of Z century, footprints of the
Father of his Country that tell Of his
WAYS q he moved ronnd about his home.
Elsewhere the great chief is ION horse
back, or sits high in some chariot state,
lofty and removed from common men;
but in Alexandria he is dismounted and
afoot-a townsman and d neighbor. t, t.
The town and Washington came to-,
eether into active life; for it was Just
as he. grew from childhood into youth,
ct his trothers home, Mount Vernon,
that the neighboring hamlet of Belhaven
grewinto the townof Alexandria. Bel
haven, was ., tobacco warehouse and
some log-huts on the southern part of
"a patent owned by the great-erand-
children of one John Alexander, who
in 1869 paid 5000 pounds OF, tobacco
for nine miles of rriver-shore nearly
opposite what is now the District of
Columbia. just after this purchase,
Washington's great-grandfather had led
from the settled lands near the mouth
of the Potomac q troop of militia to
g punish the Dogne Indians for the
murder of Robert Hen, o. herds
: man, near what Is now Mount Yer
non. He became enraptured with these
magnificent hills, and soon included
them:in q patent off, 900 acres. Over
sixty years afterward this tract de-
scended to, Lawrence Washington.
Georges elder brother, Who married q
daughter of COL William Fairfax, Of
Belvoir, the; County ,Lieutenant, and
became neighbor to his father-in-law
by settling at Mount Vernon: Hither
came young George Washington, fresh
from school. Having failed to be a
midshipman, he was becoming q land
surveyors profession not SO opposite
as might seem; for in mathematical
methods the pursuits are identical, and
thesurvey of avid country is, in peril
and adventure, not unlike voyage at
sea. Into Belhaven young George
Washington rode every day. Tradition
says that he came ten times during ono
week, each time upon different horse,
every one fine animal. In those days
the fine rider, Of q fine horse readily
won his way to the popular heart. The
lad had borrowed in turn all the best
horses of tho countryside, and he man
aged each with such skill and grace
that thereafter his future WAS made in
the village. ~,
The family circle, at. Belvoir and
Mount Vernon included, besides the
visitor, Lord Fairfax, Baron of Cam
eron, Col. William Fairfax, his son
George William Fairfax, his law
Lawrence Washington and John Car
lyle, and William Ramsey, cousin OF
tho Washingtons. These gentlemen
united with the Alexanders, who owned
the Belhaven Land, and some village
traders, and established town at Bel
haven warehouse, designed as . practical
matter to make money, and as a matter
of taste to honor at the same time the
royal family of England and the Fair
fax family of America. The new town
took shape with its streets at right
angles. One center street, Cameron,
aanked south by King, Prince and
Duke streets, and north by Queen,
Princess and Duchess streets. and these
streets crossed by another center street,
Fairfax, aanked by Royal street on one
side and the river on, the other. Anx-
ious as the young surveyor, George
Washington, was to perfect himself in
his art, it is impossible to believe that
this plan was made by his relatives and
friends without his familiarity.
The lots of the new town were sold
on the 18th of July, 1749. Among the
purchasers we're Lawrence Washington,
John Carlyle, Adam Stephen, afterward
q subaltern under Braddock, and one OF
Washington's Generals in the Revolu-
tionary army, and John. Champe, father
of Sergt. Mai. Champe, Of Lees legion,
who feigned desertion in the hope OF
capturing the traitor Arnold. The bids
were made in Spanish pistoles. The
lots, one quarter acre each, sold at from
$15 to $3.50 each. Young Washington
had no money to spare to buy town lots
but he owned some land opposite Fred
ericksburg, and was already earning a
doubloon day BY surveying the wild
lands of Lord Fairfax. Almost as soon
as this survey was completed, he was
commissioned Major in the Colonial
militia, and appointed Adjutant of the
frontier district, with headquarters at
Alexandria. From this center he or
gained the militia of the frontier
coun mites, selected drill-masters for the
officers, attended and regulated musters,
and, on this limited field, first devel.
oped that mastery Of detail and talent
for organization; which, twenty-five
years later; organized ON Boston heights
. crude militia into Continental army.
There fingers yet in the traditions of
the town the dim figure of tall, wiry,
sunburned young man, always on horse.
back, of bitter" will, and yet OF great
popularity; not personal magnetism
that attracted individual men, but q
dominating power that won men in
mass by giving every one assurance of
safety under his lead Willian, F.
Came, in Harpe,'s Mdqazine. -.
- Good Humor.
so Good humor is. rightly reckoned a
most. valuable aid, to happy home life.
An equally good and useful faculty is q
sense Of humor, or the capacity to have
= little fun along with the humdrum
cares and works Of life. We all know
how it brightens up things generally to
have > lively, witty, companion, who
sees the ridiculous points of things,
and can turn an annoyance into an o.
easion tor laughter. t does great
deal better to laugh over some domestic
nnishaps than 70 cry OF scold about them.
Many. homes and lives are dull because
thar Ara all0Nod IA hoOamna too doox,l,r