The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1881-08-03
washington's Good Looks.

uSllie tOn WIS u Hilff Oh Imposing
presence, and 1t would have been al
mitted that he was better looking
than most men. even by an observer
who was not under the power of tho
spell-cast by his great deeds and great
name. The popular idea of the father
of his country comes from Stuart's
portrait; and there Is at least ont
competent authority that that famous
painting is too highly idealizcd to af-
ford a just likeness of the just man.
In Mr.. Edmund Quincy's noble "Life
Of Josiah Quincy" we find the fol-
lowing lively passage:
81 was curious TO know how my ia
Tiers rccollections of the personal APP
pearance OF Washington agreed with
The popular descriptions and pictorial
representations Of 1t with which we
are all familiar. lie was not an inn
%aginative man, and never dressed his
heroes in colors of fancy. No man
had u ~profounder reverence for Wash
ington than he, but this did not affect
his perceptions of physical phenomc-
m, o his recollectioDs of them. My
mother, on the contrary, was of inn
u, nation all compact and Washing
ton was in her minds eye, as she re-
called him, more than a hero-a supe-
rior being, us far above tho common
race of mankind in majesty and
grnce of person and bearing as in
moral grandeur. This was one OF
tho lew subjects on which my
father and mother differed in opin-
ion. He maintained hat Stuart's por-
trait is a highly localized one, present.
ing its great subject ns the artist
thought no ought to 1.-Two in the minds
of ~postcrity, but not q strong resem-
blance TO the actual man in the flesh.
lie always declared that the portrait
by Savage in the college dining-room
in Harvard hall, at Cambridge, was
the best likeness he had ever seen Of
Washington, though its merits as II
work of art are but small. One day,
when talking over those times in his
old age. / asked my father to tell me
what were his recollections of, Wash
ington's personal presence and bear
ing. Il will tell you,' said he, Just
how he struck me. lie reminded me
of the gentlemen who used to come to
Boston in those days to attend the gem
cral court from llampden or Franklin
County, in the Western part of the
State. A little stiff in his person, not
n little formal in his manners, not par
tlcularly at case in tho presence OF
strangers. He had the air of a
try gentleman not accustomed TO mix
much in society, perfectly polite, but
not easy in his address or conversation,
and not graceful in his gait and move
mcuts.' From the recoliections of Mr..
tWilliam] Sullivan, which he puO-
I.al,a1 r,.n..xy xrna tc atln,.tvau1 - pyanll
seem that the impression madc upon
him by Washington, who was the OBJ
ject of his political ilolatry, was
much the same Us that made upon his
friend. lie says: in his own house
his action was calm, deliberate, and
d%ignifed, without prctensions to
gracelulncss or peculiar manner, but
merely natural, as might be expected
in such q man. When walking in the
street his movements had not tho SOL
dicrly air which might have been ex-
pected. His habitual notions had been
formed long before he took command
of the American armies, in the wars
Of the interior, or in the surveying OF
the wilderness lands-employments
in which elegance and grace were not
likely to DO acquired. 1t certainly
was perfectly natural that Washing
toms manners should have been those
of o country gentleman living remote
from cities, he having been engaged
in rural occupations tho chief part OF
his lite, and moving in q very narrow
circle of society when no was called
at the age of 43 to the leadership OF
the Revolution" We prefer Mrs. Jo-
siah Quincy's estimate of Washington
to that Of her husband, because she
was a woman capable of forming opin-
ions on all mattors, and because women
are better Judges ofcharacter than men.