Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1882-08-24
Washington's Homo.
Mt VERNON AS IT is TO-DAY-TIE OLD
MANSION AND IT'S CURIoslT1Es.

MANSION AND IFS CUNlOSlTIES.
All the affairs Of MI Vernon arc attended
to by ladies, writes correspondent: The
price paid for tho plantation in 1860
was $500 900, not large SUN, considering
the value of the place and its accessibility
to Washington, and not only has every ecu;
OF tho Indebtedness been paid, but it is
moro than sclf~supportiug. Every visitor
is charged dollar for entering the grounds,
which, considering tho many thousand
visitors annually, is in itself handsome
income. Generally a visit to Mt. Vernon
il looked upon very much as II visit to one s
great aunt which has more Of duty hau
pleasure, but, without bciug either an anti,
quarian or gcncnogst, there is an ex-
trcmo Interest, unlike that attaching to a
museum full Of General Washington's old
clothes, Investing the place. SO far has il
been restored to its original condition that
the whole home life Of General Washington
aud his beautiful, shrcwish wife is revealed.
The house itself is kept in beautiful repair
and every chair aud table, book and
picture is put with conscientious regard in
the exact place it occupied during tho
lifetime of the general. AS one cutters the
hall, with its broad open stairway (,ho
people in those times bad royal disregard
tor space, and did not mind capacous
halls and nnumcrab!o stairs) The first OBJ.
ject to be observed is glass case huuy.
ing up, holding great iron kcy-thc key
to tho bastiic-scnt to Washington by
Lafayette Over the door of the state
dining room is brass bound lioli glass,
laid on its wooden perch by the hands
of General Washington himself, and
revcrent;y allowed to remain there ever
since. n, one has touched it, except to
dust it, for ninety-soven years. The state
dining room ccutains the celebrated poy,
trait of Rembrandt p4ale of WYashington
on horseback" and tho equally celebrated
by Gilbert Stuart, | believe, of the "Court
of Washngton," in which the General
and Almc. Martha stand on q dias, while
the Hover of the con,incnta army aud the
beauty Of Philudclpha cluster around them.
n this room is very elegant antique mar
bio mau,el which was sent to Washington,
but captured by Barba,y pirates. When
they found out for whom it was intended
they put it on sailing vessel and sout it
back to General Washington with their
coG0tneniS. DR. gLv,a tlt.. in its vcssi.
down the middle. In another litlio room
called Nellie Curtiss' sitting room, is the
it is an immense machine, as
large as modern grand piano, and the
most interesting thing to study in the world.
1t has three banks of keys like an organ
and is set like a box upon its frame. The
sounds that come from this ancient aud
whcezy instrument would have frightened
Jesse James into convulsions. Besides
this extraordinary contrivance, the room is
full Of beautiful old mirrors ard cushions
aud oil the brio a.brao that the young
ladies Of u hundred years ago funcicd.
There arc two beautiful chairs, the pale
blue covers of which were embroidered by
the fingers Of poor Nellie herself; and in
the grounds is beautiful roscbush, now
almost rose tree, called Nellie Cuttiss'
rose bush, where it is said, she received her
first offer, aud any young woman who
walks around it six times eau coax an offer
from any man she tancics. The grass
around the magio bush, it is hardly ncces
sary to say, is entirely worn away. We'll,
when one goes up stairs, there is perfect
labyrinth of old-fashioncd rooms. AS oh
instance of the taste and pains which the
ladies have lavishcl upon Sir. Vernon is
this: The rag carpet scwcl and woven una
der Nine. Martha's eyes, had, of course,
worn out in tho. sixty years that elapsed
from her death to tho time tho place came
into their possession; but such scraps of
them that remained were obtained and sent
to the Turkish looms, where Turkish car
pets of the same pattern were made. The
Generals room is, like himsclf, cold,
stately and formal, aud in a press are pres
served innumcrab!c things labeled sc.
Washington" in tho handwriting of the
father of his country. Upstairs, regular
little hole in th.swall, is the room Of Mmo.
Martha chose for hers uftcr the Generals
death, the only room FROM which she
could see the hideous trick tomb of her
lord. Among her last requests was to be
turned toward the window where sho could
see tho mausoleum. Then thoro is the
chamber in which the General died-tho
very fourAposter on which he died and
patchwork quilt that covered him during
his last sickness.
If heaven bo the world to which We
oro ;nurnoy;no hnl;poss will bo tho wou in