Evening star., 1886-07-17
THE MOUNc VERNON MANSION.
The Aim Of the Regents Association as
Stated in the Annual Address.

The annual report of the council of the Mount
Vernon association quotes the following address
of the secretary of the council, Mrs. Margaret J.
NJ Sweat, vice regent for Maine:
''lt is with great satisfaction that council is
able to lay before the public in its annual re-
ports the history OF the efforts made in all di-
rections at Mount Vernon, not only to keep ND
the standard of order, neatness and refinement
characteristic OF this quiet homestead by the
river brink, but to increase and set OFT to advan
tage the historical treasures there accumulate
ing, and which are gradually growing into
priceless collection. While avoiding whatever
might tend to make 1t merely a museum of Gu
riOsties, the ladies rejoice over every accession
which places in the home of Washington arti-
cles OF use or beauty such as he Or Mrs. WASH
ingtOn might themselves have placed there:
and it may not be inopportune to remind the
country that under the management of the re-.
gent and vice regents, as representatives of the
women OF America, the peculiar character of
the place has been ZealOusly and successfully
maintained. For Mount Vernon is not only
sacred and solemn as the tomb OF WaShingtOn
but beautiful and cheerful and homelike as his
dweling-place, and 1t is kept SO by virtue of the
fidelity with which this association has pre-
served the mansion in which the hero lived the
gardens where he walked, the lawns he loved
and the trees he planted.
ITO continue TO set before the world this
counterfeit presentment OF Virginia home of
the eighteenth century, and while actively SUI.
perintending the many expenditures upon the
place, to retain all possible appearance of a
private home as it was in the days OF Washing
ton has been the steady aim of the association.
To secure to the country this permanent me.
mento Of the domestic life of the man whose
public deeds are elsewhere wOrthily commem-
grated; to keep In serene harmony the sunny
home and the solemn grave, and 70 mingle the
reverence awakened by the one with the SYM
pathetic enjoyment Of the other, is the work Of
the ladies who year after year assemble at
Mount Vernon to give an account of their trust
to all who will pause to read it. Justly proud
OF their efforts, and giving their best energies
to the trust reposed in them, they look with
confidence to the public for the steady continu-
ance OF the income without which their work
could not possibly be accomplished. This In
come is supplied by visitors from all lands
Their homage proves that Mount Vernon, SO
unlike any other spot which the presence OF the
great dead has hailowed, grows more and more
beloved as years pass over it. England has its
Westminster Abbey. and France its Pere la
Chaise; all Europe builds costly monuments to
it's warriors and its kings, but Washington
rests, as the Father of his Country should, in
the soft shadows of his own home, guarded by
the reverence OF the nation that he founded
and tenderly cared tor by the women of Ameri-
Ca. who more than q quarter OF q century ae O
assumed the charge aud who will watch over
1t until the nation itself shall be no more"