The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-07-21
MOUNT VERNON.
A VISIT TO THE HOME OF GEN
ERAL WASHINGTON.
The Tombs of George and Martha
Washington-A Tour OF the
Rooms Once Inhabited by
the First President

The swash of two big paddle-wheels,
multitude of people upon deck chairs;
sun-lit brown river; and the wide
mouthed cannon, peaceful sward, and
white soldiers quarters of the United
States Arsenal slipping past. It's the daily
pilgrimage of the w. w. Corcoran down
sixteen miles of the broad Potomac to
Mount Vernon, the shrine of American
liberty, the Mecca of the democracy.
After putting sleepily along some half
dozen miles, the w. W. Corcoran ef-
fects landing at the time-forgotten, old
wharves of Alexandria. The landing
appears to be purposeless. Nobody en-
barks, nobody disembarks. During the
irresolute, three minutes pause the
steamer makes, we note that Alexandria
is given over to moss and inanltlon.
There is not so much as cloud of dust
on the wide road that used to debouch
such lusty commerce upon the river
when the city rivaled Baltimore and put
forward no mean pretenslons to be the
seat of the Federal Government. Wash.
ington cast his first vote here in 1854,
and his last fo:ty five years later. Aswe
leave Alexandra the ubiquitous photo
grapher, who is also statistlclan, In
forms US that ''she has increased forty
seven in ten years, mostly niggers at
that
Past Fort Foote, the towns dismantleh
defence; past a shad-boat with crew
pulling like a man-of-wars; past gray
old Fort Washington, blown up and
abandoned by our men in 1914, when the
British sailed up the river in red coated
defiance and captured Alexandria,; and
we are four miles from Mount Vernon.
From this point one gets lovely glimpse
of Washington, twelve miles away, the
twisting river, between, the great dome
of the Capitol swelling superbly above
the city, the pure shaft of the Monument
striking the faint sky with sublime AL
dacity that gains by distance. Our rear
ward contemplation is so ecstatic that an
unpretending white country-house on the
Virginia shore slips by unnoticed, until
the toling of the steamers bell and the
hoisting of her flag announce Mount Yer
non.
The tombs of general George Wash
ington' and "Martha, consort of Wash
ingtou," need no description. From the
guides remarks, however, select the
facts that both bodies are above ground;
that the bodies of thirty relatives Of
Washington's family and his wife's re-
pose in the inner vault, of which the key
Is cast into the Potomac; and that since
the theft of one of the eagles talons on
the coat of arms which surmounts the
tomb of the first President double iron
guard has been placed upon the entrance
to the vault. Washington's body rested
in the original family vault until 1881,
when an attempted desecration induced
tardy fulfilment of his wishes as to his
final burial. Just outside the present
vault stand four plain white marble mon
uments to Bushrod Washington, the
nephew and heir of the General, John
Augustine, his son, Eleanor Parke Lewis,
the daughter of Mrs. Washington, and
Mrs. NJ. E. A. Conrad, her daughter.
Then we troop to the house, and travel
in droves from room to room, ever mar
shaled by the oratorical guide. TO say
that the "Mansion.house" is an irregular
pillared wooden structure, painted to
initiate white marble, ninety-six feet
long and thirty deep, is to convey its ap-
pearance as correctly and inadequately
as possible. 1t is a rambling old structure,
many -roomed and many windowed. The
wide east piazza is paved with aags
brought from the Isle of Wight, and
commands a magnificent view Of the
river. The family and state kitchens
are connected with the house by curved
colonnades, but the servants quarters are
detached. Each room is the charge of
the vice-regent of State, the name of
which is lettered above the door, like the
patron association of ward in public
charity. Some few original articles re-
main in the house, but the furniture,
which is complete, is mainly reproduc-
ton as nearly as possible of the pieces
that were probably used by the family.
In most cases the taste shown in this
matter is excellent, and the bed-hang-
ings, prints, candlesticks, and time
pieces are quite in the spirit of century
ago. A melancholy exception must be
made to the this in the case of Georgia,
however, whose vice-regent has garnished
Lady Washington's sitting-room with a
crimson Brussels carpet and plush
trimmed furniture of unmistakable mod
! ernness.
In the main hall hangs a glass case
containing the great ponderous rusty key
of the Bastile, presented to Washington
by Lafayette when the prison was de-
stroyed in 1889. In the banquet hall is
a model of the Bastilc cut from one Of
its granite stones, also the gift Of Wash
ington's gallant aide. The liquor case
Lord Fairfax gave Washington is here
too, and a genuine MaytioWer chair, and
Rembrandt Peale's famous picture of the
General rebuking a subordinate. In
Nelly Custis's music room the harpsl-
chord her step-father gave her on her
wedding-day still remains, and Wash
ington's flute rests upon its antiquated
cover. Upstairs the orator fingers long
est and the crowd gathers thickest about
the door of the room the Father of his
Country died in. Almost everything
here is as it was on that day. The square
four-poster, the queer little oval medicine
stand, the secretary, the mutilated chairs,
the tire-ircrs with the blackened coat OF
arms behind the hearth, even the cracked
shaving glass, snuff and match. boxes,
stand as they stood then.-Ha'pur's 8
Weekly.
And Then He Went Away.
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