Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-03-23
PRINTED BY MATTHEW CAREY.
1915.

The copyright of this rare book is dated
1903, and is signed by D. Caldwell, clerk of the
| district court of Pennsylvania.
The first chapter is introduced by the follow
ing stanza and initial paragraph:
Oh! as along the stream of time thy name
May then, these few lines to future days descend,
And prove thy countrys good thine only ends
"Ah, entleman.''-sxclaimed Bonaparte-
| twas just as he was about to embark for Egypt
some young Americans happening at Toulon
and anxious to see the mighty Corsican, had
| obtained the honor of an introduction to him.
Scarcely were passed the customary saiulations,
when he eagerly asked: 'how fares your coun-
tryman, the great Washington" HE was
very well. replied the youths. Frightening at
the thought. that they were the countrymen of
Washington. He was very well, general,
when we left America" "Ah, gentlemen re-
joined he, Washington can never be otherwise
| than well. The measure of his fame is full.
| Posterity will talk of him with reverence as the
| founder of great empire, when my name shall
be lost in the vortex of revolution
Chapter second is devoted to Washington's
Birth and Education" says the enthusiastic
| biographer:
ITO this day numbers Of good Christians can
! hardly find faith to believe that Washington
| was. bona ide, Virginian! What! a buck
| skin! say they with smile. George Washing
| ton buckskin! Psbaw! impossible He was
certainly an European! So great man could
| never have been born in American!
$50 great man could never have been born
in America! Why that's the very prince OF rea-
| sons why he should have been born here! Ma
ture. we know, is fond of harmonles, and par7
paribus, that is great things to great is the rule
she delights to work by. Where, for example.
do we look for the whale, the biggest born of
| nature? Not, trow, in mill-pond but in the
main ocean. There go the great ships, and
| there are the spoutings of whales amidst their
boiling foam"
Mr.. Weems. abiding to the popular belief at
his day that Washington was born at Stafford,
opposite to Fredericksburg, whittier, he says,
numbers OF people repair, and, with emotions
unutterable, looking at the weather beaten
mansion, exclaim, Here's the house where the
great Washington was born"" proceeds: "But
it is all mistake for he was born, as | said at
Pope's creek, in Westmoreland county, near
the margin Of his own roaring Potomac"
Washingtofs first rudiments of education were
obtained at little "old field school," says
Weems, kept by one Of his fathers tenants
named Hobby" He was schoolmaster and
grave-digger-in Weems' words IAN A, B, c
| schoolmaster." He used to celebrate the gen.
erals birthdays in little spree, and ''in his
cups be used to boast that "'twas he who, be-
tween his knees, had laid the foundation of
George Washington's greatness"
| Besides the illustrations of Washington's
| early reputation as a truth-telling boy, con-
| tanned in the tale OF the cherry-tree there are
other anecdotes related by Weems. For in
stance: It was related by an aged gentleman a
| schoolmate of the hero, that whenever a dis
| pute occurred about a matter of fact in which
George was concerned, ''some little shaver
| would call out: Well boys! George Washington
was there; George Washington was there. He
knows all about it; and if he don't say it was so,
| then we will give it up" DC.
'.Some historians" says Weems, shave said,
and many believe, that Washington was Latin
scholar. But It's an error. He never learned
a syllable of Latin" Mr.. Williams, his second
and last teacher WAS in the words of the book
| "a capital hand-but not at Latin; for of that
he understood perhaps as little as Balaams ass.
! Georges education consisted in q thorough
| training in reading, writing, spelling, English
! grammar. arithmetic, surveying bookkeeping,
| and geography.
Washington early discovered symptoms of
natures intentions toward him." says Mr.
Weems. According to the narrative of his life
in his 18th year at Hobby's school, he used to
! divide his playmates into two mimic armies
| representing French and Americans. William
| Bustle was general of the French, and George
commanded the Americans. Their muskets
We're cornstalks and their drums were Gala
| bashes
| Even making all proper allowances for the
enthusiasm and worshipful veneration by
which the biographer (Weems) was animated,
there is no necessity for discrediting any of his
narratives of the interesting events of Wash
ingtons early life. Every circumstance related
in Weems' Life might have happened, and
lit stands to nater," in the language of Sam
| Slick, that Mr. Weems, the Nestor, the friend,
and. doubtless, the confdant of Washington,
could have had no inducement to throw a
| glamour of fictitious Renaissance around the
history of a man who cannot need any such
doubtful eulogy to render his memory more
| esteemed by his countrymen than it would de-
serve in the light of reality.
There are enough elements Of uncertainty
connected with some of the most important
events Of early American history, and very
recent national history is so colored by the
| cunning hand of modern writer's as to be
classed with historical fictions by some readers.
| But let us preserve our faith in the simple sto-
ries of Washington's childhood, inscribed by
hands of loving and respectful contemporary
| historians G. F