The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1889-05-04
AN IMMORTAL NAME.

patTlOtlSm anu cementluS toSethci q
great and glorious people. the recent
centennial celebration of the Inaugural
ton of Washington as the first pres
ident of the American Republic will
have done more toward faniliarizing
the nation with the earlier history OF
our government. and with the charac-
ter of that immortal man who became
it's head and front, than have all the
histories and historians in the last halt
century.
People generally have entertained
a confused and sometimes coTical
view of George Washington. They
have had in their minds as leading
points in his career the allegory of the
cherry tree and the Ratchet, the fact
that he crossed the Delaware, that he
took leave OF his generals, that he was
the first president of the United States
and that his tomb is at Mt. Vernon.
Aside from these few congratulations,
rendered popular by facetious para
graphers and bad engravings, the pub
lie education with respect to the life
and services of George Washington has
been sadly neglected.
But within the past week, even the
most careless and casual reader has
picked up a vast amount of valuable
information upon this and contempo-
raneous subjects. He has suddenly
discovered that Washington was never
a candidate for any Office, civil or mil
itary; that he held the continental
army together without money and
without price, amid great privations,
suffering and death; that he retired to
his home at Mt. Vernon, when it had
ended, and asked nothing more than
the privilege OF remaining there in
peace as a gentleman farmer; that be
was called from his retreat to preside
oyer the convention that framed the
constitution of the United States; that
he received the unanimous vote OF all
the states for president OF the republic;
aud that he was inaugurated amid
scenes of popular demonstration not
yet surpassed in the history of the
country.
But, somehow or other, the incidents
of Washington's life which have given
most pleasure to the readers of this
weeks newspapers are those homely
and familiar little facts which have
drawn the first president down TO the
level of humanity, without %detracting
from his greatness as a citizen. There
is something un%accountable in the de-
light with which some men learned
that George Washington, the devout
and pious statesman, drank rum be-
tore breakfast and madeira at his din
ner; that he attended a theater on the
night after his Inauguration and dane
ed at the grand ball given a week later
IN his honor. 1t tends to humanize the
father of his country to learn that he
wore a number Is boot aud had alb
normally large hands; that his nose
turned red and blue whenever lie
walked against the wind; and that in
his old age be wore q set of false
teeth that did not fit. There is
something really delicious in the fact
that the sage, grave persons who con-
Quoted the ceremonies incident to
Washing,on's inaugural forgot to p,o-
vide a bible IN which to swear in the
president, and that the ceremonies had
to be suspended until a messenger
could run across the street to a Masonic
hall and fetch a volume of the Holy
Book-dellcious because the incident
is so like ourselves and our W times
and therefore brings US in human sym
patby with the past and its people.
And there is just a bit of nineteenth
@ ;ntury romance in the fact that, amid
the silence of the brilliant assemblage
gathered at the inaugural ball, George
Washington stepped down from his
dais, walked in his stately way across
the room and selected as belle OF the
evening a matron who. when a young
and beautiful girl, had been his hearts
idol, long before he wooed and won
tue widow OF Col. Gusts. 1t is inter-
esting TO note, too, that the gossips
gossiped about 1t, and smiled, and
winked in a knowing fashion, just as
mortals do now on all possible occa-
sions.
The result of this weeks psrades and
speeches and publications and pyro-
technics has been the creation of a
great popular interest In the life and
times OF George Washington, and it is
probably a fact that every man in
America knows Ten times more OF both
to-day than he did ten days ago. More
than that the people have been inspired
with renewed interest in the progress
of their government and the de-
velopment of their country. They
have had blossoming anew in
their hearts the feeling that those
great principles for which Wash
ington and Jefferson pledged their
lives, their property and their sacred
honor, are worthy of their respect,
their confidence and devotion. And
that the old fires of patriotism which
burned SO brightly upon the continental
hills should be kept alive and freshened
until the contamination of all human
hopes In government has been reached.
In this respect the centennial ceiebra-
ton has done more in one week than
has been attained in twenty-four
years OF peace succeeding a civil a
and in that accomplishment the peo-
pie everyw here may well rejoice and
be exceeding glad.
Just what we said in our last issue
seems to have struck Henry George.
He says In the Standard:-There is
something humorous in the spectacle
oil Andrew Carnegie appearing before