The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1892-06-08
MARY WAsHlNe1oMs TOME.
visit to the Grave of the Mother OF
the tEnther Of Hia CnnntrY.n

A Visit to the Grave OF the Mother OV
the "Fnther of His Country"
Driven by "de man what knows me-
bout Fed'icksbuig N emmy oder coach
man bout cher (about here), if the evil
dence of brother hackmen be Of value, we
seek the burial place Of Mary, the mother
of Washington.
The legend of the unfinished monument
is familiar to us ALL as is the history of the
various attempts to revive in the hearts Of
the American people active interest in the
work of repairing the wrong done to
motherhood and to the memory Of our
greatest chieftain. Yet we are conscious
of shock when the carriage draws up
within few feet of the grave. A square
construction, seemingly composed of un-
mortared blocks of marble, supports Co
rinthian pillars set between buttressed
corners. There are two columns upon each
of three sides; from the fourth one is
missing. A marble obelisk, blackened by
mold and stained by the SHOWS and rains
of fifty-nine years, lies upon the ground at
the base of the memorial" (heaven save
the mark) o.
The intelligent coachman says his piece.
"Marthy, or Mary Wash'n'ton, or what
ever dey call Ter, been buried under dat ar
monerment. Some folks say twas a mighty
handsome monerment bout hund ed year
ago. Oder folks say tain neber been fin
ish' no time. Dom look like 'teber will be
finish now. Ki-yil When folks been dade
hund'ed years nobody gy1ne ter take do
trouble ter put up tombstone for 'em."
We are wiser than he on the last head.
The recurring consciousness of this salves
the modification and nain induced by the
sight of the disgrace, and the recollection
of the abortive enterprises for the removal
of the blot from the national escutcheon.
We do not add to our cicerone's stores of
general information our knowledge that
the ground on which we stand, and the five
acres Immediately encompassing the grave,
are the decided property of tIra National
Mary Washington Memorial association;
that collections are steadily If not rapidly
being made by the organization for the
| erection of new and fitting monument;
that the faith in ultimate success of the
women who have the movement in charge
has never wavered since they set their
| hearts and heads upon righting Mary
Washington in the eyes of n republic that
is rather unthinking than ungrateful.
Our busy fancies fall to work instead
upon the shadowy outlines of the pile that
| is to do away with the fact and the memory
of the crumbling fragment before our
bodily eyes Two of us sit upon the half
buried obelisk, a third walks about the
} ruin, thrusting tentative cane into inter
stices and shaking mournful head. The
tentacles of wire grass are digging out the
disintegrated mortar, tufts Of sheep mint,
bruised by the intrusive ferrule, breathe
pungently; a rank plant that may develop
into "jimsen weed" leans impertinently
toward us from the earth deposited upon
the top of the memorial by the winds of
sixty years, save one. Sir Oracle is look
ing over the wall into the small burying
| ground behind the incomplete tomb as
motionless as the marble.
The cornerstone of what we see was laid
May Z, 1888, in the sight of 1900 people.
AS President Andrew jackson deposited
an engraved plate in the followed block,
he is reported to have predicted that the
American pilgrim WILL in after ages, come
up to this high and holy place and lay his
hand upon this sacred column. May he re-
call the virtues Of her who sleeps beneath,
and depart with his affections purified and
his piety strengthened, while he invokes
blessings upon the mother of Washing
ton.-Marion Harland in Harper's Bazaar.