St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-02-22

We older people are wont to say thaG
these are irreverent days. The young,
we often think, have no reverence for
ANYTHING. May not this he in large
measure the fault of the mothers? How
MANY mothers in st. Paul, think you,
have said one word to their children in
explanation Of the day we celebrate as
the birthday of the great Washington?
1t is a legal holiday, made so during the
last few years. The children know and
rejoice at the knowledge that there Will
be no school in any of the school houses
that enrich our city today, and perhaps
they know that the reason is that the
22d of February is a holiday; and,
again. perhaps the older ones know
something of the man whose eyes
first saw the light on this day. so many
years ago on that old Virginia planta-
lion 'When we were under the king"
The story of that grand life is one that
IS calculated to arouse every drop OF
patriotic life in the heart of an American
child if it is told Alright and as it should
be at the mothers knee. We Older
Americans can remember when
That Serene Face
looked down at our childish selves from
almost every home wall. The map, a
big one Of the United States, held a
place of honor on those walls, and above
the parti-colored plain that ended so far
rs definitemess was concerned at the
Missouri river on the west, and was
filled from there to the Rocky mount
Rins with vague-meandering lines
and specks of color that were
supposed to represent the Great
American desert, and beyond the
mountains the wonderland of Cal
ifornia. toward which those friends
who Joined the Argonauts of 40
had wandered and vanished. From the
upper end Of Iowa, biz blank tract
with the crooked Mississippi as high
way stretched up to the Canada line,
with here and there fort or trading
post, and this was the Louisiana
purchase. We knew all these by heart,
and above all this, as we thought it
should, shone the grave face of Wash
ington, tianked on either side by the
immortal SignerS Of the Declaration of
Independence. The face Of the Father
OF his Country was as familiar-and
often far better knOWn-aS that of
any of
Cur OWN Ancestors
back in Virginia or New England, and
whom, we know only through those
queer daguerreOtypes that had to be
held III just the right position as to
light, or we saw only the aWestruck
face OF the seeker after knowledge and
kindred, instead Of grandfather and
f.
somewhere; but the face OF Washing
ton locked at us from the map, the
pictures on the wall, from few, very
few, for the library was small, books,
and FROM song and story on every hand.
We were taught reverence to parents
by an object lesson of this man, who had
reached the highest position in the
power of his loving cOuntrymen to be-
stow, coming back to kneel by the side
of little old WOman's CHAIR, and with
bowed, bare head, asking for his
m0thcr's blessing. We were taught
patriotism by stories of that long
Winter at VALLEY Forge,
when the great Washington shared the
hardShipS with his men. Our hearts beat
fast and eyes grew moist as we heard Of
the words of cheer he spoke TO the
starving men, while the eyes before
which m,n quailed filled with tears as
he talked. He was an ideal lover in OH
eyes. for when he had called at the
house OF a friend on business, and met
her who ever after w0s queen of his
heart, he stayed two days instead of
lust till after dinner" in the good
old Virginia way. He was our
ideal of a statesman when he made his
farewell address to the people and went
back to his home at Mount Vernon,
where he sleeps today, while every
passing boat tolls its bell in memory of
a model American man. His name was
held in holy reverence by old and young.
l shall never forget the Shock it was to
me to hear Il reckless cousin call him
George" L expected bears or lightning
to be his fate before the day was done.
Mothers. it is our pleasant task as well
as sacred duty to teach OuI.children to
reverence the names of our mighty
dead, and these are led by that OF
George Washington. AUNT POLLY.