The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-07-13

TWO long and weary years before she
found release. The old tomb, which
she could see as she sat in the one
dormer window and looked out into the
to her desolate world without him. was
her only solace. Formerly the door to
this room had little square cut out at
the lower edge for a favorite kitty to
pass in and out. The mind that could
still take interest in dumb pet was not
wholly darkened, let us hope, to all
sources of enjoyment.
This room is now furnished in ere
tonne and is said to be fac simile of
its former furnishing. Conspicuous on
the low chiffonier is brass candlestick,
and snuffers on tray beside 1.-THE
light of other days.
Directly under these two most inter-
esting rooms is the library. You can go
down by private stairway, long since
gone out of style in houses Of any pre-
tension. 1t is wainscoted room of
good size with enclosed bookshelves on
the left behind glass doors, and COL
lection of books ordered by Washington
himself at the close of the Revolutionary
war, from England, which were by some
strange mishap, only discovered few
years ago, in an old Philadelphia store
house about to be torn down. They
were doubtless selected and sent by
Benjamin Franklin, which accounts for
their having been conveyed to Phila-
delphia instead of Baltimore.
All the lower rooms of the mansion
have more or less furniture contributed
by the States of Massachusetts, Ohio,
and New York. This last has contributed
many valuable historical relics to the
only really fine room in the house, which
Mrs. Schuyler, the New York Regent,
has charge of,-the old State dining
room. This room was built on by Wash.
ington after the Revolutionary war.
And here the green porcelain set of
dishes given him by the Society Cincin-
natus-a society of officers engaged in
the war-was used on State occasions.
with the old family silver, cumbersome
but not overly abundant.
The ceiling of this room is lofty, and
decorated in the delicate low relief of
arabesque and lines of the colonial
style. The Italian mantel over the iron
grated fire place was a gift of General
Vaughn. and represents pastoral scenes
cut in relief. The surrender of York.
town, by Rembrant PeaIe is a noble
picture occupying one end of the room.
Several of the great splint- -bottomed
chairs belonging to the house are in this
room, as is also case of family souve-
Mrs. a set of autograph historical let
ters from General Washington and
others. hung on flying frame. Stew.
arts portrait of General Washington, a
mahogany table of the colonial period,
round which the Regents gather to
transact their business at the annual
meeting held at Mount Vernon in May.
Then all the beds in the queer little
room up stairs and under the caves are
occupied for night or two, and these
danes of high degree live simpler lives
the lives Of their ancestors, than they
ever do at home, accommodating them
selves to the furniture and fashions of
1900 and dispensing with the modern
conveniences, such as gas, or electric
light, running water. bath rooms and,
telephones.
The old tomb of General Washington
was at one time visited by ghouls and
would.be grave robbers. This event
gave the country great concern. Being
very simple and insecure structure,
though planned by himself, it was
thought best to build new tomb, large
enough to accommodate the dust of
other members of this illustrious family,
also. A Philadelphia undertaken under
took to transfer the remains of Wash
ington and his wife to the two marble
sarcophagi, which bore his name. This
was done in the thirties. Only hand
full of dust. and few bones. were all the
mortal part left of this greatest man of
modern times, Napoleon not excepted.
for Washington had a moral sense of
which Napoleon was wholly deficient.
He was deservedly First in war, first
in peace--frst in the hearts of his
countrymen."
Among the Washington relics is a
splinter of black walnut broken from the
original coffin; here are also his masonic
apron, his every day clothes and other
personal belongings.
Every year the tourist and the Con.
vention delegates visit Mount Vernon
and the tomb of Washington by the
thousands. but it remained for the order
of Pythians to inaugurate a curious
tribute of respect ~ on the occasion of
their grand encampment at the capital
couple of years ago. Some one of them
idly or not--threw in his Pythian
card, which fell on Washington's sarco.
phagus, as he looked through the
grating into the sacred sepulchre, and