The herald., 1895-02-22

again welcomed home to Mount Vernon
with just such another neighborly demon
stration as | have attempted to de scribe
above and of which I have often heard
my father tell. The fame of Washington
and of the rapidly growing nation which
he was regarded as having begotten drew
so many visitors to Mount Vernon that
the enlargement of the grand old house
was absolutely necessary for their fitting
entertainment.
There crowd upon me today with
strange vividness the memories of my
subsequent visits to Mount Vernon and
of the many times | saw its master in the
nearly three remaining years before death
closed his brilliant earthly career on De-
cember IA, 1744.
No man ever had a more intensely hui
man side than Washington. 1t was com
mon talk among the people of our neigh
borhood that he had a strange weakness
for purchasing lottery tickets. There were
also rumors that he had what old Tony
Weller would call an ANA BILE weakness for
falling in love head over heels-platoni-
cally or otherwise-with pretty young
women, and was very greatly annoyed
when the aforesaid young women refused
to fall in love with him, Many of our
neighborS even went so far as to say that
he always traded horses to his own ad-
vantage, and Never swap horses with
Washington finally became a sort of pro-
verbal saying in that section of the Old
Dominion.
Though he was unquestionaby the
richest and most prominent American OF
his day, he was an unconscionably bad
Washington Enows SEPs5lss' 'f have hsvsrySfeS ofseS
heard my father say that
Had Great Washington had great
passions but had them
Passions and in magnificent control,
and that though remark
Was a Bad ably talkative to cOnfiden-
tia1 friends, he was sing
Speller ularly taciturn when
there was any likelihood
of what he said being repeated or made
public He always asked a blessing at
table, where he had his glass of wine or
mug of beer at every meal, and he was
healty cheerful, active man, who enjoyed
life as if it were worth living. No man
was ever more thoroughly familiar with
every detail of his affairs, or ever gave to
his estate closer personal supervision.
His natural dignity was such that he
could very well afford to do and often did
do many things that were unusual for
planter of his condition and time. Those
were the days when the women pulled
the flax while the men broke, swingled
vnd hacked it, and then twisted it into
little cues for the women to spin and
weave. l have seen the immortal George
stoop down and pull flax to show some
green hand among the negro women how
1t should be done. This lax raising was
among the chief industries at Mount Ver-
non, and even now l seem to see there,
bleaching in the sun, the long strips
white as the driven snow-from which
sheets, pillow cases, table cloths, towels,
napkins, under-clothing and even pants
for the great Washington himself were
made. In my minds eye l see again the
female slaves carding wool-with hand
cards-into rolls on rolls ready to spin on
their big Wheels imagine hear them
singing the quaint old plantation hymns
and folk song OF the south those wheels
go merrily round, while moving ubiqui-
tously over every part of the state | see
once more the tail, erect figure of the
master
"Then there comes to me the memory
of how the whole country was startled by
the shock of the sudden announcement OF
the great patriots untimely death on De-
cember 30th of that same year-and the
proclamation of President John Adams
that February 22d, Washingtons birth
day, should be fittingly celebrated by the
whole nation. Though | was but child
scare years of age when George Wash-
ington died, yet my recollection of him
and of the daily life saw him lead at
Mount Vernon for nearly thfee years are
far more fresh and vivid in my memory
than the events that transpired yester
day.'