The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1895-12-13

PVPN'y CONTAINS 1884 acres,
and belongs to the Mt. Vernon
Ladies Association of the Union.
The buildings have been restored as
nearly as possible to the condition in
which they were when Washington
lived there. The rooms have been
reiurnlshed by different States of the
Union. Among the most interesting
things we saw were the room in which
Washington died, his original letters.
his spectacles, his cane, his flute. the
bed on which he died, his clothes, the
room in which Martha Washington
died, and the vault where both their
bodies lie in marble tombs. Up to
1881 the remains lay in the old vault,
but at that time they were removed to
the new one where they now are. The
inner vault contains the remains of
about 80 members of the Washington
family, and on Oct. 7, 1887 the door
of the vault was locked and the KEY
thrown into the Potomac.
The property is in charge of
superintendent and several assistants,
and everything is kept in very good
order. The mansion stands on high
ground overlooking the Potomac,
which is very wide, and the view from
the porch over the broad lawn is
beautiful. After visiting the tomb we
went on down the hill to the steam.
boat landing where the boat from
Washington stops every day. We saw
schools of young perch and other fish
in the water, and had fine view up
and down the river. Coming back
up the hill we passed the coach house
and saw the old family coach used by
Washington.
bought Mt. Vernon souvenir,
little hatchet made of cherry wood
grown on the place, which reminded
me of the story about Washington's
cutting down his fathers cherry tree
with his little hatchet. also picked
up some white pebbles in the flower
garden to keep as memento Of our
visit there. We left Mt. Vernon at
1880 feeling that it was the most inter-
esting place that we had visited during
our journey. By the time we got
home and got our lunch it was 3.45
and as all the public buildings close
at Ago, we did not 60 TO any of them
but went to Chevy Chase which is
about miles from Washington. The
line Of trolley cars runs out there.
The land is owned by company and
it is intended to be place for hand
some residences and summer resort
for Washington people. 1t is in the
state of Maryland, so that we were in
three different states that day, Dis
trict of Columbia, Virginia, and
Maryland.
On Wednesday morning we went
through the Slate, War, and Navy
departments, and then the Smith
sonian Institute, which is one of the
finest museums in the world, the
Medical museum, where / did not see
anything that l cared for, and then to
the u. S. Fish Commission building
where we saw lot of fish in tanks OF
water. There are not many there, as
most of them are at the Atlanta
exposition where we saw them in the
U. S. Government Building. We
were near the Washington monument
but did not go up in it. 1t is SIS IT.
high and is made of stone from every
state in the Union, and from nearly
every country in the world. 1t takes
the elevator about 10 minutes to get
to the top. :. -,
Washington is beautiful city with
!. wide, clean streets, pretty parks, hne
statues, and Government buildings
scattered all around. We could have
spent several days more there in sight
seeing, but the weather grew colo
and unpleasant so we decided to star
for home. On Thursday we went tc
; Philadelphia and on Friday we came
t home, after an absence of IS days.
| G.. EDWARD ELwELL JR.