The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-03-11
CURRENT LITERATURE.



THE FAMILY OF WASHINGTON.
George washingto, was cast for his
career by very scant ana homely train
ing. Augustine Washington, his father,
lacked neither the will nor the means to
set him handsomely afoot, with as good q
schooling, both In books aud In affairs,
as was TO be had; he would have done all
that liberal and provident man should
do to advance his boy In the world he
had lived to go with him through his
youth. He owned land In four counties,
more than five thousand acres ali told,
and lying upon both the rivers that re-
fresh the fruitful Northern Neck, besides
several plots of ground In the promising
village OF Fredericksburg, which lay OPP
posite his iands upon the Rappahannock;
and one.twelfth part OF the stock Of the
Principle Iron Company, whose mines
and furnaces in Maryland aud Virginia
yielded a better profit than any others in
the two colonies. He had commanded q
ship in his time, as so many OF his neigh
bors had In that maritime province,
carrying iron from the mines to England.
and no doubt bringing convict laborers
back upon his voyage home again. lie
himself raised.the ore FROM the mines that
lay upon his own lands, close to the
miles to the river. Matters were very
well managed then, Colonel Byrd said,
and no pains were spared to make the
business profitable. Captain Washington
had represented his home parish OF
Truro, too, in the House OF Bnrgesses,
and frank gray eyes must have made him
as conspicuous as his constituents could
have wished. He was man OF the world,
every inch, generous, hardy, fndepend-
ent. He lived long enough, too, to see
how stalwart and capable and OF how
noble a spirit his young son was to be,
with how manly bearing he was to
carry himself in the world; and had
loved him and made him his companion
accordingly. But the end came for him
before he could see the lad out of boy
hood. He died April IL, 17a3, when he
was but forty nine years of age, and be-
fore George was IL; and in his will there
was, of course, for George only younger
sons portion. The active gentleman had
been twice married, ana there were seven
children to be provided for. Two sons OF
the first marriage survived. The bulk OF
the estate went, as Virignian custom die
tated, TO Lawrence. the eldest son. To
Augustine, the second son, fell most of
the rich lands in Westmoreland. George,
the eledest born of the second marriage,
left TO the guardianship of his young
mother, shared with tho four younger
children the residue Of the estate. He
was to inherit his fathers farm upon ths
Rappahannock to possess, and to culti-
vate IL he would, when he should come
of age but for the rest his fortune were
to make. He must get such services BILE
training as he could for a life of inde-
pendent endeavor. The two older BROTH
ers had been sent to England to get
their schooling and preparation for life,
as their father before them had been TO
get his Lawrence to make ready to take
his fathers place when the time should
come; Augustine, 1t wac at 6rst planned,
to fit himself for the law. George
could now look for nothing of the kind.
lie must continue, as he had begun, to
get such elementary and practical instruc-
tion as was to be had OF schoolmasters in
Virginia, and the young mother's care
must stand in the stead OF a fathers
pilotage and oversight.
Fortunately Mary Washington was
wise and provident mother, a woman of
too firm a character and too steadfast
courage to be dismayed By responsibility.
she had seemed only a fair and beautiful
girl when Augustine Washington married
her, and there was romantic story told
of how that gallant Virignian sailor and
gentleman had literally been thrown at
her feet out of carriage in the London
streets by way of introduction-wher
she, too, was a visiting stranger out OF
Virginia. But she had shown singular
capacity for business when the romantic
days of courtsh p were over.-From "Col-
onel Washington" by Woodrow Wilson
In Harper's Magazine for March.