New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1896-12-13
THE TIME.

There is a difference between these two books
by which the reader profits. Mr. Ford mas
sought through ingenious collation. OF all
that WASHINGTON ever wrote. or has been quoted
as saving to make him. in spite of his reserve
speak for himself There is q cumulative force
about his pile of documentary evidence whlch
results In a vivid outline of its subject III Is
only when It is necessary to fill in interstices III
the structure that Mr. Ford permits himseIl
any independent writing. Professor WILSON, on
the other hand. has sought to reveal Washhg-
ton as much through his environment as through
his own character and where Mr. Ford Is con-
tent to traverse briefly the conditions anna
which his hero was developed our other author
describes the political economy and the social
manners of the Virgnian Commonwealth WIN
q warmth Of feeling and a courage OF magma
ton that give his book distinctly original fla
vor Neither writer deserves anything but
praise. and there is nothing invidous in the
contrast we have, drawn it merely indicates the
advisability of reading Professor Wilson first
1t Is because the method he adopts has been too
often neglected that the Washington tradition
has become by all odds too traditional. Forget
E the time and place in which he lived ana IL is
easy to reject many a trait which is necessary
to the complete portrait of the man. Remember
the sporting prOclivites OF Virginia gentlemen
In the Colonial period and the news that WASH
ington occasionally attended cock-hght VIII
not seem apocryphal stain upon his re-
specta bty intolerable to be borne by any pa
4triotc American. The truth u.s. we have had
too much of smugly respectable Washington
the man whom Kipling would describe as "a
plaster saint; and If we have alluded to an
extreme instance Of his participation In the
.amusements Of Old Virginia it is only to make
ito ba hety g.
oendary bloodless Washington Of much so-called
" history" and the creature Of flesh and blood
who is far more deserving Of our reverence. He
was intensely like ourselves because he was in
tensely like his contemporaries in many OF the
things that make for the construction Of char
acter.
80 Socially and politically the Virginia Of the last
century was school that left its mark indelibly
,upon all who were really part Of the general
fabric. Washington belonged heart and soul to
the familiar life of the region In describing the
immortal customs of the period. Professor Will
son is careful to point out the special style of
those planters who with their families and
friends. constituted good society" in the latter
!. decades of the eighteenth century He insists
: that the typical landholder gentleman
p, but mo prince" He had wealth. position. nfu-
ence. but "he lived always in the style of pro-
vinciar and gentleman commoner. as his neigh
bors, and: friends did" This is accurate enough.
Ats the. same time Professor Wilson never loses
ID sights OF the fact that Virginia was rich beyond
the dreams of the most ambitious plebeian in all
that is contained in the word pride The leading
families knew they were leaders, they recognized
keenly the difference between blue blood and
. blood not so blue and hence in their daily
life a curious combination of primitive New
World virtues with traditional Old World traits
that one is on the brink Of calling foibles until
they seen to be virtues too OF another kind
We talk Of colonial simplicity. The phrase Is ex-
act II by 1t we mean directness of contact be-
tween man and nature. but il does not apply
wholly to the intercourse which went on be-
tween man and man. That had a certain sincere
frankness which went far TO reduce the formali-
ties Of life to more spontaneous standard than
that Of the England from which they came But
neither their origin nor their essential point was
ever allowed to fade from the minds Of people
who were not only ladies and gentlemen. but
wished to be such, took pains to be such. knew
they were ladies and gentlemen. and rejoced in
IT, The politics Of the time were touched by the
passion without which. indeed. no politics can
prosper men and patriots being what they are.
but IL we read of some sharp practice in the
elections we read OF very little personal heat very
little OF the rancor which in more modern times
leads men to vituperaton and all kinds Of sour
rility In everything there was preserved the
dignity Of race the distinction Of manner which
may to-day strike us as sometimes synonymous
with rightly. but which. as a matter Of fact.
meant first and last a fine mental poise. Men
secure of their position never grow nervously
anxious TO defend it.