The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1897-06-03

IaSnlOneQ SfduN-
eur that it seems almost a sacrilege to
tear away the curtain of cOntented ST.
ence which time has hung there and
% gaze with modern eyes half blinded
oy the dust of unceasing whirl at the
bright, stately days of patch and pow
Ter, says correspondent of the New
York Tribune. Nearly every house has
is bit of history, it's comedy of dances
md assemblies, or it's darker tragedy
If misfortune. death and even murder.
Among the places crowded with his
'orical myths and shadows, the old
carlyle house stands pre-emlnent, for
has played it's part in all the war
are Of the country and has had no less
| share in the heyday of Alexandria's
glory. Built of stone and Holland
bricks by the early settlers. supposed
y in 1910, it was used during the
french and Indian war as fort; and
II the old kitchen that is now falling
nto decay there is well that has
supplied the place with water through
III the varied phases of it's long exist.
2nce. 1t was in the house that rose
above the fort, which, by the way,
made a most convenient foundation,
rot to mention stables and dungeons,
hat Braddock, in consultation with
he governors of five colonies, planned
lis Inflated campaign; here young
George Washington received his first
commission; the war of 1872 saw 1t
use as powder magazine and a
prison. while in the civil war it was
lsed as a hospital Around the colo
1ial period, however, when Alexan-
Iria's glory was brightest, most of the
interest centers; for, though the old
house is now comparatively unknown
and obscure, being hidden by the sur
rounding wings of the Braddock
house, in those days it's pillared porti-
- looked down upon long terraces,
oordered with slender Lombardy pop
ars. The wide hall is flanked on eth
ar side by quaint little rooms, the most
famous of which is the blue parlor,
unchanged since the days of Wash
ngton, where the white cOrnlce Is
carved in queer little roses and thistles
to remind them, perhaps, of the old
English days of Merry Carlyle" Tt
was to this room that little Sallie Fair
fax tripped down the mahogany stairs
to dance at her first ball with Gen.
Washington and in the Tiny 'antecham-
Der in front Gen. Braddock Slept. Up
stairs the rooms are small and the
modern housewife would look in dis
may at the cupboards, for they are
scarcely more than two feet square.
The windows which front the river Or
iginally opened upon balcony that
overhung most enticing garden, but
the balcony has gone and the old gar
den, with it's circular path of brick,
it's great box-trees and wistaria vines,
is fast becoming a dream of the past.
On the third floor the rooms are small
er and so still that but for the spotless
whitewash they might easily be peo-
pied with ghosts. At one end of the
passage that runs between the rooms
there is door leading into a corridor
Of the old hotel and down it's length
Of blackness it is said that the wailing
Of baby, long since dead, often
UltdhS lAIOuS1l I1lC SllllutSS Ol Lu6
night SO much for the ghosts, who,
unfortunately, do not walk in broad
daylight, but the old vaults, far down
below, are surely spooky enough, even
where the sunlight pours it's warm
flood through the doorless archway.
In one of the partitions above the
vaults stands an old cupboard, made
by the Indians, with traces of beading
thick1y covering the doors. The beads,
however, have all disappeared. Down
The stone stairs again, to the left, there
Is supposed to be an underground way
hat led to the river, which in those
days was nearer by several hundred
feet than 1T is now, but the vault has
long been walled in, and it's secrets
are still unsolved. The Braddock
house, which surrounds this relic eff
a bygone stateliness, is of much lat
er date, burt quaint, rambling enough
Did place it is. The front was original
~ built for a bank, and the rest of the
house was added afterward. It, too,
Ias seen many changes and much de-
generation, and it's wings seems fairly
% shake with holy horror at the buzz
ing of the telegraph wires that have
heir home in it's staid and proper
walls. Straight down the street from
he Braddock house is the old Clagett
:aWern (they were all taverns in those
aays), whose lower floor has been de-
generated into something that is more
ike a junk shop than anything elses
but upstairs are the assembly rooms,
which, it is said, George Washington
often honored with his presence. There
Is a queer little musicians gallery
looking into it that was accessible only
rom the lower hall by means Of a lad
der, as the tiny door leading into it
is high up in the wall When the
musicians had assembled the ladder
was taken away, leaving those unfor-
.unates no way of escape. This room,
now divided into three, is used as
slub room by an organization that has
lone much to preserve and care for it.
The carved wainseoting and molding