The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1897-04-24

ELEANOR PARKE CUSTIS, ADOPTED DAUGH-
TER OF WASHINGTON.
the hope of a revocation of a former
cruel sentence, and see if / cannot find
an alteration in my favor"
The reply Of the "stern parent has
not been preserved, but in all probabili-
ty was unfavorable in the light of sub.
sequent occurrences. According to a To-
cal tradition, this lady was married to
a citizen of Williamsburg, in which
town she once witnessed her rejected
suitor's triumphal reception by the citi-
zens. Seeing her in a window, the gay
gallant waved his sword in recognition,
and she was SO overcome by chagrin
that she tainted dead away.
If the future Father of His Country
were reminded Of the incident at all,
doubtless he would have smiled rather
grimly, recalling the elusive lines which
he is said to have indited to this same
girl. They are really too wretched to re-
peat, although there is no doubt Of their
authenticity. Another, which sportiye
fate has preserved for our perusal, is
not quite S o bad and is an a~crostic after
the manner of the times:
From your bright, sparkling eyes l was un.
done.
Rays you have more transparent than the sun
Amidst its glory in the rising Day.
None can you equal in your bright array;
Constant in your calm and unspotted mind,
Equal to all, but will to none prove kind.
So knowing seldom One so Young you'll find.
All, woes me, that / should love and conceal!
Long have l wish'd, but never dare reveal,
Even though severely Loves pains l feel.
Xerxes that great wasn't free from Cupid's
dart,
And all the greatest Heroes felt the smart.
We have good evidence in the acrostic
that the object of this effusion was a
Miss Frances Alexander, a descendant
Of the Earl of Stirling, after whom the
city of Alexandria was named and
whose parental estate adjoined that of
Mount Vernon on the north. As this
poem seems to be unfinished it is posi-
BILE that Georges heart was not very
much engaged, or that his Pegasus got
tired and fell by the wayside, for he
was by no means a thoroughbred, like
the equines the young surveyor and
planter was won't to ride in the flesh.
Frances Alexa, it appears, never at.
tanned to the felicity of being proposed
to by Washington, and thus a possible
opportunity was lost of joining together
two hearts that might have beat and
two fine plantations that might have
looked we'll as one.
And then, when we come to mention
young ladies who were proposed to or
who narrowly missed it, there is the IA
mous Miss Phillips of New York, whom
Washington met when on his first jour-
ney to Boston and who was probably
one of the ladies whom he ''treated to
ye microcosm." We might swell the
list indefinitely should we pursue the
subject further Of girls to whom Wash
ington was on the point of proposing OR
at whom he glanced as he pranced along
on his gallant charger, an object of envy
and admiration.
1t Is by no means a matter of surprise
that Washington should have had a few
love affairs. The surprising thing is that
he did not have more-that are known.
The Tories, in those virulent forged
letters ascribed to Washington, based
a charge of infidelity upon an inter
cepted epistle from his friend, Benja.
min Harrison, who wrote-to ''amuse
you and unbend your mind from the
cares of war"-a rather racy account of
his last affair.
But this was in 1775, and we cannot
believe what the naughty Benjamin af-
fected to-that his general" would
have even in jest made himself a party to
an intrigue. Many charges have been
brought against Washington, but most
ly shafts envenomed by politics were
discharged at him. His private charac-
ter was untouched.