The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-05-04
Gdeas for dWomen


With wars and rumors of wars, peo-
pies minds turn back TO stories of great
heroes. Lee and Grant have been too
nearly removed from us to have anec-
dotes of their lives. But people are
telling all kinds of little domestic
anecdotes that are very interesting, re-
latlag to the great commanders of a
century ago. One OF the things which
one hears a deal sef now is General
washington's kindness and love for chill
dren. He had all the tact and the diplo-
macy to win a shy, frightened child,
that he had to make CORVALLIS sur
render at Yorktown.
One of the sweetest related of him is
recorded by the daughter of Major Cen
eral Nathaniel Greene.
She said she was a very little girl at
that time, and her mother had taught
her. with the ~strictness that was part
of the domestic training of a Revoiu-
tionary home. how to courtesy to
General Washington if ever she should
meet him. Nathaniel Greene's little
daughter was a wfIful little sprite, and
her mother determined to make her
courtesy as graceful and as charming as
became a little girl of those days.
For weeks the child rose from an old
fashioned chair, advanced toward her
mother. across a waxed floor. and drop
ped a courtesy, with her eyes cast down,
ana then repeated the little speech which
she was TO make to the great General.
Finally she got it by heart. and it
looked to her mother as If all would go
well.
The eventful day arrived when Mrs.
Nathaniel Greene took the little daugh-
ter down to Mt. yernon Mrs. Nathaniel
Greene. by the way, was a woman OF
indonitable viii. and brooked no dis
obedience or awkardness on the part OF
her children. With her beautiful violet
eyes she watched this child strictly.
The suspicious moment came. The Cen
eral stood in 4 great arm chair Mrs.
Washington greeted Mrs. Greene and the
little daughter with cordially, and then
the mother standing back, introduced,
with all the solemnity necessary for the
occasion, the little daughter of Nathaniel
Greene to the Comnander-in-Chief.
Washington rose up to his great height,
and the little child advanced, but. in
stead of making the courtesy and the
speech. she was SO frightened by the
whole scene that she dropped on her
knees before General Washington and
burst out crying.
Her mother was outraged. But the
General. leaning over. picked up the
child and tenderly wiped away her tears
with his own handkerchief, shen took
her over 70 the sofa and told her the
greatest number OF stories brought
down 10 her plane Of comprehension. and
finally she found herself laughing in
stead of crying-ertirely at her ease
with the greatest man in America.
Yet this was not enough for General
Washington; he shielded the little maid
en- from her mothers eyes, had her sit
next to him at the dinner table, loaded
her plate VITA ALI the good things dis
regardful of her mothers looks, and inn
mediately after dinner took her out
walking through the gardens of Mt.
Vernon.
This daughter of Nathaniel Greene,
when she was a women of seventy-ive
years. told this story of this encounter
with Washington as the sweetest moment
of her life. She says his diplomacy in
shielding her from her mothers wrath
was the I~oveliest act shown her in her
young life; this, together with the stories
he brought down to her childish compre-
hension, made it a rare and wonderful
recollection.
Mrs. Nathaniel Greene, wife of the
Major General, was one of the most beau
tiful women in America.
Probably this story of her is not very
well known: that she was the woman to
wear tie first piece of cotton ever made
in the United States.
Until that, time linen had taken the
place that cotton does now, and the first
piece of the new material was presented
to this beautiful wife of the soldier. She
had it embroidered all over with pink
rcsebuds, cut low neck, short sleeves, out
4lined with dainty ribbons and wore it to
one Of the brilliant national functions;
and from all thai posterity tells of her,
and all that her pictures show of her.
Mrs. Greene, in her cotton frock, was not
eaualled in beauty and manner by any
duchess or marchioness in satin and
jewels.
And who can blame them for their con-
tempt? who can wonder that they re-
gard our -Four Hundred" as the POM
pour joke that 1t is? | told an English
man yesterday that reports hdd feacieu
me from New York with respect to our
exclusives having struck into the number
: of s.seventy-fve," and Honeric mirth at
tackled him. They think the whole thing
piercingly funny. and who shall say that
they are wrong? Our great ladies" in
New York, who shut their doors to Mrs.
Trumpery Trash and open them to Mrs.
Folderol Flash. they regard with supreme
amusement whenever Indifference allows
them to notice such doings at all, says
Golfers Weekly.
Their attitude, taken in a general sense,
is sinlply this: You taught US a century
ago. when you managed to get rid of our
rule. that caste, above all things on earth,
should never crop out among you. Now.
when we look with amazement on your
tendency to exploit and develop it, you
answer us in the oldest of strains. You
tell us that we have all that sort Of hum
bug. and ask US if you haven't the same
right to 1t. OF course you haven't, for
you are breaking your word as a demo-
cracy to the entire Old World from which
you separated with such fine phrases
these wherein liberty, equality and fra
ternity were so magniloquently inter-
tangled. Our aristocracy, with their airs
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