The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1898-03-25

have proved them to be olt of the ques>
ton in practice. AS Utopian policy
1t is well enough to tell the
truth, not to undermine your
best friends and to be honor
able in the dark as well as I'm the light.
But practical men have abolished all
such things from real politics. The in
cident OF the cherry tree is case in
point. Even as a boy he seems to have
had the nonSensical chineras in his
head, such crazy notions as telling the
truth A politician who would start out
on his career just telling and acting the
truth would be like a bull in a china
shop.
He was q gentleman. He did not
buster and brag. He did not come
down and play poker and loaf around
grog shops and be hail fellow well met
with the boys. He always dressed
neatly and conducted himself with
courtliness and dignity Now, we
know this will not do. If you want any
office you must say so, you must spend
your money and mix with the ward
workers. Washington evidently was q
type Of that kind Of politician that is
occasionally heard of nowadays, and
that has been gibbetted with the epithet
Sunday school politicians" Although
we can not say that he ever actually
went to a Sunday school, yet, from
what we have seen of his character,
we have no hesitancy in saying he war
quite capable Of it, and If he did not
go ii was only because there were no
Sunday schools in his day and region.
But perhaps the most telling charge
to be laid at his door is that he was a
religious man and church member.
1t seems strange to us now who have
left such things to the women and
children, but there is no denying the
fact that George Washington was be-
lever in religion. 1t would not have
been so bad had he only Joined the
church on the eve Of election; some Of
our shrewdest men never neglect to
work the religious sentiment; and there
is no good reason for a man being a
church member II he doesn't take 1t
seriously; but Washington was evil
IDENTIFY very much in earnest and posi-
lively believed 1T all. And he not only
prayed himself and went to church, but
he even carried his religion into his
business, which was str&ige, and into
his politics, which was passing strange.
He was thoroughly reverent and hon
est, true to his word and his wife, de-
vout and consistent.
IT is when we look at such a man as
this that we feel we can never be too
thankful for the age in which we live.
Washington never had his poor brain
enlightened by the resplendent reveal
tions of Robert G. Ingersoll, and how
much greater he would have been had
he but learned to sneer and doubt and
rid himself of the hindering feeling of
reverence and respect for God! He
never had the advantage Of being told
that 1.-The ten commandments in poll
tics are an irridescent dream;" he be-
leved in the ten commandments and
kept them the best he could from his
youth. How much higher he might
have climbed If he had only sat at the
feet of the modern statesman and
learned to smile and smile and be a viii
lain still! AS 1t was, with all the dis
advantages under which he labored, he
became the father of his country But
then, If he had only been as clever as
we are, what might he not have been?
Who can tell? Perhaps he might have
been the mother of his country, too.