Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1899-02-23
washington THE NAN.

have made more than one popular idol
totter on its pedestal But not so
with the immortal American patriot
whose 167th birthday will soon be
celebrated. George Washington bears
microscopic inspection. Under none
of the innumerable sidelights which
have been thrown upon his. character
and personality does his dignity
dwindle. Scattered here and there
through the great rubbish-heaps that
have been written about him are
many minute details. of the little
things which reveal to us the actual
man Washington as those who lived
near him saw him and knew him.
Put them together and examine him
with all the light they throw upon
the frail human envelope which bound
him, and he is still George Washing
ton-the one ovcrshadowing heroic
figure of our American life and his
tory.
1t was said of George Washington
during his life-said by those who
knew him best; said by the artists
who studied his features and tried to
reproduce them upon canvas-that
there was shadowy something in his
face which the memory could never
quite picture in his absence, and
which Gilbert Stuart admitted he
could not distinctly depict or even
suggest with his brush. So it is very
clear none of the portraits enable us
to think of him as he actually was.
We know he had dark brown hair;
that his eyes We're light blue, verging
upon gray; that his nose was long
and prominent, with too much breadth
to be Roman and not quite enough to
be course or heavy. We have Gilbert
btuart's statement that his eyes were
set In sockets larger than those of
any person this great portrait artist
had ever painted. Stuart and many
other people tell us that the habitual
expression Of his eyes was reflective
almost to the point Of melancholy.
We know, too, that his cheek bones
were broad and high.
About the mouth there Is more un-
certainly, except that it was wide and
straight and closed in line so firm
and strong that one man who saw
him says he gave the impression Of
always having his jaws tightly clinch-
ed. But there is bit Of human his
tory about that mouth, and it turns
on the fact that the immortal George
suffered the torments Of the damned
with toOthache, including swelling Of
the jaws and all the other Internal ac-
cessories of that malady. His teeth
were bad from early manhood. One
by one he had them pulled out, until
when Gilbert Stuart painted his por-
trait the expression Of the mouth was
so changed by the gum cavities that
the artist tried the experiment Of at
tempting to build out to the original
lines by filling in the vacant places
with cotton. Beyond conveying to
posterity an irreyerent suspicion that
the Father OF His Country chewed
tobacco, the success of Stuart's ex-
pertinent was only moderate.
Later on in life Washington had to
make a general radiance Of all his
natural teeth and supply their places
with false ones. But the dentists Of
those days were not SO skilful as they
are now, and it is hardly to be believ-
ed they left the mouth with the origin
al expression nature gave 1t.
There was one portrait of Washing
ton which those who knew him bes,
said looked more like him than any
other, and yet that is the one now
least generally known. 1t is the
Sharples portrait, painted in 1895,
four years before his death, and when
Washington was e!Xty-three years of
age. There Is something about this
picture which makes you instinctively
feel that it looks like the man it was
intended for All the others convey
certain suspicion of idealization and
fattery. This one has the distinct
stamp of truth and honesty. 1t is
the picture of somebody whom it is
possible to think of as having been q
living reality and not myth.
With this picture before us and by
the aid of the many minute details
that have been written about his per-
sonal appearance it is possible to form
an idea of how Washington really
looked although, of course, we must
allow for the absence of that certain
something" in his face which the art.
lists could never catch and which his
intimates-so far as Washington had
any intimates-neyer could distinctly
recall In his absence. 1t Is interesting
to speculate in this connection on how
George would look We're he to come
back to us in this year of grace 1899
the 18th anniversary of his BIRTH
All the information we have on the
subject goes to show that In his later
years, as well as in his youth, he was
particular In the matter of dress The
details he sent to his London tailor are
very minute, and his criticisms of gar
ments already delivered to him by
that worthy are searching and vigor-
Gus, showing that the tailors work
had been subjected to very careful
inspection by a man who knew lust
what he wanted and intended to have
1t. -..
1t is not at all improbable that if
Washington We're instructing a tailor
Of to-day he would direct that the
trousers be little wider at the bot.
tom and cover more of the foot than
Ia the fashion just now. For the fact
is George did have prodigious foot
area. A man six feet three inches
high weuld naturally have good.
sized foot, but Washington's are de-
scribed as "a little larger than the
ordinary" And what applies to his
feet applies to his hands. 1t would
be 1rreverent to say that he had a
hand like ham, but If he were alive
and Sin politics" to-day it is highly
probable this delicate descriptive com
parison would find it's way into the
personal gossip Of the reptile press
Washington almost from his boyhood
was a soldier. In time of peace his
favorite amusements involved horse
back riding and vigorous bodily exer
else out of doors. This padded his
powerful frame with uniformly de
veloped set of muscles powerful
enough to make even a Sandow adj
mire. If he did not throw a stone
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