Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1899-02-20
WASHINGTON --THE MIN.

HllUlllllulUly I'LL WITH,
Memoirs and valet "reminiscences
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 overshadowing 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 a 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
he course or heavy. We have Gilbert
Stuart'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 habtual
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 a 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 Il 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
We're bad from early manhood. One
by one he had them pulled out. unit
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 20 build out to the origina
lines by filing in the vacant places
with cotton. Beyond conveying tc
posterity an irreverent suspicion thai
the Father OF His Country chewet
tobacco, the success of Stuart's eX
pertinent was only moderate.
Later on in life Washington had t.
make a general radiance of all hi,
natural teeth and supply their places
with false ones. But the dentists o
those days were not so skilful as the,
are now, and 1t is hardly to be believ
ed they left the mouth with the origin
al expression nature gave it.
There was one portrait of Washing
ton which those who knew him bes
said looked more like him than an,
other, and yet that is the one nov
least generally known. 1t is tn,
Sharples portrait painted in 179I
four years before his death, and wheI
Washington was siXty-three years o
age. There is something about thi
picture which makes you instinctivel,
feel that it looks like the man it wa
intended for. All the others conve,
a certain suspicion of idealization an,
fiattery. This one has the distinc
STANG of truth and honesty. 1t i
the picture of somebody whom it i
possible to think of as having been
living reality and not a myth.
With this picture before us and b,
the aid of the many minute detail
that have been written about his per
Sonal appearance it is possible to form
an idea of how Washington reall!
looked, although, of course. we mus
allow for the absence of that Certain
something" in his face which the art
lists could never catch and which hi,
intimates-so far as Washington ha.
any lntimates-never could distinctly
recall in his absence. 1t is intercstin.
w 'p'Nh hiiNN III tlllo NOuItftlDu OH nov
George would look We're he to com,
back to us in this year of grace 1899
the 16Ith anniversary of his birth
All the information we have OH tb,
subject goes TO show that In his latei
years, as well as in his youth, he wa,
particular in the matter of dress. TIL,
details he sent to his London tailor ar,
very minute, and his criticisms of cnr
ments already delivered to him h,
that worthy are searching and yigor
Gus, showing that the tailors WORT
had been subjected to very carefu
inspection by mon who knew ius
what he wanted and intended to hay,
it.
1t is not at all improbable that I
Washington were instructing a tailo
of to-day he would direct that th,
trousers be little wider at the bot
tom and cover more of the foot than
is the fashion just now. For the fac
is George did have prodigious foo
area. A man six feet three iLche!
high would naturally have good