Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1899-02-20
Washington A Fighter.

One hundred and sixty-seven. years
ago Mary Ball Washington was about
to become mother for the first time.
one hundred times she said to Angus
tine Washington, her husband, Il
hope it will be a boy" And one hun
dred times he said kindly, but calmly
having been through the same expert
ence four times with his first wife,
"Of course it will, Mary; don'tworry.'
Luckily for us, it was boy, and the
boy was George Washington.
This being his birthday and holi
DAY, you will perhaps find time to con-
sider what manner of man he was
and how he compares with the men
we call great nowadays. Our inten-
non, which we are frank to confess
mt the outset, is to show that he was
lighting man. When he was n
young boy, he wrote neatly in his
copybook:
Labor to keep alive in your breast
that little spark of celestial fire called
conscience When he had finished
that he went out and thrashed all the
boys he could ger hold of. He played
soldier and n'ade them let him be
captain. He wrestled, fought, raced
and indicated in various ways that he
was ready for trouble.
When he was fourteen, his mother
found it very hard to keep him from
enlisting in the navy.
AT nineteen he had a command In
the militia
When still a mere boy, at the Mon
ongahela, he had four bullet holes
through his coat and two horses shot
under him. This was fighting. He
was ready for it, with Indians, with
Englishmen, with Frenchmen or any
other sort of men that needed beat
ing-and they got it from him when
ever they felt that they needed it.
For fourteen or fifteen years he
lived peacefully as member of the
Virginia House of Burgesses. He had
plenty of money and plenty of oppor-
tunity to cultivate fine aristocratic
horror of war. But the love of fight
was alive in him all the time. When
he heard II 10 of the outrageous suf-
ferings in Boston, he did not suggest
mildness and a careful investigation.
He said: II will raise thousand
men, subsist them at my own expense,
and march with them at their head.
for the relief of Boston," Vulgar and
common and quarrelsome, wasn't it!
But it's just what he said.
This quarrelsome Washington was
positively delighted with the Declara-
ton of Independence, in spite of its
degrading advice to resent snubs.
Without any hesitation he under
took to whip England with an army of
fourteen thousand soldiers and about
twenty-five hundred struggling, un-
armed men. His soldiers had lust
nine cartridges each, and England at
that time had twenty-four thousand
troops in this country. unlimited am
munition and all England in reserve
to call upon.
Well, as you may have read. Wash
ngton made England give up a good
many million dollars worth of Ameri-
can real estate-which she will never
get back-and still he was not tired
of fighting. Frederick the Great sent
him his portrait--"From the Oldest
general in Europe to the greatest Gen
eral in the world" Even that did not
make Washington feel that the time
had come to stop. When he was
sixty-two years old he heard of upris-
ings in Pennsylvania against liquor
tax. He was ready to start out at the
head of the militia just as quickly
as he could pull on his white buck
skin breeches, but the uprising de-
cided to give up.
When he was siXty-four years old he
accepted the command of all troops
raised or to be raised in the United
States: and he was ready at a word
to fight France as he had fought Eng
land. He could easily have suggested
/ peaceful talk, since France had been
so useful to us. But his motto was
''If anybody wants trouble, let him
apply to the United States, and he can
have it in doses TO suit
When the time came to die, he gave
Death fight. He said: II die hard.
but I'm not afraid to go" When
death had finally won. he knew it.
and he still showed grit. He said TO
his doctors: II feel myself going; |
pray you take no more trouble about
me-"
He set an example living, and he
set an example dying, and he will
set an example as long as men are
men-it is fighting example.
He was first in peace and first in the
hearts of his countrymen because he
was first in war.
When he was dead and gone to a
Heaven where cowards-if admitted
certainly take second place; Napoleon
bound all his flags and standards with
Grape for ten days. and the ships of
England-thoSe that he had not sent
to the bottom of the sea-put their
flags at half mast.
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