The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-02-20
rant the epithets that Eagan applied In
his infamous TRADE against the head of
the army.
PRESENT DAY THOUGHTS.

HLOlUJ UNI IHUUUDIOs
BY G. Grosvenor DAVE.
"A Washington Centennial-If Ameri-
can faith in Washington is deeper than
mere words, there will be this year the
occasions for showing to his memory
the respect, the veneration that 1t de-
serves. One hundred years ago, at
peace with all men, happy in the adj
ministration of his property, busy in
correspondence on momentous subjects
and profoundly blessed in his home life
Washington, though in full vigor OF
rugged aga, was ripening for the harvest
of death. His day was done December
IA, 1899, and because it was well done
we should see to it that in every COM
munity there is this year restudying
of the man who stands head and Shout
ders above all others who participated
in laying the cornerstone of the re-
public. y
To be born is no unusual human ex-
perience, neither is it unusual to die.
The value of a life is reckoned solely by
what the individual fills into the gap
between two commonplace. There is
so short a cry, for some of US, between
"the two silences," that life and what
we do with it become strangely urgent
matters. Washington says in one of
his letters: "Idleness is disreputable I'M
der any circumstances productive of
no good. even when unaccompanied by
vicious habits Like a sane man, he
partook of his own advice; and the
chief impression left by close study
of the man, his thoughts, his acts, his
writings, his influence is that his life
was "a full one-filled with healthy en-
deavor wherever it pleased Providence
in whom he believed most devoutly-
to place him.
Another charm of his character was
that his energy was always well direct
ed. To some Of us who are over-enthu-
siastic and, perhaps nervously consti-
tuted, the awakening to a sense of Elm
dividual responsibility to Almighty
God" as Daniel Webster expressed it,
tends to the attempt to do anything and
everything that needs doing. Twenty
things around us clamor for attention.
There comes in the need for poise of
character, preventing US from first an
impetuous dash in this direction and
then an ignominious retreat in an
other Zone thing 1 do" not twenty
things I dabble at" One fire in a no
BILE heart may we'll serve to heat one
iron-too many irons will put the fire
out. Surely along such a line of
thought Washington was a marvel of
self-possession. He was not hasty in
his acts and therefore not defeated; he
was not swift as IA sea-hawk in his de-
cisions and therefore he was never out
of sight of those who followed with
him; he was not abnormal in his intel
lect and therefore not erratic; he was
not a fierce partisan and therefore not
dragged into the unseemly squabbles
of his day. The grand old man of
England, whose full life ended SO glo-
riously and so Neutrality-suspicious.
said this of Washington: Il look
upon Washington among great and
good men, as one peculiarly good and
great. He has been to me for more
than forty years light upon the path
of life It means that great hearts are
greater than national bounds-that he
who lives right, he who lives unselfsh-
ly, he whose words speak out grand as
pirations belongs not to a nation but to
humanity. In which respect Washing
ton has no advantage over the hum
blest of us who have open hearts for
noble impulses.
Tt seems almost a coincidence that
our thoughts should have been directed
last week toward Lincoln and his ac-
ticns in relation to the slave conditions
of the United States. If we call him
the emancipator, Washington should be
called the great pre-visionary. In 1859
he wrote: TT is among my first
wishes to see some plan adopted by
which slavery in this country may be
abolished" Again, in 1897, he wrote:
81 wish from my soul that the Legisla-
ture of this State could see the policy
of a gradual abolition of slavery. 1t
might prevent much future mischief
Alas. the mischief did come. the wine
press of a nations blood was trodden in
righting a wrong, and the abolition
came when even those who benefited
by it were agonized and dazed at the
light of liberty around them. Wash
ington's great dream and compare
lively modest bequest was for an anti
sectional National University. This
would have brought a better under
standing where there should have been
no misunderstanding. The dream is
not too late for fdlfMment, and supreme
efforts for carrying out Washingtons
idea to the full should be made during
this centennial year of his death.
Washington's sword was mighty-his
pen was mightier. His sword wore out
the enemy more often by leading it on
fruitless chasings and bewildered
fiounderings than by pitched battles
and decisive combats. But his pen
as have said on a previous occasion
his pen and those of the group of men
al ound him force us to marvel at the
foresight which laid the foundations of
Western empire SO admirably that
unexampled expansion has not rent
asulader work cemented with blood.
with lives and with sacred honor. You
impressiona BILE youths whose brows al
ready glow with the dawn of a new CEN
tury. compare Washington as he finally
sheathed his sword in March, 1874, with
, the lace-frilled fop, the English George,
who in the same month of the same
year attained his majority and cele-
brated it with pomp. Clothes and titles
have their glamour, but glamour passes
The quiet, unobtrusive man whose
sword was clean, and heart also, is al
ready more to the world than all the
four Georges together. Our leader did
not have a cometic career of splendid
wckeGness. His was gray life be-
side such a one. Yet he told, tells, and
e.. Ali -