Middletown transcript., 1899-02-18
GEORGE WASHINGTON.

Greatness is not plant of rapid
growth, as the mushroom which springs
up in single night. History affords
but single instance of exceptional
precocity developing into extraordinary
genius, and this was the case of Gen
ghis Khan, who at the age of IA COM
manded great army and led it to a
glorious victory. Yet he was born to
his kingdom and had the most sagacious
of advisers, whose counsels he was
wise enough to heed.
But the rhetorician VINO records his
tory seeks for evidences of peculiar
merit in the youth of heroes. Books
are full Of apocryphal accounts of the
boyhood deeds of illustrious men, from
the days of Alexander until the present
time.
No man has suffered more in this
direction than Washington. He had
the misfortune to win the enthusiastic
admiration of old Parson Weems,
peripatetic preacher with tendencies to
hyperbole in speech. Weems apotheo-
sized the Father of His Country, max
ing Of him divinity sinless as the
Saviour of the world. He meditateo
and meditated upon the virtues of his
hero until be really believed him to
have been positively immaculate.
The parson, as he later confessed,
was greatly chagrined to discover thai
Washington when boy was just like
other boys. He shared rabbits, went
fishing, played hockey, muddied his
clothes, "scrapped'' with his playmates,
had a superb appetite and slept well.
In short, although Weems knew and
conversed with number of Washing
toms youthful companions, he was
unable to learn Of single incident in
his early life that was worthy Of special
mention. George was fairly goodish
boy, the kind that is liked by teacher
and pupil alike, quick of temper,
prompt to resent an affront and with
an inclination for the sea and for
fighting.
Weems wanted color for Washing
TONS youth, and he found it in his own
perfervid Imagination, in the same
manner that Macaulay manufactured
tales in derogation of William Penn,
and Froude framed lies about Mary,
Queen of Scots, with the difference
that Weems meant his.lies to be harm
less and at the same time helpful to the
fame of his hero and beneficial to the
youth of each succeeding generation
of the great republic.
The seed-sowing incident told many
millions of times over to gaping young
sters is fgment of the parsons fancy.
Washington pere was decidedly ortho
dox, believing every word of the Bible
higher criticism had not then come
Inland he enforced moral lessons in
the same manner as Solomon, with the
rod and promises Of more of it in the
future. There was nothing poetic in
the old gentleman's nature; he sowed
seed that he might have harvest of
grain, and not that he might bestoW
an object lesson upon his fast-growing
boy.
| The hatchet business was the uttering
of lie that the extreme truthfulness
of the lad might be made manifest.
Tbs only strange thing about it is that
old Parson Weems, who dearly loved a
lie, should have been attracted towards
this element of tiuthfulness in his here,
| Weems did not know enough to keep
probabilities in view. Ii the incident
had occurred, it would not have been
necessary for the old gentleman to in
quire of George concerning the vandal-
ism. The tiny chips would have shown
that it was the work of hatchet, and
George, Eeing the only white boy upon
the plantation, the conclusion would
have been irresistible that George was
the culprit.
The truth is that Washington's life
was as uneventful as that of any aver
age farm boy of the United States
today.