The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1899-02-17
Present-Day Thoughts.
BY "NEMO."
Written FIR the Citiz N !

A aShingtOn Centennial-If
American faith in Washington is
deeper than mere words, there
will be this year two occasions for
showing to his memory the re-
spect, the veneratiOn that it de-
serves. One hundred years ago,
at peace with all men, happy i'll
the administration of his prop.
erty, busy in correspondence on
momentOuS subjects and pro-
f0undly blessed in his home life
Washington though in full vigor
of rugged age, was ripening for
the harvest of death. His day
was done December II, 1899, and
because it was we'll done we
should see to it in every com.
munity there is this year a re-
studying Of the man who stands
head and shoulders above all
others who participated in laying
the cornerstone of the Republic.
To be born is no unusual hui
man experience, neither is it un-
usual to die. The value of life is
reckoned solely by the individual
fill into the gap between to com,
mOnplaces. There is so short a
cry, for some Of us between the
two ''silenceS," that life and
what we do with it becomes
strangely urgent matters. Wash
ingtOn says in one of his letters:
"ldleneSs is diSreputable under
any neutrality-suspicious. of
no good even when unaccompa-
MED by vicious habits" Like a
sane man, lie partook Of his own
advice; and the chief impression
left by a close study of the man,
his thoughts, his acts, his writ
ings, his influence is that his life
was a full one = filled with
healthy endeavOr wherever it
pleased Providence-in whom he
believed most devoutly-to place
him.
Another charm of his charac-
ter was that his energy was al
ways well directed. TO some of
us who are over enthusiastic and
perhaps nervouSly constituted,
the awakening to a sense of Gin
dividual responsibility to AL
mighty Cod" as Daniel Webster
expressed it, tends to do any
thing and everything that needs
doing. Twenty things around us
clamor for attention. There
comes i'll the need for poiSe of
character, preventing us from
first an impetuouS dash in this
direction and then an ignomin-
iOus retreat in another. "One
thing | do" not "twenty things
| dabble at" One fire in noble
heart may well serve to heat one
iron--too many irons will put the
fire out. Surely along one line of
thought Washington was a mar.
vel of self-posSession. He was
not hasty in his acts and there
fore not defeated; he was not
swift as sea hawk in his decis.
ions and therefore he was never
out of sight of those who followed
with him; he was not abnormal
in his intellect and therefore not
cratic; he was not a fierce parti.
san and therefore not dragged
into the unseemly squabbles of
his day. The grand old man of
England, whose full life ended so
gloriously and so recently, Glad
stone, has said this of Washing
ton: 81 look upon Washington
among great and good men, as
one peculiarly good and great.
He has been to me for more than
forty years a light upon the path
OF life" 1t means that great
hearts are greater than national
bonds, that he who lives right,
he who lives unselfshly, he whose
words speak out grand inspira-
tons belongs not to a nation but
to humanity. In which respect
Washington has no advantage
over the humblest of us who have
open hearts for noble impulses.
1t seems almost a coincidence
that our thoughts should have
been directed last week towards
Lincoln and his actions in rela-
ton to the slave conditions of the
United States. If we call him
the emancipation, Washington
should be called the great pre-.
visionary. In 1889 he wrote: 'It
is among my first wishes to see
some plan adopted by which sla-
very in this country may be abol.
ished." Again in 1897 he wrote;
81 wish from my soul that the
Legislature of this State could
see the policy of gradual abOli.
ton of slavery. IT might Dreyent