The National tribune., 1900-06-07

at Mi. Vernon when 16 years of age. leav-
ing the fortune she inherited from her IA
ther to Washington. The estate was cared
for by Mr.. and Mrs. Washington until
John Parke Gusts was Of age.
Washington had purchased another es-
tate of Alexander, called Arlington, south
of Arlington, between Arlington and Al
exandria, on the Potomac. This he gave
to John Parl1e Gusts. Young Gusts took
his youthful bride to this home, Miss
Eleanor Calvert, of Mt. Airy, whom he
married when she was 16 years old. In
this home four children were born to them
Elizabeth Parke, who afterward married
George Law, a nephew of Lord Ellenbor-
ough, whoit is said was mixed upwith the
Warren Hastings trial. and was obliged TO
leave England; Martha Parke, who made
an early marriage to Thomas Peter; Ell
eanor Parke, known as Nellie Gusts, who
married Lawrence Lewis, a nephew of
Washington, and George Washington
Parke Gusts, the owner of the Arlington
estate.
With the beginning of the Revolution
AIRY War John Parke Gusts enlisted. He
contracted fever at Yorktown, from which
he died. The brightness that illumined
this home went out with his death. Wash
ingion reached his bedside just before his
death. Before leaving the chamber he
took Mrs. Gusts in his arms and said:
"From this moment l adopt his two
youngest children as my own" And thus
these two children Became a part Of the
home life at Mt. Vernon.
e George Washington Parke Gusts was
but six months old when his father died.
When Washington lived IN New York, as
President of the United States, these chill
dren became a part of the Presidential
household, in the Osgood house, on Cherry
Street. The boy was present at the in
auguration of his fostcr-father as Pres-
dent Of the United States, and saw the
oath administered by Chancellor Living
ston, upon the balcony of Federal Hall,
in New York, in 1888. He heard the
pledge Of fidelity 10 the Constitution from
the lips Of every President, every four
years, down to President Pierce Through
childhood and youth, Nj. Vernon was his
home, until his grandmother died, and the
breaking up of the home in 1902, when he
commenced the erection of the mansion at
Arlington. Here he kept bachelors hall
until, at the age OF %, he married Mary
Lee Fitzhugh, whose mother was Ran
dolph.
Custis inherited great wealth, for he sue
ceeded to all the Gusts estates, those in
Westmoreland County and along the Pa
munky River, in addition to tract of 200
acres lying north of Arlington, in Fairfax
County, which came to him through Wash
ington.
The location of Arlington, its command
ing view, upon the brow of an elevation
more than 300 feet above tide-water, caused
Gusts to select this from among his beau
tiful estates for his home
Two years before, the Capital had been
moved to Washington, and this site had
a commanding view Of the Potomac at its
foot; beyond, the City Beautiful, with its
Capitol, its monuments, its public build
ings, its enfolding forests and undulating
hills.
The old manor house, in which the Al.
exanders had lived, was located on the
river bottom, quite mile TO the eastward
of the present home, near the famous
Gusts spring. 1t was an unpretentious
house, containing only four rooms, and
was located on the bank of what is called
Little River. Only crumbling walls make
record of the spot where it stood. 1t was
in fair state of preservation when occu
pied by the Federal forces during the civi
war. Why it was demolished by direction
of the War Department doth not appear
1t would have been one of the most his
toric homes of Washington. Its antiquity
merited a different fate; but antiquities
have no rights that war is bound to re
spect
ArlTK = Il Il.
ancient temple of Theseus, at Athens
The tall, massive columns of the porticc
are designed from good type of Greek
architecture. There are broad Railways
and spacious chambers, which give the