The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1903-08-24

! of saddle horses was eight. Thirty
seven bushels of wheat was the crop
for 1894, and the servants who dawdled
about the mansion probably exceeded
that number. On his home farm of 1000
acres it was necessary to buy five more
horses before he could get his fourth
plow going, there being eight horses to
the plow.
At this time, 1894, it appears from his
land-roll that his estate had shrunk to
10,Gi7 acres comparati lively little of which
was in cultivation. 1t does not seem that
there was any net income at all. now,
from the farms There was $4,000 grist
mill on the Rivanna, which did not pay;
there was the weaving of cloth, the forg-
ing Of nails and the other farm indus
tries common to large plantations or
that day. but Monticello was never a
+, farm in the sense that Mount Vernon
| was. Washington was practical farm
! err made the business yield profit; Mr..
Jefferson was not a practical farmer, and
| did not make his land pay. At least,
that Is the opinion the present writer
has reached after considerable investiga-
I Jion
| Back at Monticello. Mr. Jefferson put
! his whole heart into the work OF reno
| walton. Trim lines Of fruit trees. TO
run where zig-zag fences had rotted.
were set-an idea brought from France.
Artistic touches on house and grounds,
on lawn. terrace and garden. were ex-
penslvely neutrality-suspicious. brought
from Italy or England. New ways Of
rotating crops, restoring land. Increasing
the output, were tried-hints picked up In
| conversations with learned academical
farmers or from books which We're con-
vincing to the mind.
1t was a delight to Mr.. Jefferson to
apply his mechanical and mathematical
gifts to practical purposes. He dotted
on experiment He burned to make i'm
provements. He reached out to grasp
new fields IN thought and achievement.
He realized the vast possibilities of chem
istry when a savant like Button was
chasing the science with cookery; he saw
q flying machine worked by a screw in
Paris, and expressed the belief that the
screw propeller In water would be even
more effective. He reduced to writing
mathematical formula for making an
improved mold-board for turn plow, and
took good prize on It in France.
He made for his own use foldlng-chair
q copy press. an extension top to his
carriage, a one-horse "sulky." and nrmer-
Gus other Inventions, any one of which
would have made some Yankees fortune
He introduced the first threshlng machine
ever brought to this country, and he was
one of the first to import Merlno sheep.
He was n man whose originality some
times crossed the line Of the iudicrous.
The interior of his house gives some
evidence of this For instance. there was
an opening in the wall between his wife's
bed room and his own. the bed occu
pyng the open space Thus he could en-
ter the bed ut night from his room, and
she from hers In like manner they
could separate Of mornings A good
rangement but peculiar.
1t was Just such oddities as these which
caused some matter-of-fact people to
make fun of the sage of Monticello. Toll
Grafton is vet myth. and the unwritten
law is that You must conform.
Mr.. jefferson was not a cOnformer.
had no such reverence for antiquity as to
resent the appearance of the new moon
and to resist a change in the weather;
consequently. he often did things which
shocked the conservatives
Days OF Joy these were to this lover of
naurQ in all Der moods. in all her myriad
displays of sublimity or beauty To whom
did a flower speak In a language more
touching than to this great statesman?
lie would bend over violet or lily. over
tulip or rose. with a rapt enjoyment which
never grew old. never grew cold. With
every return of the spring his love was
of youth for the flowers.
And the birds--the birds! Did the
musicians OF the woods ever have a
better friend? lie loved their presence,
loved their beauty loved their song. loved
their love OF life
Read his letters to the children; note
his yearning to plant in their hearts the
love Of birds and flowers. See how ear
nestly he instils into young minds the |
true refinement to which every charm Of !
nature Is a poem without rhyme, a song |
without words.
AS a young lawyer he sketched out his |
plans for the home IDEAL, and the care
with which he expected to attract the
birds to come and live with him was |
written down with sober earnestness.
Protect the BIRDS When president Of |
the United States he wrote his daughter:
81 sincerely congratulate you on the ar !
rival of the mocking bird. Learn the |
children to venerate it as a superior be- |
ing in the form OF bird a being |
which will haunt them If any harm is |
done to itself its eggs.
In spite of debts and the deyastations |
of overseers. therefore. Mr.. Jefferson |
spent happily the year 1904 at Monticello. |
taking only casual interest In passing |
events. His time had not come to change |
the policies of the government.
Until Washngt0ns second term should /
expire there would be no good fighting |
chance for an opposition party. He |
could and would write letters to certain
prominent friends here and there, keep
ing in touch with public affairs, at the
same time that he was putting out peach
t,,ce WATCHING he Of In
cerne and peas. When the whisky rebel
lion broke out in pennsylvania, and dis
appea red at the advance of the troops. |
Mr.. .JefferSons sympa thes were rather
WITH the malcontents than with the Jaw
for the exercise he thought was Internal. !
When John Jay went to England, nego-
tiated a treaty which left Great Britain
and our sailors, while it forbade us to ex-
port cotton and Il good many other
things he saw as clearly as any one how
the honor Of the nation had been sacri-
feed to New England commerce.; but
when Washington gave the treaty his
sanction, he, like thousands of others.
had to swallow his Indignation and hope
for better things.
He witnessed the complete triumph of
the British faction In WaShington's cab-
met, and deplored it. He saw Edmund
Randolph the young Nirginian who had
left everything, broken every tie to ioin
Washington and serve his country-saw
nfl