The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-04-13
MARTHA WASHINGTON.
MOTHER OF HER COUNTRY.

THE meeting of the Women's Nom
day History club fell on Washing
toms birthday. That well inform
ed woman and spirited speaker, Mrs.
Abby, opened the days doings. She
said:
Madam President and ladies. Of all
the people that knew George Washing
ton, who was the one and only individ-
ual that ever dared literally to button
hole him. actually to seize the Father
of His Country by his waistcoat button
and hold him Familiarity to command
his attention."
Nobody answered. WELL continued
Mrs. Abby. "it was his wife, Martha
Washington She was the only person
in history who ever dared to sass
George Washington Nelly Parke Gus
tbs, Mrs. Washington's granddaughter,
often saw her grandmother seize the
august soldier and hold him while she
poured her wishes into his ear, and the
girl says the general at once became
attentive to her and her wishes 1t is
also recorded that on one occasion a
guest visiting at Mount Vernon heard
Mrs. Washington giving it to her hus-
band hot and heavy in a curtain lee
ture. which he did not resent even by
talking back. BY the way, ladies. what
was Martha Washington's maiden
name2r
And it was a fact that only two of the
History club knew it was Martha Dam
bridge. Mrs. Abby explained that the
girl Martha came out" in society at
the age of fifteen.
1T is very odd. too" continued Mrs
Abby. but the fame of Martha Wash
ington is so obscured by that of her
husband to make it difficult to as
certain the exact date OF her birth.
Leading encyclopedias do not give il.
I Tra 1osar hot che
some three months younger than
| George, he having been born in Feb
ruary, she in May, of the same year.
1892.
Again. how many American women
know that Martha Washington spent
much time with her husband in the
rude and comfortless camps of the
Revolutionary soldiers? She nursed
them; she sewed garments for them:
she knitted stockings for them At the
time of their greatest need she gave
out of her private fortune $4,000 of the
paper money of the time, all she could
| get, to relieve their wants.
How many of you know that Mar
tina Washington shared with the gen
| eral and his starving. freezing army
the retreat to Valley Forge and the ter
! rible winter there2 Nobody answers?
Well. never knew it myself till was
/ hunting in an old book for some Wash
/
/ ngton rode behind the general on his
/ Day charger from Whitemarsh to VAL
! ley Forge and remained there in camp.
| Washington's soldiers loved and rev.
/ arenced her-how much we may know
| rom the fact that they always called
| her Lady Washington never Mrs.
] Washington Not long before her
death she destroyed ali of her hus-
1 bands private letters, especially those
| to herself. that she could lay her
hands on. That is really one of the
! cleverest things she ever did. It was
/ explained that she did not wish out
| siders to know Of the freedom and sim
/ plicity' of expression in those intimate
| epistles-
/ t'rhis noble lady died May p, 1892.
| She made her will March of that year,
! and the last clause in it is one that
| sounds odd enough in our time: I give
to my grandson, George Washington
\ Parke Custis, my mulattO man Elish,
/ that I bought of Mr.. Butler Washing
ton. to him and his heirs forever
Talk of mental SCIENTISTS Martha
| Washington lived their doctrines much
over a century ago and thought no
great things Of herself either. In what
is probably the longest letter of hers
| on record she writes: I am still deter
| mined to be cheerful and happy in
! whatever situation I may be, for have
| also learned from experience that the
| greater part of our happiness or misery
| depends on our disposition and not on
/ our circumstances. We carry the seeds
/ of the one or the other about with US
wherever we go
KATHERINE BLADES.