New-York tribune., 1908-02-23
THE HUMAN GEORGE.
Little Kno,cn Side of the Father OF
of HIS Country.
Owen Wister. In Everybody's.

.r,. 10 one noint regarding historical persons OF
all countries and epochs that ooth historians
their readers fail remark suffclenuy- haihiS'
that 70 he famous after you dead is one thihs
and to be living after you are dead is quite "i'
o.b.- And in the case of George Washington we
have the extraordinary paradox that he s'anos 'ne
greatest of Americans, yet the least aii'e VI d"
heroes.
In our national ina gination washington s'aiu'
stiff In sombre dress almost forbdding In couh'e
,ance looking as if even smiles unknown to
him or course he could look so on OCCASIONS
hut who Of lis was ever taught what he said ABOUT
being painted?
AT first l as restlNe HhGe' 'l7 0p
Grafton as a colt Is of the Saddle The next 'iie
submitted very reluctantly but with less fonhcins
Now, no dray horse moves mere readlS u ie 'iil
than the painters chair
DO not these words with their sense of a1nuse-
u,ent at himself. shed warming Hehl oNet ''io
cold image that has stood so long IN our minus
Surely # does not take away from our interest,"
in the Father of our Country, diminish his
greatness to learn that he resembled the rest OF
US; that when he was angry he coulo 50! VI
carte3n noIitician: "A damneder scoundrel dod
Almighty never permitted to disgrace humanity
When with much lack of tact. a hieihbei VI
Washington's Cabinet showed him at a oaoiiie'
meeting g. cartoon Of himself being guillotned MS
o,,th,Irs of rage was most violcnt-and most nalu-
raj Thomas Jefferson who was present. describes
IT: The President was much inf1arned' got lh'o
one OF those passions when he cannot coliliiidliu
himself ran on to the personal abuse which had
been bestowed on him, defed any man on earth 10
produce one single of his since he had been In
tn. eovernment which was not dcne the purest
motives that he had never repened but once the
having slipped the moment of resiSnfng his ONCE
and that was every moment since, that by God he
would rather be in his grave than in his present
situation
Does such picture as this come into the idea Of
chit taught! Let US
now, from example Of his rage, pass to that
example of his mirth He was at Mount Vernon
and his friend John Marshall, and his nephe"
Rushrod Washington were coming to pay him
visit The incident is related in the memoirs OF
contemporary 10 whom Judge Marshall told it:
Judge Marshall and Judge Washington were on
their way to Mount Vernon, attended by servant
who had the charge of large portmanIeau con-
tanning their clothes. At their last stopping place
there happened be Scotch redler. with a pack
of goods which resembed their portmanteau- The
roads were very dusty. and little before reaching
the generals they thinking it hardly respectful TO
present themselves they were, stopped in
neehboring wood change their clothes. The
colored man got down the portmanteau. and just
as they had prepared themselves for the new gar
ments out few some fancy soap and various other
articles belonging to the pedler. whose goods had
been brought instead Of their own They were
so struck with the CONSERVATION of their servant
and the righteousness of their own position, being
then naked that they burst into loud and repeated
shouts OF laughter. Washington. who happened to
be upon his grounds near by, heard the noise
and came to see what might be the occasion of it.
when finding his friends in that strange plight he
was so overcome with laughter that he actually
rolled upon the ground -
But this Judge Marshall, himself a great
man. said shortly before his death that there was
In Washington's presence something so powerful
and august that he could never feel quite at ease