The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1909-07-29
History in Tabloid.
BY ELBERT HUBBARD.

During the Revolutionary War
Roger Norris, of Putnam County.
New York, made the mistake of sid.
ing with the Tories.
A mob collected and Morris and
his family escaped, taking ship to
England
Before leaving Morris declared his
intention OF coming back as soon as
1.-THE insurrection was quelled."
The British troops. we are reliably
Informed, failed to quell the lnsur-
rection; and Roger Morris never
came back.
Roger Morris is known to history
as the man who married Mary Phil
ipse. And this lady lives in history
because she had the felicity of hav-
ing been proposed to by George
Washington. 1t is George himself
who tells of this in his journal, and
George, you remember, could not tell
a lie.
George was twenty-five. He was
on his way to Boston, and was en-
tertained at the Philipse house the
Plaza not having then been built.
Mary was twenty, pink and lis
some. She played the harpischord.
Immediately after supper, George,
finding himself alone in the parlor
with the girl, proposed.
He was an opportunist.
The lady pleaded for time, which
the Father of his Country declined to
give. He was a soldier and demand
ed immediate surrender. A small
quarrel followed, and George saddled
his horse and rode on his way to
fame and fortune.
Mary thought he would come back,
but George never proposed to the
same lady twice. Yet he thought
kindly of Mary, and excused her
conduct by recording: 81 think ye
ladye was not in ye moode."
It was Washington who formally
confiscated the property and turned
1t over to the State of New York as
contraband of war.
The Morris estate of about fifty
thousand acres was parcelled out and
sold by the State of New York to
settlers.
1t seems, however. that Roger
Morris had only life interest in the
estate, and this was a legal point so
fine that It was entirely overlooked
in the Joy of confiscation.
/ Washington was great soldier, but
an Indifferent lawyer.
I John Jacob Astor accidentally es-
certained the facts. He was con-
vinced that the heirs could not be
robbed of their rights through the
acts of a leaseholder, which, legally,
was the status of Roger Morris.
Astor was a good real estate lawyer
himself, but he referred the point to
the best counsel he could find. They
agreed with him. He next hunted up
the heirs, and bought their quit
claims for 100000.
He then notified the parties who
had purchased the land, and they, in
turn, made claim upon the State for
protection.
After much legal parleying, the
case was tried according to stipula'
ton, with the State of New York di'
! rectly as defendant and Astor and the
occupants as plaintiffs. Daniel Web
ster and Martin Van Buren, appeared
for the State, and an array of lesser
legal lights for Astor,
The case was narrowed down to
the plain and simple point that Roger
Morris was not the legal owner of the
estate, and that the rightful heirs
could not be made to suffer from the
treason, contumacy and contraven-
tion" of another.
Astor won, and as compromise
the State issued him twenty-year
bonds, bearing six per cent interest.
for the neat sum of $500, 0,000-not
that Astor needed the money, but
finance was to him a game.--New
York American.