Mountain Home maverick. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1906-1911, 1909-02-18

the burdens of the presidency lell Wasnins'o
with the simple instincts and habits OF the coun
-. ',rx,,+o ond man of business. He wrote to
friend in those latter days that he mad FOUND MT
Vernon in need of careful attention on ms return
from the army. Friends were welcome, out 'ney
must expect simple fare-a bit OF mutton anu
glass of wine were all the table boosted Later
still after Washington had definitely iald asloe
the cares of state Col. Darlington found at MT.
Vernon still marked simplicity. The veteran upon
the occasion of Carringtons visit went to bed at
slnidnight instead of nine O'Clock, extending MS
time three hours in honor of his guest. Mrs
Washington always spoke of her official life with
its evees and formality as her lost days and
Mrs Darlington found her in her own rooms, with
a chambermad knitting in one corner and a llttle
negress learning to sew in another The nrst iaoy
of the White House was even then knitting gloves
and stockings for friends and dependents. 1t was
of this period or perhaps few years earlier that
an English actor tells pleasant story. He was
the public road somewhere near Mt Vernon
when private coach was upset The occupants,
fine lady and her escort, almost angrily demand
ed help While the actor doing what he could,
large rode up on horseback, dismounted,
rendered efectual aid for which he received scant
thanks and started the ill-mannered pair upon
their journey. Then the stranger turned TO the
actor recognized him and recalled the fact of hav-
ing seen him more than once upon the stage. BY
this time the actor in turn had recognized the man
on horseback as Gen. Washington. The incident
closed with the actor on his way to dine at Mt.
Vernon.
For most of us to-day that giant figure In the
background of short national history sufices
to hide the perspective of the earlier Washington
in his successive stages q colonial American.
Nevertheless the plain planter and provincial sol
der, called upon to lead new nation in war and
in peace and to take unwilling hand in world
politics. must always have thought of his later
life in relation with his humber past. Whoever
would know Washington in his entirety must not
content himself with reading American history
from Bunker Hill to the middle of John Adams
administration, and standing barred before the
tomb at Mt Vernon
HE must visit the Northern Neck. where
Washington. even at his greatest loved TO live an
equal among his neighbors: he see Freder-
cksburg with the still standing homestead OF
Washingtons mother and the house of his sister;
he must take the delicious walk from Wakefield
wharf to the lonely birthplace monument in the
great wheat field overlooking the Potomac see
the very plantations that the schooboy of 1740
looked upon, hear the mad mockingbirds he
must have heard them. Above all, such a student
must navigate the lovely waters of the Potomac
in its lower course, where the stream and its
tributaries spread and branch like inland sea;
must hear the homey speech of the native popu-
lation to whom the Washington connotes
not only the dead hero. but their living neighbors
of one blood with the first president"