Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1912-03-01

while young with his brother, Angus
tine, at Bridges Creek that he might
have the best school accessible, while
his mother was far away on the farm
that lay upon the Rappahannock. She
gave him up gladly and bravely at each
new call of duty. There is a message
in that for the mothers of today.
Young people rarely ever appreciate
the value of time and the best use of it
for accomplishing what they have to do.
A very valuable lesson in industry can
be learned from the life of Washington.
On the farm he killed hogs, looked
after the breeding of dogs and horses,
sheared sheep, anointed his hounds
when they were diseased, and fished
industriously. He urged frugality and
economy everywhere. He saw himself
to the building of a goose pen, to clean
ing and threshing his wheat, to caring
for horse with broken leg, to build
ing smiths shop and he carefully
noted how long it took his mill to grind
a bushel of corn. He mentioned two
ploughs which he made himself. "Spent
the greatest part of the day in making
a new pillow of my own invention" he
writes. He was farmer and merchant
at once; managed his own negroes and
overseers of his various estates and
conducted an international correspond
ence. To understand and meet all
changes, whether in merchants or in
markets, three thousand miles away,
required an amount of information, an
alertness, steady attention to detail
sagacity in farming and shrewdness
in trade, such as made great property
burden to idle or inefficient men.
But Washington took pains to succeed.
Messrs. Robert Cary & Co., his factors
in London, must soon have learned to
recognize his letters, in the mere handl-
ing, by their bulk. No detail escaped
him when once he had gotten into the
swing of the work. 1t is worthy of
note that barrels of flour marked
George Washington, Mount Vernon, B"
were ere long suffered to pass the in
The tobacco he sent to England was
recognized as the best made in Virginia.
Others profted more or less by his
industry. A grant of 200, 900 acres of
the western lands had been promised by
the government of the colony to those
who enlisted for the war against the
French and Indians in 1854; but nothing
had ever been done to fulfil the promise
and Washington undertook to act as
agent for his comrades in the business.
There were months and months of
weary, unrequited service for his com
rades given with hearty diligence and
without grudging.
Washington hospitality was pro-
verbal. No stranger visited America
but thought first of Mt. Vernon in
planning where be should go and what
he should zee; new friends and old sat
every day at his table. A year and a
half had gone by since his home coming
from the Revolutionary war, before he
could note in his diary, "Dined with
only Mrs. Washington, which, l be-
lieve, is the first instance Of it since my
retirement from public life"
History affords few if any more
marked examples Of courage and
loyalty to country than we find in Wash
ington's life. Didn't lit take courage
and pluck at the age of twenty-one to
carry the letter from Lieut.. Gov
Dinwiddie to the French commander?
On the last day Of October they started
and not until the middle Of the next
January did they reach Williamsburg
again. 1t meant at least 500 miles Of
travel with a single companion amidst
ceaseless fall of rain and snow through
the forests, over swollen rivers with no
bridges, with not always an Indian
trail, and always on the watch against
savage foes. 1t was during this trip
that while crossing the Allegheny river
on raft, he was jerked into the water
and barely saved his lifeyby swimming
to an island. On the return trip the
horses gave out and he Ileft them to
come by easier stages while he made
his way afoot twas while a colonel
during Braddock's defeat that three
horses were shot from under him, many
bullets cut his clothing but he kept on
and escaped without wound When all
seemed against him during the war he
remained faithful to duty undergoing
great privations. After the battle of
Trenton, Washington was obliged to
pledge his own private fortune to the
soldiers for their pay to induce the men
to remain in service whose terms had
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