The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1913-07-11

ericksburg, indeed, with the Count de
Rochambeau, two years ago, ere he
followed his army from York to It's
posts upon the Hudson.
Mrs. Lewis, his sister, had returned
one day from visiting neighbor in
the quiet town to look In establishment
upon an officers horses and attend
ants, at her door. and had entered to
find her beloved brother stretched
upon her own bed within, sound asleep
in his clothes, like boy return from
hunting.
Takes His Mother to a Ball.
There had been a formal ball given.
too, in celebration of the victory, be-
fore the French officers and the COM
mander-in-chief left fredericksburg to
go northward again, and Washington
had had the Joy Of entering the room
in the face of the gay company with
his aged mother on his arm, not whit
bent for all her seventy-four years,
and as quiet as queen at receiving
1
arms
He had got his imperious spirit Of
command from her. A servant had
told her that Mars George" had put
up at the tavern.
Go and tell George to come here In
stantly." she had commanded, and he
had come, masterful man though he
was
He had felt every old affection and
every old allegiance renew itself as he
saw former neighbors crowd around
him; and that little glimpse Of Vir
ginia had refreshed him like tonic
deeply, and as If 1t renewed his very
nature, as only a silent man can be re
freshed. But few days in Fredericks
burg and at Mount Vernon then hao
been only an incident of campaigning
only grateful pause on march.
Back to Private Life.
Now at last he had come back t.
keep his home and be a neighbol
again, as he had not been these nini
years.
1t was not the same Virginia, no
even the same home and neighborhoot
: he had gone from, that Washington
came back to when the war wa
: done.
: He had left Mount Vernon in tn
care Of Lund Washington, his nephew
, while the war lasted, and had not fol
gotten amidst all his letter Yriting t
send seasonable directions and mair
tain a constant oversight upon tn
: management of his estate.
Rebukes His Nephew.
1t was part of his genius to find tim
for everything, and Mount Vernon ha
suffered something less than the Of
binary hazards and neglects of wa
, 1t had suffered less upon one occ;
4 sion, indeed, than it's proud owne
could have found it in his heart
+ wish.
4 In the spring of 1871 several BIRTHS
/ vessels had come pillaging within th
a Potomac, and the anxious Lund ha
: RECALLED their officers with refres
d ments from Mount Vernon to Blu
y them off from mischief. ut would hay
a been less painful circumstance
d me-" his uncompromising uncle ha
T written him, ito have heard that,
e consequence of your non-complianc
e with their request, they had burr
my house and laid the plantation
e ruin. You ought to have considers
Z yourself as my representative
e Kept though it was from harI
5 however, the place had suffered mar
y things for lack of his personal car
= There was some part of the task
be over again that had confronted hi
o when he came to take possession
Il the old plantation with his bride aft
II the neglects of the French war.
u Finds Virginia State.
e But Virginia was more changed ths
3 Mount Vernon. He had left it CT
ony, at odds with a royal governo
" he returned to find it a state, wi
d Benjamin Harrison, that stout gent
e, man and good planter, for governc
q by the free suffrage of his fellow v
ginians.
There had been no radical bre;
W with the aristocratic traditions of Il
is past. Mr. Harrisons handsome sc
ID at Lower Brandon lay where the lol
% reaches of the James marked the o.
ID est regions of Virginia's life up
is broad, half-feudal estates; where the
n were good wine and plate upon t
v. table, and gentlemen kept old custoI
n bright and honored in the observanC
CTO BE CONTINUED.)