Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-04-20

1t is Il little startling, when you stop to
consider the fact, how few of the wives
of great men in American history are
really entitled to rank as famous womeli-
that is, have attained a degree of fame
that makes well-informed people instantly
think of them when the subject of
famous women is mentioned. Dolly Madi-
son is one of these, and l am not sure
but that her fame-outside of books
transcends that of her husband. Few
people, however, would grant individual
fame to the wives Of Thomas jefferson,
Abraham Lincoln, l.. s. Grant, Henry
Clay, Daniel Webster or Andrew Jackson.
Even the mention of the husbands name
does not at once conjure UP the image of
the wife. There is no other such partner
ship so generally accepted as equal as
that of George and Martha Washington.
Just what she did to merit this emf
hence is difficult to tell. Given her own
way. she would have lived quietly at Mount
Vernon or some similar stately home
of a planter, dispensing hospitality, but
far removed from the turmoil of camps
or the etiquette of courts. But, like most
of us, she was not given her own way,
and four-fifths of her life was spent in
public station, for she was devoted to her
husband and stayed as faithfully by his
side through the winter of discomfort at
Valley Forge as later in the somewhat
provincial splendors of the early presi-
Dental mansions at New York, Philadel-
phia and Washington.
Woman's Charms Delayed Him.
George Washington's fame as a real
man instead of a pompous marionette
was much enhanced when his biog-
raphers timidly admitted that he swore
like q trooper at Gen. Charles Lee for
running away from the British at Mon
mouth. 1t will hardly suffer from the
further admission that good soldier as he
was, when he was twenty-fOur years old
he allowed the charms of pretty wom-
an to delay him several hours on his
mission of delivering dispatches from the
seat of the French and Indian war to the
colonial governor of Virginia. 1t does not
appear that the progress OF the war was
affected by this dereliction, but young
Col. Washington gained thereby a young
and beautiful wife and large estate
while the still unthought-of United States
of America gained its nearest approach
to a queen in the person of Lady Martha
Washington.
The woman destined to be the wife
of the first President of the United
States was born in 1882 the daughter of
a wealthy planter. She enjoyed the
rather limited education granted to girls
in that day. when too much learning
upon the part of a woman brought upon
her the opprobrious name blue stock
ing" But her real education came from
constant associa ton with cultivated
people, for. provincial though it was.
Virginia in that day cultivated the social
sraces Her early home was in Williams
burg the colonial capital, the seat of
William and Mary College and the scene
of Virginias greatest social Sayety
There she married John Gusts, man
of substance but of twice her age. Four
children came to them, OF whom two died
in infancy, one daughter died at Mount
Vernon at the age of twenty. while one
son PASSED away before Yorktown, where
he was serving as Gen Washing ton's aid.
This son had married early. and his chill
dren. formed part of the family which, by
intermarriage, linked George Washington
and Robert f. Lee, both of whom in their
day were bitterly denounced as rebels
Gusts Lett Great Wealth.