Polk County news-gazette. (Benton, Tenn.) 190?-191?, 1914-02-12

was a binding blizzard, and it was so bitter cola
that the chief loss the American side was Oh
the men who. though Injured to pioneer hardships'
froze to death that awful night.
Did General Washington stand in his boat III
that dangerous current during a driving storm
and stare pompously at the opposite shore? NOT
he Instead Of that, he sat tight ana caJoleu
the men, using every device that might make IheH'
forget their terrible situation; even telling theh
a facetous story, which. coming from him. star
tied them, set their blood tingling and mace theh
oblivious to the cold and dangers around them'
That was the grandest deed in the military stial-
agem which made Frederick the Great of Prussia
and. indeed. the whole world, wonder at the
genius of Washington.
Nearly every one knows the outside of the
story of the siege of Boston by the new COM
nander-in-chief who had come to the continental
congress as a wealthy Virginia colonel and his
nondescript crowd of recruits, wholly unused
not only to military discipline, but even 10 mill
tarv forms But few know of the transcendenC
bluff General Washington had to put up when he
discovered that there were but few rounds OF
gunpowder in the possession of the whole Amerl-
can army while the British were amply supplied
with ammunition and might sally forth any hour
against the American ''irregulars.
Some one had Numbered" Many COM
mander would have shown up the improvldent
officers who had that matter in charge and pee
yishly thrown up the command as ridlculously I'M
possible But General Washington did not tell MS
most trusted officers of the excruciat1ng dilemma
he found himself in He knew the awful secret
would spread if known to few, and the great
cause of justice might be lost. He began quietly
to scour the country for gunpowder. He soon
found that the nearest place at which any guam
tity could be had was in a magazine on the lsland
of Bermuda. To get that required a secret expe-
dition, much hazard and many weeks; but Wash
ington's nerve was equal to the fearful strain.
During that long, tense interval the American
troops were working away upon the Notifications,
preparing for a grand attack Meanwhile the
young commander-in-chief was entertaining
Hospitality at his Headquarters the Craige man
sion now best known as "Longfellows Home, in
Cambridge AS pleasant diser*set. .41y
Washington, then one OF the wealthiest women IN
America came to visit the general, and all the
countryside was agog over her coach-andfour with
six black positions in white and scarlet livery.
Even the British cooped up in Boston, were I'M
pressed by the resources and apparent commence
of the American generalissimo.
While one expedition was gone to Bermuda
for powder General Knox with a small force,
succeeded in bringing number OF cannon sew
eral hundred miles on OK sleds In mdWlnter
from Fort Ticonderoga. In those times lna'
tried mems souls" it was Washingtons IRON
nerve supported by his broad sense OIL humor'
sometimes scintillating with radiance worthy
of a Franklin or Lincoln, which saved the uay'
This was only one of many occasions on WHICH
Washington had to fight out the revolution atone
nresidents laugh is his lifepreserver rms was
truer of Washington than any one seems TO nave
realized in a day when strict gravity "l'hou'
levitv was expected of public characters ~
laugh or to see the humorous side OF an lncluen'
was considered the sign Of frivolous dlsposi
ton -,
Washington's early biographies were solemn
mon To have Told in their books now much Iheil
hero laughed would have been, IN their OPINION
vvontonIv exposing his weakness to public gaze
+romn fiddler though he was had been brought
nm to think that laughing worse than WICK
ed-t was vulgar!" In stra1ntng to make thelr
hero appear to have been demigod, those pecan
tic biographers related not what george WASH
ington really did, but what they imagined such a
nov or man ought to have done under given con-
ditions.
Washington would have laughed heartily at
Weems' Observation-Disclosures story II he had
ever heard (which he never did, Tor IT was not
invented till later edition of the erring rectors
juvenile history six years after Washington
death Yet the real hero of the cherry-tree nc
tion would have found it the occasion OF gravity
as we'll as mirth. In the stilted story OF Little
George and His Pa" Weems was only carrying
ont the idea Of his time; to tell not what the small
boy actually did, but what the consummate nttle
prig he conceived little George Washington to
have been would have done If he had cut down MS
fathers favorite cherry tree
+. II little George Washington had been the insult
ferable little prig described by MI Weems' MS
half.brothers would not have loved him better
Than their own brothers, or their own children
for that matter. His early life was fuller OF ex
citing experiences than any fiction. Yet the lie
of Young Washington is yet to be told as an au
venture story. Even in his quaint little diaries
he early discloses a lively sense of humor-sav
age humor sometimes, but broad and boyish. lie
showed this by telling only the jokes against hlm
Golf When he was a lad Of sixteen he led sur
viewing party to lay out the lands of his old frlend
Lord Fairfax in the wilderness of the Shenan,
doah Here is one of his own experiences as
.tenderfoot" recorded on Tuesday March TO-
1747-S:
1--WE got our Suppers & was lighted into
Room and l. not being so good Woodsman as
We rest of my company stripped myseH very oi
Joriv q went into We Bed, as they called It,
when to my surprise found 1t to be nothing but
a little straw-matted together without sheets or
anything else but one threadbare blanket with
double it's weight OF Vermin such as Lice, Fleas
&C.
81 was glad to get up las soon as We light was