The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-02-22
WASHINGTON AND WEEMS.

One of the most gratifying features of todav's observance of Washington s Birthday-which is 8 legal holiday in all the states of the Union and m Porto Rico, Hawaii and Alaska--is inc fact that the Father of His Coun- try is gradually taking on the sem bIance of a human being. Through the naists and clouds of myth and le- eend which so long obscured his mem ory the light of truth is at last break ing through. Washington was scarcely cold in his grave before the we'll meaning but foolish admirers of the fiIIustrious dead began their seE-ap- pointed task of transforning him into a derni-god. They succeeded only in giving him the aspect efforts to make Washington a model for the youth of the republic to follow, that they only Jcceeded in making him out hopeIes, utterly unlove1y prig.
 Happily, Washington the real is now rapidly taking the place of the fcti-
 tiou creation of pious imagination
 The first President is no longer a plaster saint, a steel engraving, but
 real man who was as human as any of us, although possessed of much more than average ability as soldier
 and statesman.
 It was t'Parson'' Weems-Mason Locke Weems=a Virginian. who was chiefly responsible for the Actions so long associated with Washington. It was Weems who originated the story of the cherry tree, which we now know to have been, at the very least,
 greatly exaggerated. Weems, in writ ing his bfography of Washington, pre-
 pared the reader for what was to fol- low by describing himself, on the
 title page, as formerly Rector of Mount Vernon Parish''-a statement eo xxfif h of fhnCa wi e
 followed. Nobody reads Weems now
 adays, but the Actions he fathered still
 exist, although given less and less 1 credibility. As an example of his liter ary style, the following example may suffice. Little George was chided by
 his father because he had failed to di- vide an apple with his brothers and l sisters.
 George looked in silence on the
 wide wilderness of fruit. He marked
 the busy humming bees, and heard the
 gay notes of birds; then lifting his eyes 1 filled with shining moisture to his
 father, he softly asid, Well, pa, only
 forgive me this time, and see if ever be so stingy any more 7
 Weems was born in Virginia, in 1760, and, after studying theology in London, returned to America and be i came a book agent, trayeIing exten- siveIy in the South. He preached oc- caS1OnalIys but was most often heard at public gatherings of various kinds, addressing the crowds on the subject
 of the merits of the books he had for
 sale. One of these was a pamphlet
 written by himself. entitled FsThe Drunkard's Looking Glass" He eked l otu his income by acting as fiddler at 1 dances. Often he entered taverns and gave limitations of a drunken man, af- 1 terward offering his books for sale.
 Later in life he wrote biographies o1 1 Washington, Franklin, General Marion and William Penn. his 'sLife of Wash l ington' going through two score edi- 1 tions. Weems died in Beaufort, s. C., in 1825-
 That Washington was man of stern
 morality has never been denied. He l was a frequent attendant at church,
 but in his latter years he always ab-
 scented himself on communion days. l Governeur Morris is authority for the statement that Washington believed no more in Christianity than he did, | but was deist. and Thomas Jefferson l held the same opinion of Washington s
 religious views, about which the first 1 President was extremely reticent. The plaster saint is crumbling, the
 steel engraving fading, but Washing ton the man will be honored more and 1 more as the years go by.