The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-07-24

The letters of the first President of the United States to the first chill dren of the executive mansion there was no White House in Wash ington's day, the first one being oc- cupied by his successor, John Adams reveals side of Washingtons S character little known to .the Amer ican public.
 The father of his country was a parent only by adoption. Two grand children of his wife, Martha Custis Washington, who was the widow of Daniel Parke Custis when Washing ton married her, were adopted and reared in the Mount Vernon home by Washington as his own children
 They we're Eleanor Parke Custts whose father, John Parke Custis, had served as a member of Washington's personal staff in the Revolutionary War and died at Yorktown while the siege of that place was in pro- gress.
 The boy, George, was the first Presidents baby" being only six months old at the time of his adop- ton. The girl was two years older and grew to be a woman of wit, and beauty-the charming Nellie Gus tis," beloved of early White House circles. They were known in Wash | ington's time as the "children of Mount Vernon.'
 The parental solicitude of Washing | ton for their proper training and ed- ucation Is evidenced by the letters he punctiliously wrote to each of them | in their school days. They a. oc- | served in a memoir written by the adopted son, G. w. P. Custis. the Master of Arlington" published in 1880, and now rather a. rare book. a | copy of which is owned by Judge l James Ellison of the Kansas City court of appeals.
 I Like everything else that has cont | down to us relating to the life and l character of the first chief, these let l ters reflect the methodical and cau- 1 tious spirit of the man even when
 dealing with the frailties of youth and they afford rather solemn con- trast to the ebullient comraderie shown in President Roosevelts letters to the children of the White House g | hundred years later. .~--
 It is easy to understand from then | with what great awe the man wne
 rode to and from his official duties 1T | a coach and six and who was the per
 sonif1cation of dignity and boise wa
 regarded by the children. Humol 1 there is in some of the letters, reat by the lights of later days, but it wa
 not intended as humor by G. w.
 quite otherwise. | For instance, there was a, little mat
 ter of a 10 dollar bill which the grea l father slipped-or rather careful.
 folded, perhapsN and pinned-into l letter he wrote to My dear Washing
 ton," as he used to address the boy il
 preference to his first name, George
 In replying, young Curtis overlooket
 the acknowledging receipt thereof
 which brought forth the followini
 dignif1ed postscript in the next pater l nal letter:
 P. S.-I presume you received m.
 letter covering a 10-do1lar bill to pa.
 for your gown, although it is no
 mentioned. To acknowledge the re
 ceipt of letters is always proper t
 remove doubts of their miscarriage.
 Another time he wrote him-yo><
 Curtis was then 1S-on the subject o money in this vein:
 Another thing I would recomment } to you-not because I want to knov how you spend your money-and tha is, to keep an account book and ente therein every farthing, of your re , oeipts and expenditures, the doing o which would Initiate you into a hab , from which considerable advantag would result. From an early atten tion to these matters. important an ? lasting benefits may follow"
 There was one thing that the grea man seemingly had little patienc 3 with-that was boy and girl love af fairs. He spoke his mind in no un r certain tones to the boy when h l heard that the latter while at schoc
 at Annapolis was paying attention
 to young lady in the neighborhoot He wrote:
 ''My dear Washington: It is no, l. nearly five weeks since any person (