The Holbrook news., 1921-02-18

pointed and instructed them to where they should locate the permanent capital Those com missoners named the city for the man who had led the victorious armies of the colonies in the Revolution and who was then serving as Presi- dent. Many fairy stories have been written about how Washington personally selected the site for the capital. "even driving some of the surveyors stakes" etc. The unvarnlshed truth is that he merely carried out the will of congress by ap- pointing a commission which instructed by congress to do a certain thing.
 From the day the tract ten miles square staked out WashingtOn's impress has been in the city and its environs. That impress stands out clearer the years pass. More than a million persons, Americans by birth or adoption, gain new inspiration every year merely by looking upon the material things that connect the days when Washington moving about there in the flesh with the present time. Thousands of for eigners benefit in the same way. There Is never any pause in the stream of pilgrims to Mt. Vernon in the throng that Is always on the way to the top of the Washington monument. Winter and summer. through sunshine and storm. the homage paying to the Father of his Country" goes on. Every recurring anniversary of his birth seemingly increases the interest in his memory. On these anniversaries floral decorations are invariably piled high in the tomb at Mt. Vernon, and neither branch of congress ever fails to provide that his farewell address shall be read
 Probably because the point has never been em- phasized many persons have the idea, 1t seems, that Washington lived for a short time in the city that bears his name. There is also a popu- lar belief that the Washingtons at time oc- cupied the White House. Washington was never a resident of the permanent capital. The seat of government was in Philadelphia when con- gross voted to locate the capital where it is, and Washington had temporary home in that city On returning from Philadelphia at the close of his second term President he gave consider able personal attention to the early developments of the capital. He frequently rode up from Mt. Vernon on his favorite black horse to see how things were coming on
 Who would undertake to say that he did not visualize the national capital in some such form as 1t stands today? If he did, he saw in his imagination the Capitol building Capitol hill, the Library of Congress with it's golden dome in the rear of the Capitol, the magnificent office buildings for senate and house of representatives, the expansive Mall extending from the Capitol to the Potomac, with the monument to his own mem ory, the most conspicuous thing 1t; and he also saw the splendid memorial to Abraham Lin colI which has just been completed, as we'll as the memorial to U. s. Grant, which is almost ready to be turned over to the government. And who again would say that he did not have vision of the resident section of the city extending far beyond the White House to the northwest?
 Washington never the White House occu- pied. To extent 1t represents his ideas of what combined home and business office for the President should be-the original idea was that the President should make the house his residence and also his workshop. Washington as Mason assisted in laying the cornerstone of the White House. That formality was conducted by a Masonic lodge In Alexandria of which Washington a member.
 It is certain that he was deeply interested in the work of construction. At the time of his death the house was practically ready for occu- pancy. The furnishings were being placed in position. Only a few days before his death he and Mrs. Washington went through the entire building and, according to the chronIclers of the time, keeny interested in every detail of the place which was to be the home of future Pres- dents.
 Today, as It has ever been 1t is not so much the things with the Washington stamp on them as those in the nearby districts that interest the