Evening star., 1926-10-14
SAYS WASHINGTON
WE'D FOR MONEY
Rupert Hughes, in Biography,
Declares Great Love of Life
Was for Friends Wife.

CndfSo tndC George WdSHlHB ION, III
volved in a hopeless love affair, mar
ried for money is made in two blog
raphies just published. One was writ
ten by Rupert Hughes. who aroused
quite storm last Winter by a speech
regarding Washington's drinking. The
other volume is by w. +. Woodward
The books represent that Washing
tons marriage at the age OF 26 with
Mrs. Martha Custis was founded or
business considerations, but that his
love was given solely to Mrs. Sally
Fairfax, two years his senior, ano
wife of the friend who had given him
his first chance as a surveyor in the
Shenandoah Valley. Hughes repre-
sents that Washington, before he won
the rich widow Custis, tried for the
hand and fortune of Miss Mary Phil
ipse, who owned 81 900 acres. Martha
owned only $4,000 acres, but she also
owned $50 slaves and 100000 in cash
Hughes depicts Washington as a
church shunner and a most exactine
man In business, although liberal with
rum in his dealings with the voters.
Washington was always drinking
but never drunk" Hughes says.
Love Letter Quoted.
Woodward writes:
AT dinner he customarily drank a pint
of Madeira besides rum punch and
beer-if he was ever intoxicated
have never read of 1t and, Judging
from what I know of his character,
am inclined to think he never was.
From a letter Washington wrote
to Mrs. Fairfax after his engagement
TO Mrs. Custis was announced, Hughes
quotes: "The world has no business
to know the object of my love de-
clared in this manner to you when
want to conceal 1t. Adieu to
happier times, If I shall ever see them
dull"
The biographer comments:
There were numbers of people
that knew he had loved Sally Fair
fax for a long time. She kept that
love hopeless either because she did
not love him at all or because she
did not love him well enough to
destroy him and herself and the
home of her admirable husband"
Hughes characterizes Washington as
a past master of dancing, drinking
gambling, polite and exquisite fir
tation."
Hughes book. George Washington
the Human Being and the Hero" is
published by William Morrow e. Co
WoodWard's biography is entitled
George Washington, the Image and
Man." and is published by Boni
Liveright
The father of his country was a
swell from his sixteenth year on
says Hughes.
Serious i'm Puppy Loves.
oG l. g
took his puppy loves more seriously
/ lucky than George Washington
writes Hughes.
They began. says Hughes. with 6
girl he romped with at school. by
early manhood Washington had loved
and lost with consistent regularity
| There was the girl known only as
THE lowland beauty" then came IA
year-old Mary Cary, next followed hel
sister, Sally Fairfax, wife of his best
friend, and said to have been the
great love of WashingtOn's life, and
still later followed an infatuation for
Mary Philipse of Yonkers.
Washington's love affair with
Sally Fairfax was the most serious
land longest. She was two years his
senior, wife of George William Fair
| fax.
Washington was 22 years old ant
| had just returned from his disastrous
| expedition to the Ohio River il
which he had surrendered Fort
| Necessity to the French and also was
| being accused by the French of the
assassination" of a party of am
bassadors," who, Washington claimed
| were members of an armed spying
expedition.
IF ever a man had need Of WON
ans kindness. Washington needed i
| now" writes Hughes. "He was dis
| gusted with the world of men. Ht
| had finished with the art military
Had Profound Influence.
1T is no longer questionable thai
| at this time Washington began Il
yield his heart to the love of his life
who was the wife of his best friend
unless she herself had been his bes
| friend.
when the infatuation overcam,
him, how far it carried him there i:
no knowing. There is no proof, ant
no reason to assume, that it went be
yond Wretched courtship on his part
| and teasing, yet tyrannical, evasion
on hers.
Sally Fairfax cannot be ignored
in Washington's life story. She
ought not to be. She deserves the
honor of having a profound irifuenc.
on the formation of his character
She stirred his heart more deeply
than any other woman ever did"
| Other chapters are devoted to the
| "Centinel X" attack on Washington.
| Virginian troops as "dastardly de
| bOuchees"; Braddocks campaign. II
which Mr.. Hughes asserts that, con
trary to general belief Braddock tool
! Washington's advice and was neithe,
surprised nor ambushed, but lost be
cause of the strategy of Frenchmar
and the stampede of his own men.
Hughes, in an "afterword," SAYS tn,
purpose Of the volume is "to find ou
as far as possible and to report a.
faithfully as possible just what Georg,
Washington was, did, said. wrote
thought, and why and how"
Historians Are AssaiIed.
| No other man in history has suf
fered SO much from malfeasance I,
| office by historians" SAYS Hughes
Nearly all of Washington's bioe
raphers have felt it their duty No
only to correct his writings. but +
lblue-pencil, prettify and falsify hi
| character
1T is poor patriotism, ridiculou
idolatry and rank dishonesty to ro1
the host Of other strugglers for lit
erty and progress of their just desert
and to perpetuate old ISLANDERS aeains
his enemies at home and abroad !,
order to turn Washington into q god
AS a god. Washington was a woefu
figure; as man, he was tremendous
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