Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-04-14

! A certain immortality seems to cling
| to things associated with the great.
] The United States is now attaining an
| age where interest attaches to relics Of
It's early heroes, and, in an accommo-
dating manner, these relics turn up,
often being discovered in the most UNI
| expected places. The Library of Con-
gress every year has some new manu-
script offered to it concerning WASH
ington. Jefferson. Jackson. Lincoln, Lee
| or other great men. Private collections,
| too. become repositories of such relics
Only this Winter autographs and orig
mai pages written by eminent Amer
leans have appeared in, the auction
rooms of Berlin and Paris and have
| been purchased at collection prices.
/ usually by Americans. Not always,
/ however, for many Europeans are ad-
| mlrers Of men who helped mold the
| american Union. Lincolniana Is es-
pecially sought in England. where Lin
| coin is much admired, while Germans
seem TO have preference for relics of
washington. This latter taste arises
from the fact that the militaristic Prus-
! sian junker finds much that Is con-
genial In our first great soldier.
IL would be impossible to guess how
long these relics will continue to be
| ~~NAAN. OAAAJ q CkLOIL hkO LneTe
were found in a dark, dusty loft of the
Treasury Building at washington orig
lnal letters written by President Andrew
jackson to the then Secretary of the
treasury in his own hand, concerning
the famous Bank Of the United States
| controversy. Documents, including an
annual report, written in his own hand
| py Albert Gallatin, Secretary Of the
treasury during the War of 1872. also
were found. How it happens that these
( tnlngs survive the thousands of house,
cieanlngs which have passed over them
IL Is difficult to surmise.
NOT infrequently the manuscripts are
! sIate papers of historical Importance.
sometimes they are quite personal,
put none the less of historic interest
because they reflect the times In which
the writer lived.
washington Kept Many Accounts.
The collection Of Washingtoniana Is
constantly growing. Washington was
| precise, nethodical man who set
| down on paper far more data than
even MS contemporaries. It will be re-
membered that while he served as com.
| mander -in-chief of the Revolutionary
armies he received no salary whatever.
Tut only his living expenses. His ex-
penSe accounts, made out meticulouSly
to the last penny, are extant. Then,
too, beginning long before the Revolu-
ton. he kept a journal or diary. This
is perfect exposition of day-to-day
colonial life. It shows what he did every
! day, as well as what members of his
family did. 1t tells of the guests who
| visited Mount Vernon. The journal
| shows close attention to his extensive
| farming enterprises and also shows a
| tremendous amount Of fox hunting.
In all the Washington papers perhaps
| there is no more personal one than a
Christmas shopping list which now is
in the possession Of the Henry E
Huntington Library at Los Angeles. The
list is dated September 20, 1859, soon
after Washington had married Martha
Gusts and brought her with her two
/ small children, John Parke Gusts and
Martha Gusts, who was always known
as Patsy to Mount Vernon.
| Anything as important as Christmas
| shopping in those days was done in
London, for American manufacturers
were an almost unknown quantity, save
for the cruder and heavier commodities
| The paper on which Washington