Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-10
PUBLIC WILL VIEW
REAL WASHINGTON
BiCentenniaI Commission Sc,
IectS Picture Without
the False Teeth.
BY THOMAS II. HENRY


Washington without his false teeth
This is the picture which the George
Washington Bicentennial Commission,
headed by. Prof. Albert Bushnell Hart
of Harvard University, wishes to pre-
sent to the American people on the
200th anniversary of the birth of the
first President next year.
The committee appointed by Con-
gress, has set out to "humanize" Wash
ington. 1t is accommodating evidence to
show that he was really an intensely
likable man and that the picture in
the mind of the public of a cold
blooded ''demi-god' is far from true.
I'VE must think of him." says Lieut..
Col. U. S. Grant, Sd, grandson of the
Civil War commander, ''as the very
human person illustrated by the few
portraits made in early manhood be-
fore false teeth had stretched his upper
I1p into rigidity and had artificially
given his mouth that unsympathetic
look of inflexibility which we have
come to know from the pictures in gen.
eral circulation. 1t is hard to feel on
familiar terms with a demi-god or to
think of the Washington in the Stuart
paintings as human being beset with
the same impulses and difficulties
which constitute our personal problems
today"
Data Being Gathered
In line with the "humanizing" proc
eSS the committee is gathering data on
Washington the frontiersman and IN
dian fighter when he still could enjoy
a practical joke, such as getting a
troops of Indians "dauncing IN most
comical manner" by "elevating their
spirits" with liquor
1t was hard life in a rough coun-
try. Among Washington's own papers,
the committee reports. is found the fol-
lowing account of one of his adven-
lures while returning after delivering
warning message to the French COM
mandant on the Ohio:
THE horses grew less able to travel
every day; and the cold increased very
fast; and the roads were becoming
much worse by the deep snow con-
tinually freezing Therefore I de-
termined to prosecute my journey the
nearest way through the woods, on
foot.
1.-THE day following. just after we
had passed a place called Numbering
town, we fell in with a party of
French Indians who had lain in wait
for us. One of them fired, not Is
steps off, but fortunately missed We
took this fellow into custody and kept
him until about 8 o'clock at night,
then let him go and walked all the
remaining part of the night without
making any stop; that we might get
the start so far as to be out of reach
of their pursuit the next day, since we
were well assured they would follow
our tract as soon as it was light.
All Day on Road.
1.-THE next day we continually travel
ed till quite dark and got to the river
al fxryrl
expected to have found the river
frozen. but it was not, only about so
yards from each shore. The ice, sup
pose, had broken up above, for it was
driving in vast quantities. There was
no way of getting over but on a raft,
which we set about with but one poor
Ratchet, and finished just after sun
setting. Then we set off; but before
we were half way over we were jam
med in the ice. in such manner that
we expected every moment our raft to
sink and ourselves to perish. put out
my setting pole IN try to stop the
raft that the ice might pass bv; when
the rapidity of the stream threw it
with so much violence against the pole
that it jerked me nut into ten feet of
water. But fortunately saved my
self by catching hold of one of the
raft logs. Notwithstanding all our eff
forts, we could not get the raft to
either shore but we're obliged, as we
were near an island, to quit our raft
and make for it."
Typical Frontiersman
Washington's life at the time was
that Of a typical frontiersman, as the
Bicentennial Committee pictures it,
with occasional broadly humorous in
cidentS interspersed with the most
thrilling sort of adventure. The coun-
try through which he moved as a sur
veyor was sparsely inhabited by rough
populace.
1--WE got our supper" he records,
"and was lighted into a room and / not
being SO good a woodsman as We rest
of nav company. stripped myself very
orderly and went in to We bed as they
called'it when to my surprise I found
it to be nothing bat a little straw mat
ted together without sheets or ANYTHING
else but only one thread bear blanket
with double its weight of vermin such
as lice, fleas, etc ! was glad to get
up Gas soon as We light was carried
from us). put on my clothes and lay
as my companions"
A y,oap,s I,raip af+ains i4e ma 1ioo,,,,,