Year: 1873

fervcnt July sun scorched the elaborate
piLk and blue tiled roofs of the modern
villas in the avenues yonder that the
mountain breezes from those wooded
heights that he had made historic, loved
to meet and play and linger here. "Dur-
ing his time the door was never shut"
continues the lady, like pleasant Greek
chorus, "but always open, as you see."
Was 1t the Virginian habit still strong, or
a military necessity Think OF it in that
memorable winter of ", when the ther-
mometer stood below zero f)r weeks, and
the Hudson river was frozen over at the
batteryl Yet | am somehow thankful
that the humorist is not with me to com
ment upon this startling discovery of a
new and painful youthful habit


Then we went into the reception.room
or parlor, and saw the elaborate antique
table desk, opening in the middle--a
Washington relic indubitably-and then
into the bedroom where he slept the office
where he wrote, the dining-room in which
he ate, and looked at the glass in which
he shaved. AS no one ever saw Washing
ton with beard, and as his habits were
methodical, perhaps this insignificant bit
of furniture is most Characteristic and
notable. There was not, perhaps much
to see. You will find more elaborate old
furniture in modern drawingrooms; l
have stood in more spacious and charac-
teristic colonial dwellings. 1t is far un-
like the Cambridge headquarters in which
Longfellow is set as precious jewel-but
in its scant decoration, in its faded and
economic gentility, in its quiet, stern, un-
compromising asceticism, it is full of a
past, past entirely It's own, the Spartan
period of the Revolution. The genius of
the place descends upon you as you stand
there. Even in this gracious June sun
light you shiver and turn cold. Gaunt
faces peer at you through the windows
there is the echo of uneasy, discontented
footsteps in this hall, and yet through all
a pathetic patience flowing from one lone
ly selfcontained figure subdues and sad
dens every complaining beam and rafter
in the ancient house.


1t was at this window that the great
commander stood and saw the mutinous
Connecticut troops file past and clamor
for the wages long due that he had not to
bestow. 1t was in this room that he,
proud man, appealed to the already i'm.
poverished Jersey farmers for few more
rations for his starving men. 1t was at
| this table that he wrote that pathetic let
ter to Congress. 1t was here that he was
"closeted closely" with Lafayette. There
was scant cheer in this little dining.room
that winter. Yet here sat that young
West Indian, scarce turned of twenty
Alexander Hamilton, whom Washington
in moments of rare tenderness called "my
boy" and made recipient of his conf
dence. What a pleasant staff appoint
ment for gay young fellow Smallpox
in the distant village and famine in quar-
ters. Here, too, sat the "Old Secretary
as they called him-as methodical as
Washington and conscious of his ways
and here the turbulent Sullivan, and Howe
in New York feasting and iunketing and
only river dangerously filled with ice a
times, between


And all this to be sold on the 25th o
June to the highest bidder. You can, a.
you stand here in fancy, already hear thu
auctioneer's hammer The setting sur
from without looks into the western win
dows, lingering fondly, as well it may
over the old house it knows so well-anC
on whose like it shall never look again
1t steals little higher toward the peaked
gable. Going, going. There is a glor,
on its roof for moment, and ii is gone.