PERSONALITY OF WASHINGTON.
It would seem that a few personal remarks about George Washington at
this point might not be out of place. Later on his part in this history
will more fully appear.
[Illustration]
The author points with some pride to a study of Washington's great act
in crossing the Delaware, from a wax-work of great accuracy. The reader
will avoid confusing Washington with the author, who is dressed in a
plaid suit and on the shore, while Washington may be seen in this end of
the boat with the air of one who has just discovered the location of a
glue-factory on the side of the river.
A directory of Washington's head-quarters has been arranged by the
author of this book, and at a reunion of the general's body-servants to
be held in the future the work will be on sale.
The name of George Washington has always had about it a glamour that
made him appear more in the light of a god than a tall man with large
feet and a mouth made to fit an old-fashioned full-dress pumpkin pie.
[Illustration: STUDY OF WASHINGTON CROSSING THE DELAWARE.]
[Illustration: MY GREATEST WORK.]
George Washington's face has beamed out upon us for many years now, on
postage-stamps and currency, in marble and plaster and in bronze, in
photographs of original portraits, paintings, and stereoscopic views. We
have seen him on horseback and on foot, on the war-path and on skates,
playing the flute, cussing his troops for their shiftlessness, and then,
in the solitude of the forest, with his snorting war-horse tied to a
tree, engaged in prayer.
We have seen all these pictures of George, till we are led to believe
that he did not breathe our air or eat American groceries. But George
Washington was not perfect. I say this after a long and careful study of
his life, and I do not say it to detract the very smallest iota from the
proud history of the Father of his Country. I say it simply that the
boys of America who want to become George Washingtons will not feel so
timid about trying it.
[Illustration: WASHINGTON PLAYING THE FLUTE.]
When I say that George Washington, who now lies so calmly in the
lime-kiln at Mount Vernon, could reprimand and reproach his
subordinates, at times, in a way to make the ground crack open and
break up the ice in the Delaware a week earlier than usual, I do not
mention it in order to show the boys of our day that profanity will make
them resemble George Washington. That was one of his weak points, and no
doubt he was ashamed of it, as he ought to have been. Some poets think
that if they get drunk and stay drunk they will resemble Edgar A. Poe
and George D. Prentice. There are lawyers who play poker year after year
and get regularly skinned because they have heard that some of the able
lawyers of the past century used to come home at night with poker-chips
in their pockets.
Whiskey will not make a poet, nor poker a great pleader. And yet I have
seen poets who relied on the potency of their breath, and lawyers who
knew more of the habits of a bobtail flush than they ever did of the
statutes in such case made and provided.
[Illustration: THE AWKWARD SQUAD.]
George Washington was always ready. If you wanted a man to be first in
war, you could call on George. If you desired an adult who would be
first baseman in time of peace, Mr. Washington could be telephoned at
any hour of the day or night. If you needed a man to be first in the
hearts of his countrymen, George's post-office address was at once
secured.
Though he was a great man, he was once a poor boy. How often you hear
that in America! Here it is a positive disadvantage to be born wealthy.
And yet sometimes I wish they had experimented a little that way on me.
I do not ask now to be born rich, of course, because it is too late; but
it seems to me that, with my natural good sense and keen insight into
human nature, I could have struggled along under the burdens and cares
of wealth with great success. I do not care to die wealthy, but if I
could have been born wealthy it seems to me I would have been tickled
almost to death.
I love to believe that true greatness is not accidental. To think and to
say that greatness is a lottery, is pernicious. Man may be wrong
sometimes in his judgment of others, both individually and in the
aggregate, but he who gets ready to be a great man will surely find the
opportunity.
You will wonder whom I got to write this sentiment for me, but you will
never find out.
In conclusion, let me say that George Washington was successful for
three reasons. One was that he never shook the confidence of his
friends. Another was that he had a strong will without being a mule.
Some people cannot distinguish between being firm and being a big blue
donkey.
Another reason why Washington is loved and honored to-day is that he
died before we had a chance to get tired of him. This is greatly
superior to the method adopted by many modern statesmen, who wait till
their constituency weary of them, and then reluctantly pass away.
* * * * *
N. B.--Since writing the foregoing I have found that Washington was
not born a poor boy,--a discovery which redounds greatly to his
credit,--that he was able to accomplish so much, and yet could get
his weekly spending money and sport a French nurse in his extreme
youth.
B. N.