Washington's Birthday Part 22

_His Temper_

Stuart, the portrait painter, once said to General Lee that Was.h.i.+ngton had a tremendous temper, but that he had it under wonderful control.

While dining with the Was.h.i.+ngtons, General Lee repeated the first part of Stuart's remark. Mrs. Was.h.i.+ngton flushed and said that Mr. Stuart took a great deal upon himself. Then General Lee said that Mr. Stuart had added that the President had his temper under wonderful control.

Was.h.i.+ngton seemed to be thinking for a moment, then he smiled and said, "Mr. Stuart is right."

_His Smile_

The popular idea that Was.h.i.+ngton never laughed is well-nigh exploded.

Nelly Custis said, "I have sometimes made him laugh most heartily from sympathy with my joyous and extravagant spirits."

When the news came from Dr. Franklin in France that help was promised from that country, General Was.h.i.+ngton broke into a laugh, waved his c.o.c.ked hat, and said to his officers, "The day is ours!" Another story is to the effect that while present at the baptism of a child of a Mr.

Wood, he was so surprised to hear the name given as George Was.h.i.+ngton that he smiled. Senator Maclay tells of his smiling at a state dinner, and even toying with his fork. Various sources testify that a smile lent an unusual beauty to his face.

At one time, as Was.h.i.+ngton entered a shop in New York, a Scotch nursemaid followed him, carrying her infant charge. "Please, sir, here's a bairn was named after you."

"What is his name?" asked the President.

"Was.h.i.+ngton Irving, sir."

Was.h.i.+ngton put his hand upon the child's head and gave him his blessing, little thinking that "the bairn" would write, as a labor of love, a life of Was.h.i.+ngton.

While at his Newburgh headquarters the General was approached by Aaron Burr, who stealthily crept up as he was writing, and looked over his shoulder. Although Was.h.i.+ngton did not hear the footfall, he saw the shadow in the mirror. He looked up, and said only, "Mr. Burr!" But the tone was enough to make Burr quail and beat a hasty retreat.

A man who, well for himself, is nameless, made a wager with some friends that he could approach Was.h.i.+ngton familiarly. The President was walking up Chestnut Street, in Philadelphia, when the would-be wag, in full view of his companions, slapped him on the back and said, "Well, old fellow, how are you this morning?" Was.h.i.+ngton looked at him, and in a freezing tone asked, "Sir, what have I ever said or done which induces you to treat me in this manner?"

_Thoughtfulness_

After Was.h.i.+ngton's retirement from the Presidency, Elkanah Watson was a guest at Mount Vernon. He had a serious cold, and after he retired he coughed severely. Suddenly the curtains of his bed were drawn aside, and there stood Was.h.i.+ngton with a huge bowl of steaming herb tea. "Drink this," he said, "it will be good for that cough."

Was.h.i.+ngton possessed in a peculiar degree the great gift of remembering faces. Once, while visiting in Newburyport, he saw at work in the grounds of his host an old servant whom he had not seen since the French and Indian war, thirty years before. He knew the man at once, and stopped and spoke kindly to him.

_Modesty_

Any collection of anecdotes about Was.h.i.+ngton is sure to refer to his extreme modesty. Upon one occasion, when the speaker of the a.s.sembly returned thanks in glowing terms to Colonel Was.h.i.+ngton for his services, he rose to express his acknowledgments, but he was so embarra.s.sed that he could not articulate a word. "Sit down, Mr. Was.h.i.+ngton," said the speaker, "your modesty equals your valor, and that surpa.s.ses the power of any language which I possess."

When Adams suggested that Congress should appoint a general, and hinted plainly at Was.h.i.+ngton, who happened to sit near the door, the latter rose, "and, with his usual modesty, darted into the library room."

Was.h.i.+ngton's favorite quotation was Addison's "'Tis not in mortals to command success," but he frequently quoted Shakespeare.

_Taste for Literature_

His taste for literature is indicated by the list of books which he ordered for his library at the close of the war: "Life of Charles the Twelfth," "Life of Louis the Fifteenth," "Life and Reign of Peter the Great," Robertson's "History of America," "Voltaire's Letters," Vertol's "Revolution of Rome," "Revolution of Portugal," Goldsmith's "Natural History," "Campaigns of Marshal Turenne," Chambaud's "French and English Dictionary," Locke "On the Human Understanding," and Robertson's "Charles the Fifth." "Light reading," he wrote to his step-grandson, "(by this I mean books of little importance) may amuse for the moment, but leaves nothing behind."

_His Dress_

Although always very particular about his dress, Was.h.i.+ngton was no dandy, as some have supposed. "Do not," he wrote to his nephew in 1783, "conceive that fine clothes make fine men any more than fine feathers make fine birds. A plain, genteel dress is more admired and obtains more credit than lace or embroidery in the eyes of the judicious and sensible."

Sullivan thus describes Was.h.i.+ngton at a levee: "He was dressed in black velvet, his hair full dress, powdered, and gathered behind in a large silk bag, yellow gloves on his hands; holding a c.o.c.ked hat, with a c.o.c.kade in it, and the edges adorned with a black feather about an inch deep. He wore knee and shoe buckles, and a long sword.... The scabbard was of white polished leather."

After Cornwallis's surrender at Yorktown, Was.h.i.+ngton said to his army: "My brave fellows, let no sensation of satisfaction for the triumphs you have gained induce you to insult your fallen enemy. Let no shouting, no clamorous huzzaing increase their mortification. It is sufficient for us that we witness their humiliation. Posterity will huzza for us."

While there are many stories which show Was.h.i.+ngton's straightforwardness, here is one which shows much diplomacy. He was asked by Volney, a Frenchman and a revolutionist, for a letter of recommendation to the American people. This request put him in an awkward position, for there were good reasons why he could not give it, and other good reasons why he did not wish to refuse. Taking a sheet of paper, he wrote:

C. Volney needs no recommendation from

Geo. Was.h.i.+ngton.

GREAT GEORGE WAs.h.i.+NGTON[25]

BY KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN AND NORA A. SMITH

All this time while George Was.h.i.+ngton had been growing up,--first a little boy, then a larger boy, and then a young surveyor,--all this time the French and English and Indians were unhappy and uncomfortable in the country north of Virginia. The French wanted all the land, so did the English, and the Indians saw that there would be no room for them, whichever had it, so they all began to trouble each other, and to quarrel and fight.

These troubles grew so bad at last that the Virginians began to be afraid of the French and Indians, and thought they must have some soldiers of their own ready to fight.

George Was.h.i.+ngton was only nineteen then, but everybody knew he was wise and brave, so they chose him to teach the soldiers near his home how to march and to fight.

Then the king and the people of England grew very uneasy at all this quarreling, and they sent over soldiers and cannon and powder, and commenced to get ready to fight in earnest. Was.h.i.+ngton was made a major, and he had to go a thousand miles, in the middle of winter, into the Indian and French country, to see the chiefs and the soldiers, and find out about the troubles.

When he came back again, all the people were so pleased with his courage and with the wise way in which he had behaved, that they made him lieutenant-colonel.

Then began a long war between the French and the English, which lasted seven years. Was.h.i.+ngton fought through all of it, and was made a colonel, and by and by commander of all the soldiers in Virginia. He built forts and roads, he gained and lost battles, he fought the Indians and the French; and by all this trouble and hard work he learned to be a great soldier.

In many of the battles of this war, Was.h.i.+ngton and the Virginians did not wear a uniform, like the English soldiers, but a buckskin s.h.i.+rt and fringed leggings, like the Indians.

From beginning to end of some of the battles, Was.h.i.+ngton rode about among the men, telling them where to go and how to fight; the bullets were whistling around him all the time, but he said he liked the music.

By and by the war was over; the French were driven back to their own part of the country, and Was.h.i.+ngton went home to Mount Vernon to rest, and took with him his wife, lovely Martha Was.h.i.+ngton, whom he had met and married while he was fighting the French and Indians.

While he was at Mount Vernon he saw all his horses again,--"Valiant" and "Magnolia" and "c.h.i.n.kling" and "Ajax,"--and had grand gallops over the country.

He had some fine dogs, too, to run by his side, and help him hunt the bushy-tailed foxes. "Vulcan" and "Ringwood" and "Music" and "Sweetlips"

were the names of some of them. You may be sure the dogs were glad when they had their master home again.

But Was.h.i.+ngton did not have long to rest, for another war was coming, the great war of the Revolution.

Little children cannot understand all the reasons for this war, but I can tell you some of them.

You remember in the story of Thanksgiving I told you about the Pilgrim fathers, who came from England to this country because their king would not let them pray to G.o.d as they liked. That king was dead now, and there was another in his place, a king with the name of George, like our Was.h.i.+ngton.

Now our great-grandfathers had always loved England and Englishmen, because many of their friends were still living there, and because it was their old home.

The king gave them governors to help take care of their people, and soldiers to fight for them, and they sent to England for many things to wear and to eat.

But just before this Revolutionary War, the king and the great men who helped him began to say that things should be done in this country that our people did not think right at all. The king said they must buy expensive stamps to put on all their newspapers and almanacs and lawyer's papers, and that they must pay very high taxes on their tea and paper and gla.s.s, and he sent soldiers to see that this was done.

This made our great-grandfathers very angry. They refused to pay the taxes, they would not buy anything from England any more, and some men even went on board the s.h.i.+ps, as they came into Boston Harbor, and threw the tea over into the water.