Newspaper Page Text
6 The Herald By I*hk Hktmt.p Publishing Company. JOHN BRADBURY, President and <i neral Manager. EMTOKIAh DEPARTMENT: No. 205 New High Street. Telephone 15U. John T. GakkkY Managing Editor. BUSINESS OFFICE: Bradbury Building, 222 West Third street. Telephone 247. Dot m.as White Business Manager. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 33, iBO3-~ Go to sea and save money. Doesn't the sun shine, though! How about this weather, anyway? "Ah there, Brigadier-General!" Mayor Sutro has come in out of the wet. It's a cold day when Southern Calirornia gets left. Who will boss the National Guard south of Tehacliepi? Why doesn't Oregon let Dolph out and eieet a Senator? Hank robbing is a losing game in this end of the state. The woman who removes her hat in a theater is a lady. , Talk about life on the ocean wave. It oomcs cheap now. Every first-class restaurant keeps The Herald for its guests. When you satisfy yourself with the hill of fare read The Herald. Reform government is one thing—get ting a bill through, another. The deadlock in Idaho and Oregon is becoming somewhat monotonous. The children of Pasadena haven't buried the hatchet story yet, at any rate. And now San Francisco is talking of a spring festival on its own account. Kader's valentines strike close to neces sity, even ii they do come from the East. Now let somebody introduce a law pro hibiting the "eoing out between the acts.'' , When you wear a mask and cover * faro dealer with a revolver you are bound to win. Never mind, children, they can't whoop up this sort of climate in the Bay district. A side entrance to a saloon is a sneer on the countenance of a hypocritical community. When a man wants diamonds in San Francisco he simply hires a horse and picks up a stone. The law of coincidence is proving itself in Los Angeles, and suicide parallels murder in the usual ratio. The stockholders of the Valley road show no signs of weakening. Their money is beginning to talk. When she is at sea she is a sloop, when at anchor a schooner, and all along the suspicion of smuggler follows. In addition to being an alleged cold blooded murderer, Harry Hayward is able to cope with sharp cross-examiners. It is all right tp enact ordinances clos ing the saloons on Sunday, but of what use are such laws if they are not enforced? It is a lingering evidence of our rever ence for the Father of His Country that we "observe" his birthday as a "legal holiday." The Reilly funding bill is trying to Banquo Congress, but there is little chance to shake its gory locks in the pres ence of this session. There is some scattering reference just now to "The Coming Woman." The Coming Woman! Why, bless your heart! she isn't "coming"—she is here. Up in Oregon and Idaho they waste the entire time of a Legislature trying to elect a Senator, and then don't do it. The public cares nothing about reform meas ures. It is said that George Washington never told a lie. But then it must be remem bered that he "entered politics" when that science was an infant industry in this country. The Republican City Convention of Chi cago had to be suppressed by the police. Then they nominated a Mayor by accla mation. This is the Chicago idea of The impending law prohibiting high hats in the theaters has produced one good result already. The woman in front of you removes her hat without argument on your simple request. A colored person shot another colored person last night near the Arcade depot and walked unmolested to the police sta tion. Suppose he had walked the other way? He might have been going yet. The protest of the people against the proposed increase of water rates grows louder and more pronounced as the time approaches for levying this tax. And these protests will not cease until the city assumes the ownership of its water sup ply. The Daily Report of San Francisco ac cuses Lim Angeles of having assumed a "patronizing" and "supercilious" air toward the metropolis. That may be, and even the Report will not deny that until recently we had ample reason for our opinion. While the rest of the world is endeavor ing to purify its moral condition, the cities of Southern California are laying porphyry pavements, to be paid for with the profits of the orange crop. In the garden of the Hesperides the morals of the gardeners were secondary to the com fort of the population. Klcbard Smith, "a marine hermit," fflui is residing at present on the hulk of It m homier afloat in San Francisco Hay. lias predicted that the city is to be de stroyed by an ocean flood. He has warned tiie people and is much grieved that they bike no hoed of his warning, but keep right on subscribing to competing rail roads, slumming the Tenderloin and otherwise pursuing the even wickedness of their way. He is consoled, however, by the reflection that Noah was similarly neglected, and he patiently awaits the hour when the survivors of his catastro phe come pleading at the deadeyes of his ark LOS ANGELES HERALD: FRIDAY MORISTING, FEBRUARY 22, 1895. THE NATION'S HOPE Sixty million freemen honor the mem ory of George Washington today. Millions more must offer unconscious homage to the patriot who struck down tyranny and proved to the world that "the divine right of kings" is a fallacy—a hoary su perstition to affright and abash the con sciences of slaves. Every schoolboy knows the history of the epoch in which Washington lived and struggled and conquered. There is none so ignorant that he cannot appreciate the lesson of that period and understand its application or its effect upon the events of the age. It is not everyone, however, who realizes the distance we have drifted from the original mooring of tho ship of state. Not that the people are less pa triotic —on occasion they can rise to every emergency; but they are prone to a conservatism that requires a tremendous emergency to rouse them. They are long suffering under oppressions more tyran nous than those imposed by George the Third. They have permitted syndicated wealth to dictate to their Congresses and Legislatures and they have rested supinely under the dead weight of trusts and cor porations and a succession of political oligarchies more arrogant than Hano verian usurpation or Tory feudalism. Human nature is unchangeable. It is the same today as it was when the im mortal signers delivered their famous ultimatum to the fatttous old man of Whitehall. The spirit of '76 is as strong in the American people today as it was when they routed Hessians in the Carolinas and chased Tarleton's To ries through the swamps of the Old Dominion. The people of this coun try are just a. determined in defense of their battle-won privileges as they were when they uttered their Declaration of Independence. It may be that they will continue to submit a little longer, but the end is inevitable and the new Declaration is being framed—the nation is dictating the policy of the Government at the bal lot box—the disobedience of the servants of the people and the autocratic attitude of syndicated wealth will be attended to hereafter. It is not denied that the institutions of this country have been shifted from the foundations laid by Washington and Jef ferson and Adams and Hamilton, and it is agreed that unless they are placed upon the original pedestal the structure of democracy will crumble and republicanism become a byword amongst nations. But the lesson taught by the founders of the Kepublic has not been forgotten by the people, and where one Washington girded on the sword, to marshal the host of pa triots, a million of patriots are ready to respond to the call of duty in the hour of their country's peril, whether it be from foreign invader or the treason that stalks in the councils of political parties. There will be a revival of patriotism long before this generation has passed away, and the memory of the Father of his Country will once more shine doubly resplendent in the hearts of a liberty loving people. Demagogues and political tricksters have been long enough at the helm of state; it is now time that the people began to look after their own affairs. And they will do it. OUR EXAHPLE It is gratifying to note that Los Ange les is taking the lead in public affairs, and that the advantages we receive from La Fiesta have induced Pan Francisco to agitate the question of holding an annual festival in that city. This alone is suffi cient to arouse the utmost exertions on the part of the people of this city to make La Fiesta a grand success. The Han Fran cisco merchants and newspapers realize that the fame of California will be greatly enhanced, when it earns a reputation as a place of amusement and recreation as well as one beneficial to health. The fact, however, that other cities in this state have inaugurated a movement of this character, will not injure our carni val. The tourist, who generally arrives in Southern California during the latter part of January or the commencement of February] will have an opportunity to visit the orange groves and citrus belt of this section during the two months that intervene between his arrival and the car nival. After having observed our marvelous I resources, our semi-tropic fruits, our I balmy climate and picturesque scenery, he can devote two months longer to amuse- ] ment. He will witness the grandest of | all carnivals and the most unique festi- | val, with all its distinctive features, in Lm Angeles. Then he will enjoy the magnificent display of flowers at Santa I Barbara. He can then turn north and 1 take part in the Mardi Gras that San Francisco may successfully carry out, and when he leaves California he will be con- | viiiced-that no state in the Union offers ■UCb diversified and interesting advantages for health and pleasure as our own favored state. Then California will offer the attrac- 1 tions of Italy and France combined. The effectiveness of combination a~d intelligent co-operation was never more forcibly presented than it is in the result of tin; great, wine deal consummated by the California Wine Association. The fact, that the association controls the sale of 19,000,000 gallons of wine, stupendous aa it is, does not compare with future bene fits arising from the industry and enter prise of the producer who, as a member of the association, has a clear field with- I out being compelled to pay exorbitant j tribute to the middlemen. It is exceedingly difficult for a man to die hy violence in Ix>s Angeles, if he es capes the tirst clip of "the grim reaper." This is due to the cold-blooded manner in which I'olice Surgeon Bryant handles the "case" after it reaches him. He seems to regard Death's buffets upon even the most worthless of lives as a personal af front, and he resents them as such. Home of bis more enthusiastic admirers say he is "the best police surgeon in the world." Sympathy harper's bazar If we should be so quick of heart, So keen of sight. That we could feel each shadow's gloom, Each blossom's blight, The fairest ot earth's blue-gold days Would tuan to night. If we should grow so swift to feel Each human pain, That for each aching human heart Ours ached again. Life were all weariness, and joy Grown poor and vain. Some sounds are lost In silence, though We reverent hark: Some sights are shut from anxious eyes by pitying dark; The limit of the soul's out-gift Has Unite mark. Dr. Price's Cream Baking-Powder World's Fair Highest Medal and Diploma. SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EDITORS Loa Angeles wants a morgue. Ban Francisco can spare hers, now tha-4 she has risen from the dead and is preparing to clothe herself with the mantle of a competing railroad. —Hanford Democrat. We suggest to our legislators that they enact a law, making it somebody's busi ness to return overcharges collected from our tax-burdened citizens, and that with out fees or commissions.—Booth's Bazoo. It is snowing and blowing in the East, but the sun shines warmly, the birds sing sweetly and the merry bathers bathe comfortably in the ocean here every day. Who wouldn't enjoy life by the sea these winter days.—Santa Monica Outlook. The fact that the train robbers who looted an express car recently took only the gold coin aboard, leaving all the silver behind, will doubtless be pointed out by the silver-plated statesmen as an other goldbug bug discrimination against the wnite metal.—Santa Barbara Morn ing Press. Mayor Sutro is a tremendous enemy of the Southern Pacific- with his mouth. His purse, however, does not co-operate ami the reason seems to be that they run by separate mechanisms, the former being by donkey engine, independent of the main line. —Pasadena Evening Star. .Southern California seems to he stand ing in with the elements or at least the orange crop does. On top of the double freeze in Florida and the frost in Valen cia, comes the news that snow has dam aged the orange crops iv Sicily. Surely the prospects look bright, for 1 Southern California and her immense crop of golden fruit. -Long Beach Eye. The Los Angeles Herald, which was mainly responsible for the plan to build a railway from that city to Fresno, now urges the construction of a line to Hakers rield, to meet the ''Spreckels road." The suggestion is an excellent one, but if the Los Ange!es people really mean business they would better not wait for the materializing of tho sugar king's windy scheme. Let them build tO Bakers held and when they get there prohably they will And a clear field for their orig inal plan for a line to Fresno. — Kiversiue Enterprie. And now it is denied that there was anything like torture attempted by the Hawaiian Government, or its representa tives, to wring confession from the mouths of unwilling witnesses. The whole story being denounced as made from whole cloth, there is no more proof of its truth than of its falsity. To make the matter entirely plain a searching in vestigation should be made by the Gov ernment and conducted in such a way as to leave no room for doubt regarding the correctness of the findings.—San Diego Union. Various rumors are afloat in regard to the intention of the Pacific Beet Sugar Company, until the last meeting of the stockholders known as the Anaheim Co operative Beet Sugar Company. One re port has it that a line of railway from Los Angeles to Santa Ana will be "built down through a new town to be built up around the factory, which is to be located six miles west of Anaheim, taking In either Westminster or Garden Grcve.—Santa Ana Evening Blade. Flax culture is attracting the attention of this state, and it is reported that con tracts for the purchase of some 200(1 tons of rlax seed at about $40 per ton have been made. It is believed that 1000 pounds of seed per acre may be easily produced on our good lands which should make the crop profitable, especially if the straw should be utilized as ft ought to be. We need to diversify our crops, and it is well to investigate flax, tobacco, sugar cane and beets in a great many localities where they are not now grown.'— San Ber nardino '1 imes-Tndex. THE HERALD IN EVIDENCE The Los Angeles Herald of yesterday ap peared in an illuminated cover, and' was an excellent journal in all respects. The paper is also using typesetting machines now. one of which is capable of setting as much type in two hours as is used by the Democrat daily. The live typesetting ma chines used by the Herald can do as much work with five men as was formerly ac complished by twenty.—Hanford Demo crat. *r ir * The Los Angeles Herald has for the past month or two been in a transition stage, having undergone a change of proprietors, editors and quarters. It now appears in a new dress and greatly improved in every department. Last Sunday it came to us in twenty-four pages, enclosed in a very striking and handsome cover in purple and brown. It is a credit to Southern California.—Orange News. * * * The change in makeup of the Los An geles Herald, from seven to six columns, is a decided improvement, ami one Which will be appreciated by the readers. As that journal says, "you don't buy news papers by the yard" and quality "is pre- | ferable to quantity.—Santa Monica Out look, V 9 Last Sunday morning the Los Angeles Herald came out in a new dress of type throughout. The Herald is now one of the newsiest and handsomest dailies of the Pacific Coast.—Pomona Saturday Bca- i con. Too Much for Detective Wiggins PROM H AItPEK'H BAZAK. He was thfl best detective that the world had ever known; If Bleuth-hnun In had a monarch hod hare oc cupied the throne. In all his life—'tis history—he'd never once been stumped: But on a sudden, sad to tell, his stock it sorely slumped. If anybody lost a pin In some far-off haystack, He'd take the midnight train, and morn wouid j lind the pin brought back. If there were thieves around about who'd baffled every one, The minute he took up the case they knew | their game wa- done. If there were murder of the most mysterious detail, In which c'en Mr Sherlock Holmes would have been sure to fail, They'd call Detective Wiggins in to forret out a clue. And every tlmo he did It they'd discover it was true; But I—yes, Pin responsible for Mr. Wiggin's fall— I didn't mean to pull him down, or injure him at all. I Bimply had a mystery—'tis very sad to tell— I went to him to have it solved, since he had clues to sell. *oh, Mr. Wiggins, sir," said I, "Will you find out for me The thing 1 am dying lor to kuow?—'tis wrapped in mystery. A point it ia that comes at night and all my dreams doth haunt— What is It all these women of today think that they want? "Why do they wish to go and vote? What sort of slaves aro they? Who is it, too, that holds'em all in bondage, tell me pray? And what's this 'ryranny of man' we hear so much of late? And who has any scheme.by which to remedy their slate? "And what's that state? Who brought it on? Get me the villain's name. If woman lives in bondage'tis a rank and burn ing shame. But ere I take up arms for her I'd truly like to see Just what she thinks she wants, and what's her remedy.'* And Wiggins worked by day, by night; he worked for weeks and weeks. Hiseyo grew dull and listless and the color left his cheeks, And nua ly he gave it up anddied--he was hard h t To find one mystery so deep he couldn't fathom it. SOME MEMORIES OF GEORGE WASHINGTON Few people in this Reeolloetions world live to recall the memories of near of a Man ly a century, but the recollections of Colo- Who Know nel James I>. Minroll, the oldest inhabitant Washington of Allegheny, Pa., date back to L 797. Very Intimately when he was 4 years old. Though born in the rural districts of Virginia, within a few miles of that Mecca of American free men, Mount Vernon, the greater part of his life has been spent in Washington city, where he has been intimate with almost every distinguished man who has been prominent in the various phases of public life at the national capital during the past seventy-tivc years. Many happy bourn of his childhood were passed on the estate of the immmortal Father of his Country, and as the Colonel is as vigor ous mentally nnd physically as any man of 80, his recollectious of the great patriot, as well as those of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Aaron Burr, James Madison, .lames Monroe, John Quincy Adams, An drew Jackson, Martin Va.i Buren, Henry Glayj John C. Calhoun, Daniel Webster, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, James K. Polk and many others of our public men of bygone days are replete with the charm of novelty and interest. "While I think of myself only as a boy,"' he said in a recent interview, "I feel as though I were just beginning to live, being blessed with supple joints, a good appetite, excellent sleeping abilities and as great a disposition to shun hard work as any P5-vear-old youngster could possibly have, I must confess to what the clergy call a 'realizing sense' that I am out of my teens when I re member that I am nearly 40 years older than the railroad, 50 years older than the telegraph and nearly LOO years older than the telephone and phonograph. I had hurrahed and voted for my favorite pres idential candidates several times before I licked my first postage stamp, and it was not until several years after I had arrived at man's estate that some inventive gen ius produced v metal plow. "Long after I was a married man, great big 'gals'—in old Virginity, where I was horn—with long waist ribbons and their dress sleeves puffed out a balloon, used to carry their shoes under their arms until they came close to the meeting house, when they would stop and put them on, and they'd holler for Oen'ral Jackson if it killed them. In those days if a boy got a pair of home-made low shoes, a pair of linsey-woolsey pahts and a wool bat once a year he thought he was playing in great luck, as you young fellows say now. "It was in'such an outfit—for boys ar rived at the dignity of bifurcated apparel at a much younger age in those days than they do now—that early in March, 1797, I first remember visiting* Mount Ver non, being then a youngster of 4 years. It was on the occasion of Washington's re turn to home and domestic life at the ter mination of his second Presidential term. Among a vast concourse of neighbors and friends assembled to welcome him was my father, who had taken me with him. The occasion was made one of general rejoic ing. The people came ducking in from all parts of the vast estate. "Those who are familiar Mount With the Mount Vernon of today, with its 200 acres, Vernon can scarcely realize that in Washington's time it num in the bered several thousand. It was originally known as Old Days. the Hunting Creek estate, but when Lawrence Wash ington. George's half-brother. Inherited it from their father, he rechristened it Mount Vernon, in honor of the English Admiral under whom he had served in the disastrous campaign against Car thagena, in South America. At his death it descended to his daughter Jennie, and when she died, soon afterward, it became Cheerless and sad The March From indeed was the march of the pa- Gormamtown to triotio army from the hills of Ger- Valley Forge niantown to the forge within the valley, twenty miles away. Under the cold and lowering December sky the rug ged, rugged rebels against monarchical Oppression trudged wearily toward their winter's home, where, naught of cheer awaited them, and where no habitation yet existed for their rest and comfort, where for aught they knew the wolf of hunger and the sting" of frost might end their days us surely as the hum of British lead or the thrust of British steel. So it was that. Washington and his men marched tv that place known in song and story as Valley Furge. Arriving there on December 17. 1777, the wearied, famished troops were forced to brave the wintry blasts in tents until they could fell the trees from which to construct tbe rude log huts in which they were to spend the win ter months. This* season had opened with the property of George Washington. It j was a great "domain, extending for miles | down the Potomac below Alexandria. When the beautiful young relict of Colonel Daniel Parke Custie—colonial belle at 15, a bride at 17 and a widow, with two children at 24—became Mrs. Washington, she brought her new lord a dower of 15,000 acres of land. 300 negroes and |30,000 invested in the best securities of those days. The large domain thus added to Mount Vernon made Washington one of the wealthiest landowners of his day. "No man was ever more liberal in the entertainment of his friends and neigh bors than George Washington. Those Wi re the days when every well-regulated plantation or farm had its still house in which the golden grain -garnered with a sickle, for the originator of that great in vention, the grain cradle, with its five lingers, the forerunner of the reaper and the mowing machine, was then alike to fortune and fame unknown—was trans formed into the whisky which did not make men crazy and which sold from $3 to $5 per barrel. It was one of the staple productions of Mount Vernon, and every man on the estate that day drank 'Wel come home and long life to General George Washington' in a bumper of it that would excite the horror of modern advocates of constitutional prohibitory amendments. *'I have looked upon many mighty men. I have seen the great Napoleon tn the full flush of his pride and triumph* I have seen George IV.—the first gentleman of Europe. I have personally known Lord Byron. Sir Walter Scott, Daniel O'Con nell, Daniel Webster and many others of the men most famous in affairs of gov ernment, arms, literature, statesmanship anil oratory, but never have I seen any other man who Impressed me, child though I was, as possessing such massive grandeur and dignity of presence as did General George Washington when he stood upon the veranda at Mount Vernon and, in a few simple, well-chosen words thanked us for our demonstration of wel come. The impression then made by him upon my child-mind can never be effaced, and of all the great men whom I have seen none has ever been able to de pose the Father of his Country from tho pedestal of superiority over other men upon which I placed him in my heart that day. "Down in the negro quarters numer ous pot pies were cooking in ten gallon kettles and many juicy possums were roasting before brightly burning wood tires. We had no coal in those days, and the winter wood pile of a prosperou planter at that time would make a houses holder of the present day think that there had been a freshet in the neighborhood. "Then in the grand When Neighbors old banquet hall of Mo v n tVera on, Wash - Met Together— ington and his neighbors sat down liich and Poor to one of the old fashioned rural Vir- Allke ginia suppers ol that period. When this feast had been dispatched, the tables were quickly cleared away and all the big boys ; and gals went swinging around in a merry, j joyous circle singing: We are marching, marching to Quebec, While the drums are loudly beating. "Oh, those were halycon days indeed in Ole Virginny, when neighbors met to gether—rich and poor alike—to help each | other at log rollings, barn raisings, liar- ' vesting! and hustings, and to frolic mer- I rily when the work was done. "I have spoken of the banquet hall at Blount Vernon. Together with the libra- i ry and the piazza overlooking the Po- i tomac; it was one of the chief features of 1 two new wings added to the old mansion I in 1785. Two years previously, on De cember 23, 1783, Washington had per- i formed the crowning act of his heroic j career by giving back into the hands of I Congress his commission as Commander- I in-Chief of the armies of a great country which owed its individual life so largely ] to him. On the following night—Christ- l mas Eve, 1783—the plain Mr. and Mrs., Washington and his beautiful wife, were i WITH THE REVOLUTIONIST!. AT VALLEY FORGE unusual severity. The ground was covered with ice and snow, and the line of march was marked by blood stains from the feet of many a gallant fellow whose shoes had been worn out on other fields while etriv tng so lone and earnestly for the cause of liberty. Hatless, coatless, hungry and cold, this immortal hand set to work to provide shelter for themselves. Not a man flinched, notone shirked his duty. The sick and sorely wounded found tem porary shelter, as best they might, among the farmers in the neighborhood. A city of log huts sprang up along the hillside. In each of these rude dwellings, fourteen feet by sixteen, scarcely high eneugh to per mit one to stand uprigh, clay-daubed and tilled, with roof of slabs and*fireplace of logs and mortar, twelve soldiers or non-commissioned officers were quar tered. A brigadier or other general officer enjoyed the luxury of a whole hut to himself, and the same * was allowed to the staff of each brigade and regiment. The huts of rank and file fronted on streets, wl.de the officers' quarters formed a line in the rear, the general arrange ment being not unlike the modern camp of our militia. Scarcely had the men begun their work again welcomed home to Mount Vernon with just such another neighborly demon stration as I have attempted to dt scribe above, and of which I have often heard my father toll. The fame of Washington and of the rapidly growing nation which he was regarded as having begotten drew so many visitors to Mount Vernon that the enlargement of the grand old house was absolutely necessary for their fitting entertainment. "There crowd upon me today with strange vividness the memories of my subsequent visit* to Mount Vernon and of the many times t saw its master in the nearly three remaining years before death closed his brilliant earthly career on De cember 14, 1744. "No man ever had a more intensely hu man side than Washington. It was com mon talk among the people of our neigh borhood that he had a strange weakness for purchasing lottery tickets. There were also rumors that he hud what old Tony Weller would call an ama'ble veakness for falling in love head over heels—platoni cally or otherwise—with pretty young women, and was very greatly annoyed when the aforesaid young women refused to fall in love with' him, Many of our neighbors even went so far as to say that he always traded horses to his own ad vantage* and 'Never swap horses with Washington' finally became a sort of pro verbial saying in that section of the Uld Dominion. "Though he was unquestionably the richest and most prominent American of his day, he was an unconscionably bad speller, as everybody Washington knows. I have often heard my father say that Had Great Washington had "great passions, hut had them Passions and in magnificent control, and that though remark- Wai a Bad ably talkative to confiden tial friends, he was sing- Speller ularly taciturn when there was any likelihood of wdmt he said being repeated or made public. He always asked a blessing at table, where he had his glass of wine or mug of beer at every meal, and he was a hearty, cheerful, active man, who enjoyed life as if it were worth living. No man was ever more thoroughly familiar with every detail of his affairs, or ever gave to his estate a closer personal supervision. His natural dignity was such that he could very well afford to do and often did do many things that were unusual for a planter of his condition and time. Those were the days when the women . pulled the flax while the men broke, swingled und hackled it, and then twisted it into little cues for the women to spin and weave. I have seen the immortal George stoop down and pull flax to show some green hand among the negro women hqw it should be done. This flax raising was among the chief industriea at Mount Ver non, and even now I seem to see there, bleaching in the sun, the long strips— white as ' the driven snow—from which sheets, pillow cases, table cloths, towels, napkins, under-clothing and even pants for the great Washington himself were made. In my mind's eye I see again the female slaves carding wool—with hand cards—into rolls on rolls ready to spin on their wheels; imagine 1 hear them singing the quaint old plantation hymns and folksong of the south as those wheels go merrily round, while moving übiqui tously over every part of the state I see once* more the tall, erect figure of the master. "Then there comes to me the memory of how the whole country was startled by the shock of the sudden announcement of the great patriot's untimely death on De cember 30th of that same year—and the proclamation -of President John Adams that February 22d, Washington's birth day, stiould be fittingly celebrated by the wliole nation. Though I was hut a child scare 7 years of age when George Wash ington died, yet my recollection of him and of the daily life I -aw him lead at Mount Vernon for nearly three years are far more fresh and vivid in my memory than the events that transpired yester day." when, December 22nd, couriers brougoi news that the enemy had made a sorts toward Chester with the evident intention of plundering the granaries, cellars and hen-roosts of the farmers thereabout, ft was to prevent just such attempts that the patriotic army bad lingered near the cit* instead of seeking greater comfort aW immunity from service, by retiring to tlfij interior. The rumor, fortunately, proved to be unfounded; but. the desperate con' dition of the troops was forcibly reflected in the replies of the two General! Huntington and Varnum, whom (bacon mander ordered to march against the en. emy. "Fighting will be far preferable tp starving," writes Huntington. "My brigade are out of provisions, nor can tho commissary obtain any meat. " "It is a very pleasing circumstance to the division under my command," writes Varnuni, "that there is a probability of marching. Two days we have been entirely without meat." This was Valley Forge at Christmas, 1777. Such was the extremity to which was reduced, at that time, the army which eventually wrested this mighty nation of ours from the grasp of a mercenary, sous> less monarch.