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Show ' Will 1 2; A,, i, -, h 1 1 10 last will anil testament of George Washington per- J'.j hnp the most precious and a- the most Intorebt Iiir of ull fW the relics of the Futher of Jl I J HIh Country has recently r f: 1 been fcaved to the nation. gr!llr Moreover this recede of the JL'-'f- nioht significant document r..r"-; jn' n nod by our first presl- C"i , dent took iliiee Just In the '" more and the country mlgl;t ba. had to mourn the loss of this priceless souvenir just as It has been mourning those many years past tho disappearance of the original penned drafts of some of the famous speeches delivered by some of our most famous fa-mous men on historic occasions. It was tot, In the present ease, that fire or theft threatened the Washington relic although al-though It must be admitted that there Is a possibility of loss by either of these means no long as It remains in Its present depository. However, tho destructive agent that recently aroused some of the nation's most prominent officials to the peril of tho Washington will Is nothing less than the ravages of time, t'ntl) ;'':h;:;A J, -; '"r";li if- .. V , v ( 1 ' & ' t nr. 1 1 X-;vd -fe I -j - A-P -Sci-, "is, ..... it,, ' . f r . ir.. V r" . Xi ?-?' ... .Vv, lii-O--:--: ,V ., . QKp;i-.i fit. s:iWATW y;i ht If A i ftea " l . tjj omcf or rf c-ZfA'A? or me (oovir L3 - ' w pox w uvrtci r WAr perts It would be necessary to remove tho will to Washington for the Interim while the work of restoration was In prepress, and the county (.fhclals at I'alrf.ix who had the say in the matter mat-ter rofusi d Hat footed to allow the document to letne Virginia. It looked for n time ns though this mkht block the whole plan, but finally the ofliclals of (he library of roiipress, who have on (heir staff a manuscript surgeon almost as skillful as the one at the slate department, offered I" send this wlr.j.rd to Kairfax Courthouse and have him carry on the work there. This was done and the outcome has been as satisfactory as though the work of rejuvenation bad been conducted In the well equipped plant at the national eapl' tal. llowevir, there were many handicaps and intt (he least of these wav. found In the neccs sity for transporting to Fairfax n heavy pics and other paraphernalia neede.l for (he Intrl cite pbclng of the lorn and ragged pares nnd mounting them on the cardboard mounts, cue of which has been provided for each pace i f the will. fii'pii stlonably (be gratifying success which has attended this attempt to restore the Wavh ini ton will to the appearance It lore one hundred hun-dred years ago has been due In no small measure meas-ure to the aid afforded by a number of b'nnk f beets of p.-pcr made especially for Cicorgi1 Washington nnd watermarked with his name Whin the government ofliclals first lnfccic: the torn and tattered will with n view to upp'y lug their ingenious "tlrKt aid" treatment thj nt once realized that an Inordinate amount 1 Iertng jnd patching would be necessary ii they were In a quandary where to obtain ma rial that would match the original, for, of cnurs tho will was written on very distinctive I-ai-i-Hiid to patch it with ordinary paper of prcM'it May manufacture would have resulted In only partially concealing the wound made by tlm and careless bands. Thiri) was a long search for paper thai ould be used with confidence that no person examining the restored document without the aid of a magnifying glass could tell where (hi original left off and a patch began. Finally (hi ofliclals discovert d In a second band bookstort In Washington a number of Mieets of the writ lug paper which General Washington had manu faetured cipecially for bis personal use am this paper was used wherever new tissue had ti be grafted on the original dot uiuent, with tin result that the appearance of the original bui been simulated so as to defy detect ion. Fact sheet of the will has been so backed or inounte( tiH,n ereix line" that It w ill Maud any reason able amount of handling ami the Ink of tho wl! has hi en "set" so that there is little danger o further fading. However, for all (hat (he precious documen has been pet In condition to stand another cell tury of htreiiuotis exlstrnce If need be, It I not likely that It will ever again be called upoi to suffer such neert or abuse as in (he past The county ollielals who are (he custodians ti Hip will apiM-ar to be aroused to the necesslt of giving It mere Intellluent care than It et Joyed in years gone by. To that end the page of the will have been bound In the form of Isiok with handsome red levant cover anil f pi-clal fireproof, burglar proof steel safe, mad specially for the purpose under the supervlslo of the government om-lals will henceforth h the repository of (his re'le. The attention which this restoration of th will Is receiving is expected to remi( In the vl Its In future of considerable numbirs of tourist and sightseers to Fairfax Courthouse, the VI glula hamlet here the will has Its home th more kj since this historic 8Kt can tio I reacheil by trolley from the national capita The county seat of tho county where Washlni ton lived anil died has many picturesque lam marks not the least Interesting of which is tli old court house In which Washington' will ws probated and which presents today the sam appiaranee that it did on that historic day moi than a century ago. The will Is not kept In tti courthouse but In the office of the clerk of Hi court, which occupies a separate building. Th work of restoring the Washington will, had been entrusltd to any maauserlit surgeon on side (be government service and there si only a few Mich In the country would bsv coM to $:;u.i at least nnd It Is probih'.e thi si-viral (Inns the lati.r Mini might have b-i d-manded f' r the m r Ice for which the go irnuif iit made mi ch.UK'. fnpeffl I. . I - .1 Irl' 1 ' U V-t 'i'- i-'l-i'-i t w V-r':V I - 1.4 s u ; , v t f . - II , ' ' iVrr v '' - s . 11 j'tv.l A V 'f V l , m, . - - 1 I l II;. t( rzix-- vrT7Vo7. or mzmx coczer 7HXXJJ?- wvscf vrfixu svur 7cvrsi3 7r zoo aithln the past few months the public at large 'lid not know of tho whereabouts of the Washington Wash-ington will, if indeed it even knew of (he existence ex-istence of tho paper. However, the officials of the state department and the library of con-jress con-jress knew Its resting place in an obscure sounty courthouse in Virginia, and whereas "they realized the futility of their ambition to ver get permission to transfer it to Washington, Wash-ington, where it ought to repose as a great national na-tional relic, they still had sufficient Interest in It to keep a watchful eye on It, so to speak. Some months ago it suddenly came to the ars of tin-so Interested parties that (he will-long will-long known to be In a poor state of preservation preserva-tion was In imminent danger of going utterly to ruin. Obviously quick action and heroic measures were necessary and thereupon there whs Inaugurated (hat project which has lately witnessed the complete restoration of the will ty means of a miracle of manuscript surgery an.l document restoration carried on by the greatest exports In the country In this highly specialized line of work. Tersons who are at all conversant with the ' -care with which Cncle Sam fosters anil safeguards safe-guards all the Important ttaie and private Tippers of hist( rlcal value that are In his keepingfor keep-ingfor instance, the Peclaratlon of Independence Inde-pendence which Is never even excised to 1i(,lit jiiay naturally marvel thot so priceless a trophy as the will of Washington should have been allowed to fall Into decay. The ex planation is found In the fact, above noted, that the will Is not and never has been In the possession of the federal government. It was filed for probate In the year 1800 at the county feat of the county In Virginia where Washington Washing-ton resided and In that Mate it has remained ver since. A century of wear and tear might be expected to play havoc with almost any document and at times during this cycle the Washlncton relic saw some rather rough handling han-dling for bo fragile an object. IJurfng the attempt to sew delicate Meets If pnpi r. It trans-l'lr trans-l'lr iv'shi nnl subsequent hjtffi'uihgs of the sewed sheets had caused (ho threads to wear and cut their way through the paper pa-per and ultimately the pages were literally in shreds. All the while the relic was on display In rn ordinary wooden box with a gluss cover which permitted per-mitted the will to be con-siantly con-siantly exj-osed to the light while on exhibition at the county seat of Fairfax Fair-fax county nnd which would probably have faded fad-ed out the handwriting entirely bad not the document docu-ment been penned with an exceptional quality of Ink. It was at this Juncture that the government officials offi-cials who volunteered Civil war. for example. It was enrried to Richmond for safe keeping and came near being lost entirely In the confusion that attended at-tended the fall of the Confederacy. However, the worst experience of all came only a few years ago and resulted from an error of Judgment on the part of the custodians custo-dians or the will, who suppoted that they were acting for the best. It had come about that as a result of the handling of the will the pinning pin-ning together of the 23 pages and the wear along the lines of the creases In which It hud been folded almost every one of the sheets was completely severed through the middle. The persons in charge of the will re'zed In a vague sort of way that something ought to be done and I hey finally bit upon the plan of sewing sew-ing together the severed sect Ions of eac h sheet. When the government officials and other prominent men Interested In all existing mementoes me-mentoes of C.eorge Washington heard what had tern done they were all but ready to weep. Aa though It were not baJ enough to th-ir rervlres were allowed to take a hand to rave (be wreck. The work of restoration was Placed In the bands of a federal expert who has trade a life work of the saving of damaged papers and manuser.pts. He devoted week, lo the work and what he has wrought Is little M.ort of a m.racle. In o far as the casual observ.r can detect the will Is In practically the xatiie condition as It was whin It l-ft the bands of Its distinguished author. It Is inly when a page Is b'dd to the light that one rea eH 1hat, technically, the document Is but a i;l'ot of Its former self. All sorts of obstacle were encountered In conmction with the restoration of (he will. It was at first planned to have I he odd salvage work undertaken by the department of state, the mnunserlpt Mirgeons of which branch of the government had already worked wonders with the Constitution of the Cnlt'-d Mate, the Iieclaralion of Indepemli nee and other documents. However. In order to Ret tbe benefit ben-efit ol the skill of the state department ex |