| Show GIVE GEORGE A CHANCE HE WAS A BIG MAN IN HIS DAY EVEN IF HE IS FORGOTTEN an incident in a which was once alie headquarters of the father of ilia country an example of the chaides chaises that time makes away down on broad street there is a building in which great men used to meet but which they keep away from now in it met stately george clinton the no less stately general knos and there general hamilton drank wine or coffee with burr long before they met on the fields above weehawken Wee hawken thomas jefferson sat and discussed politics in that very house with robert morris and edmund randolph and if they did not always agree it did not matter for the moment in the same days at odd times a great dignified figure would sometimes appear in an upper room of this very house this man had a large head not all swelled and large feet too for that matter ho stood head and shoulders above the rest and in stateliness pur passed them all he drank his rum and water with relish or else he took wino that was really good with that enjoyment that is felt by the man who knows the worth of good vintage A dark looking man was near to attend to every da hiie of this stately man the other of the house treated the dark man arith familiarity they addressed him as sam and called on him from time to time to hotly pursue his boys from the taproom below to the room above with the tankards tank ards and the crackers and cheese that were ordered the stately man was treated with reverence hats were off and tongues wera still when he spoke which was seldom they called him general and in his presence contentious minds forgot to dispute THE TODAY for this was general washington and the dark attendant was black sam fraunces and tho house was tavern the other day a newspaper man who still finds something to admire in washington visited this old anjil over i year ago still bore on its wall a sign that designated it aa ing tons headquarters the reign is not there now the old wainscoting is gone from the taproom on the lower floor the stairs that washington and jefferson john adams hamilton and the rest of them used in their day are torn down and a bar over which schooners ners of beer are eold by a stolid german gentleman stands where it did you approach the long room sacred to washington and his omers by an entrance on one side of which is a cheap barber shop on the other signs to the effect that yon can get lodgings for gentlemen only also liverani liv erand bacon sauerkraut kidney stew and other dishes of the kind for practically nothing these delicacies are served in what was known as the long room where washington and his generals met in their day if washington and some of the stately men of his day could now visit this room ai that hour of the day when kiddney stew is most rampant they might be a trifle shocked in one comer of this long room where the lodgers eat a bust of george washington still stands it shows up his big head and nose in a very fair way but when you see it in a room filled with the odor of lad sauerkraut eauer kraut and corned beef the effect id a little spoiled SHABBY TREATMENT tradition has it that a man rent into the long room not many months ago and saw this bust it was in the mom ing and tho cooks had some cabbages piled about the bust of the father of his country perched upon the top of the head so to speak of the figure was the battered derby hat of some person unknown this man was a big man so he kicked a few of the cabbages away and threw the hat out of the window to a german waiter who then appeared on the scene he expressed himself frankly and freely how dare you treat a figure of george washington that way he demanded vot george dashington Vas hington eaid the waiter then the american walked out of the place in a dazed eort of way and went up broad street right in front of the sub treasury ho noted the big statue of washington that stands there he looked at the brightness of the shoes and stockings as they are represented as compared with the general dinginess of tho rest of the figure he did not know that a crank camo along some time ago and brightened up the statue from the buckled ahoe to the labee for he exclaimed in anger ef they blacked his feet and legs with elove blackino blacki nl no wonder new york git the worlds fair it she d too mean to give george a fair show then he drifted sadly away his remarks were hardly fair still the society of the cincinnati has had its headquarters in fraunces for more than years and in that particular locality at least to nse the expression of the enral patriot quoted above george is not getting a fair chow new vork recorder |
