Show 2 THE HATCHET u AND u THE CHERRY CHER Y T TREE EEl I ain auto being the birth month F M of at Washington Wa It may not be In InI inappropriate I appropriate to reproduce here hero the tho earliest version er lon of that IhM most fa ta famous famous story of ot George tho the cherry cherr tree and the tho little hatchet The fhe story which first t saw the light of ot print t In 1808 1508 was ns for tor many years ears eora n IL serious matter malter and not as ns It Is now tho the subject of oC Idle quip pulp sad and Irreverent jest It was Illustrated with severe and moral maral wood cuts the caricaturist dar da ed not nol assail It Tho The tale appeared In Inn Innery avery a avery very ery popular tire life of at the tho Father I a Iller of at his Country written by an Itinerant clergyman named Mason L Weems who Is generally suspected of at having Invented the tho story out of at whole cloth In a n letter Jetter to a friend ho admits II a haslag has hav havIng hn lag Ing Introduced Into his biography sev soy several oral eral stories lorle not necessarily authentic but tending lending to embellish the work and I Ito to have hae a IL beneficial effect upon tho the i reader Historians are aro Inclined to 10 treat tho the cherrytree anecdote as liS a n myth mth In Washington Irvings R voluminous Life published 1883 by G P 1 Putnam Co the story receives no consideration tion whatever Prof Irot Alexander John Johnston stop ston called It quite apocryphal Iu lu luthe the tho more recent George Washington of at Prof ProC Woodrow Wilson the hatchet and cherry cheri tree treo are aro not mentioned Five Ile I Ie years jeara ago Mr H 1 T I 1 II H In his book on blue Staffordshire pot pottery Pottery lot lotter tery ter described de a rough earthenware mug mu apparently mode made In Germany be between between between tween and 1190 1790 which was dec decorated decorated decorated orated with lIh a quaint Illustration of ot the cherry tree A youth attired In III clothes similar In color and design to ta those worn by the Continental soldiers was depicted depleted standing near a n felled tree A large hatchet the letters 0 G GW W and tho the numerals 1176 1776 also ap ape appeared peered The Tho collector declared that the tho gems Henu genuineness of ot tho the specimen was nR unquestioned Honed Tho The fact that the decorations were beneath the glaze proved he said that they had not been added In recent I vA l u years ear Ise suggested that the Core Weem might heen 1 omi current might mIght long famous hale be been scatted the Atlantic the tho revolutionary times to fi be during cd ell In this rough stoneware mug Weems attributes the ngel aged Ind lady who was 1 a Blatant story to 10 ap limo when IL family of much relative of her In the ot the the Washings tons She related It to 10 years before the publication some Critic Hod man In M time the February of his |