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Show REAL WASHINGTON INTENSELY HUMAN BY NO MEANS THE DEMIGOD HE HAS BEEN DEPICTED. Admittedly of Violent Temper, but With Strong Powers of Self-Con-trol Naturally Melancholy. The Fnther of His Country would" hardly huve fancied himself In the role of a demigod as folks nowuduys are disposed to regard him. He was very human. When a young man, his hair was decidedly de-cidedly red. At tho age of fifty ho was quite gray, and on occasions of ceremony his looks (done up in a queue) were freely powdered, as was the custom of the day. His teeth from early manhood gave him a great deal of trouble. They were, In fact, badly decayed dentistry at that period being an undeveloied art and this clrcuuistunce rather marred his good looks when he smiled or laughed. He was also considerably pockmarked, pock-marked, having suffered an attack of smallpox at nineteen years of age. while In Barbados with his Invalid brother. Those were days when most people had smallpox sooner or later, vaccination being as yet unthought of. At fifty-seven (when Inaugurated as President In New York), he had lost nearly all of his teeth. He then wore a false set of hippopotamus Ivory, which made him very uncomfortable. In sitting for his most famous portrait, por-trait, painted by Gilbert Stuart, his lips were padded out with a wad of cotton. He seems to have had little sense of humor, and unquestionably was of a most melancholy temperament. The dinners he gave in New York were described by his guests as dull affairs. As a rule, he sat silent, rather sad of visage, and tuklng little part In the conversation. While others tulked, he would keep tap-tapping on the table-edgo table-edgo with fork or spoon a curious habit he had. He had a pronounced weakness for gambling though always held In check by a reluctance to commit himself him-self Imprudently. A born speculator, he was constantly engaged In land deals. He subscribed to every lottery and rattle that came along, and would spend many hours at a stretch with a pack of cards, though usually a loser. To attend and bet on a horse race, he often went to Annapolis, or even as far us Philadelphia. Spelling was by no means his forte. To the end of his life he wrote "winder" "win-der" for window, "latten" for Latin, etc. Nor is this surprising, Inasmuch as his education was finished In a village vil-lage school. The style of his penmanship, penman-ship, so neat and clear, followed the stereotyped copies of the "Young Man's Companion," which was the guide of his boyhood. At Mount Vernon he had a very decent de-cent collection of honks, but his reading read-ing seems to have been restricted mulnly to works on farming and military mili-tary Hiience. How he managed to evolve the classic literary style that marks his public iind prlvute writings , Is a puzzle not easy to solve. The discussion here attempted, however, how-ever, Is not of Washington's many perfections, per-fections, but of his human weaknesses to show that, like the rest of us, he was fur from godlike. This most admirable of men hud certainly a terrific ter-rific temper. He could swear on occasions oc-casions with alarming emphasis. A story, well authenticated, Is that he pitilessly beat an Alexandria butcher with a horsewhip because the meat-merchant meat-merchant had exposed for sale a deer that was recognized by the master of Mount Vernon as killed on his own plantation. In 1759, a few months after his marriage, mar-riage, ha wrote I "I am now, I believe, fixed at this seat, with an agreeable partner for life; and I hope to find more happiness In retirement than I have ever experienced amidst the wide and bustling world." Note, If you please, that Washington was then only twenty-seven years old. Yet his attitude of mind was elderly; with a touch of sadness. On his return to Mount Vernon, after the war, he wrote to Lafayette: "I called to mind that I was now descending de-scending the hill I had been fifty-two years In climbing, and that, though blessed with a good constitution, I was of a short-lived family, and might soon expect to be entombed In the mansion man-sion of my fathers. But I will not repine. re-pine. I have had my day." Think of writing In such terms at fifty-two years of age! a time of life at which men nowadays consider that 1 they have barely reached their heyday. hey-day. Washington, as a matter of fact, had still fifteen years to live, eight of ! w hich were to be spent In administering administer-ing the affairs of the nation as its President. But he was always a melanchly man. For many years before his death the prospect of his departure from this world seems to have been constantly In his mind. Whence, presumably, the ; great Interest he took In the removal of the old family burial vault at Mount Vernon, which was being undermined j by an underground stream. |