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Ward, Cen Published Monthly, 25c a copy; $3.00 a Year Two-Year Subscription-$5.00 Address All Communications to The Reader's Digest Association, Inc.. Pleasantville, N. Y. Entered as second-class matter Oct. 4, 1922, at the Post Office at Floral Park, N under act of March 3, 1879. Copyright, 1926, The Reader's Digest Assn., In The Reader's Digest Vol. 5 "An article a day" from leading magazines AUGUST 1926 Serial No. 52 Getting Acquainted with George Washington Condensed from The Mentor (July '26) AID Lord Bryce, a very competent judge of statesmen: "Washington stands alone and unapproachable, like a snow peak rising above its fellows..., with a dignity, constancy and purity which have made him the ideal type of civic virtue to succeedIng generations. . .” Now one cannot become acquainted with an "unapproachable snow peak." After one has been assured, in various forms, for 125 years that Washington was an "unapproachable snow peak" One comes to believe it. One's emotions become cool and sublime. One thinks of him as Mt. Washington ather than as Mr. Washington. Eventally one begins to doubt whether there ever was any Mr. Washington. The first important step toward the recovery of the whole truth about Washington was the publication of Ford's The Writings of George Washngton in 14 volumes. Another important step was the publication in 1925 of The Diaries of George Washngton. We have had also the realistic Studies of Washington by Lodge, Ford, Hapgood, Wister, Haworth, Henderon, Thayer, Prussing and others. The obvious result of this historical tudy has been to convert Washington from a rather chilly heroic myth into red-blooded, eating, drinking, sixoot-three Virginian with abundance of common humanity and with many traits of character and temperament which had dropped out of the legend. In his own lifetime he was idolized by the officers of his army. If he had lifted his finger, he might have been king. He frowned heavily on the project. English republicans, scorning their own sovereign, drank to George Washington as the incarnation of Plutarchian virtues. Washington's formal schooling was brief. But a big Southern plantation employing several hundred slaves gave a very liberal "laboratory" training in the practical arts and crafts: agriculture, horticulture, floriculture, the breeding of stock, commercial fishing, brewing, distilling, the meat business, road building, masonry, lumbering, dam building, surveying, architecture, spinning, weaving, dyeing, bookkeeping, commerce, law and all the elements of administration and government. His education was enriched and his outlook broadened by contact with cultivated neighbors, by his appointment as public surveyor at the age of 17, by his various military and diplomatic missions among the French and Indians, by his appoint. ment at 23 as commander in chief of the Virginian forces, and by his entrance at 27 into the House of Burgesses He Washington was neither a prude nor a prig at any time in his life. Truthfulness, square dealing and valor were indeed bred in his bones. They were part of his inheritance as a Virginian gentleman. He disapproved of slavery on economic grounds and hoped for the eventual enfranchisement of all slaves, but he was a large slaveholder and the most profitable crop on his plantation was tobacco. His amusements were those of a cavalier. was fond of shooting and fishing, and when he was at Mount Vernon he was a passionate fox hunter. Sometimes he played cards all day and lost a couple of pounds. Sometimes he danced all night. He attended the theater. He went to the horse races. He was fond of Madeira, and he served fine imported wines to his distinguished guests. He was very particular about dress, and for his own garments ordered from London the best quality of broadcloth, silk, linen and cambric. At his own wedding he was attired "in blue and silver with scarlet trimmings, and gold buckles at his knees." The records indicate that from his youth up he was devoted to "the fair." Some halting amorous verses of his youth have been preserved. Preserved also is the tradition that he made offers of his heart and hand on several occasions before they were accepted by the vivacious and wealthy young widow Martha Custis. There is a tradition that, in the earlier stages of his courtship, the girls were disposed to find his nose of unromantically formidable proportions. We have a letter addressed to him on his return from soldiering with General Braddock and signed by no less than three fair ladies, "thanking Heaven" for his safe return and assuring him that if he "will not come to us to morrow morning very early we shall be at Mount Vernon." In 1798, a year before his death, Washington, 66 years old, wrote once again to Sally Fairfax-a letter full of tranquil satisfaction in being retired at last under his "own vine and fig tree," but with one passage which is tender with the passion of his youth: During this period so many important events have occurred.. as the compass of a letter would give you but an inadequate idea of. None of which events. however, nor all of them together, have been able to eradicate from my mind the recollection of those happy moments, the happiest of my life, which I enjoyed in your company. For 40 years the flame still burned -unextinquished by Martha Washing ton, or by Valley Forge, or by the long watches on the bridge of the new "Ship of State." We begin to surmise that our father was even more of a cavalier than we had suspected. Washington confessed to finding a charm in the whistling of bullets Then and always he was a sensitive man-highly sensitive in the point of honor. To be charged, or even to be suspected, of any act unbecoming a gentleman kindled his rage. One other thing invariably kindled his rage; that was cowardice in battle. About once a year some after-dinner speaker gets half a column in the news papers for announcing that Washing ton swore. There is no evidence tha Washington was habitually a profan man. Habitually he was an extremel dignified and decorous man. He use profanity where another man migh have used the point of a pistol, as 3 the battle of Monmouth. His words addressed to the retreating Geners Lec, are said to have been: "What i the hell is the meaning of this r treat? You God-damned poltroon, wi you now lead these troops against th enemy or shall I?" In 1759, at the age of 26, Washing ton settled down at Mount Vernon tending to be a country gentleman fo He then though the rest of his life. the life of a gentleman farmer th most "delectable" form of existence the world. As he felt at 26 he fe also at 67. There was no year betwee 1759 and 1799 when, if he had co sulted his own inclination, he woul not gladly have resigned his pow and his honor for the sweet refug of his own vine and fig tree. T his years diaries which cover Mount Vernon betoken a deep da (Continued on Page 206) T Tolerance Condensed from The American Magazine (July '26) Dr. Henry Van Dyke HE fact is often overlooked that The This is the meaning of Charles Lamb's retort when someone asked him if he did not hate a certain person. "Why, no," he said. "I know him, don't I? I never can hate any. one that I know." A good motto for life is this: Don't expect too much of anybody, not even yourself. But expect something of everybody, including yourself. I recall an intimate conversation with Theodore Roosevelt. I had asked him how in the world he managed to get along with two men-X and Y. "I'll tell you how it is," said he. "Those men seldom agree with me; yet in each of them I have discovered something, a trait not generally known to the public, which I can't help admiring. Take old X. He is a dyed-in-thewool reactionary and a clever schemer. But one thing about him is fine. When he does make you a promise-which isn't often-he will keep that promise if it costs him a leg. I can't help liking that. Sometimes, however, the indifferent attitude does not come from the abBence of convictions, but from the pride and self-sufficiency with which certain opinions least admirable American trait is are held. self-complacency based on imperfect information. The man whose tolerance flows from an unreasonable sense of innate superiority to his fellow men often bears on his face an outward sign: a smile, a cool, lofty, supercilious, tolerant, intolerable smile. With it he meets all objections, mocks at all reasons, and dismisses the case. The trouble with this kind of tolerance is that it is cold all the way through-cold as an iceberg. There is Do pulse of life in it. It never leads to a better understanding. It never makes friendships between men of different creeds and parties. A firm and fixed believer, even a zealot, is easier to get along with than a cold tolerator. Real tolerance is based not on indifference but on sympathy. Therefore, it is not cold, but warm. recognition of something in the ther man which you cannot help likng and respecting. The root of it is kind of good will, love, sense of atural fellowship, mutual comprehenon. This is the meaning of the Trench proverb: "To comprehend all sto pardon all." The Reader's Digest It is "Then take old Y. People call him a ruthless, hard-boiled Boss of the ancient type. But he had a very tender place in his heart for the welfare of the Indians. He brought some of the chiefs of one tribe to Washington, cared for them, pleaded and worked for their cause in his last days. I think his latest request to me, almost from his deathbed, was that I would take care of his redskin friends after he was gone. That was something to honor in the old man. It made you feel warm to him." Undoubtedly, the warm kind of tolerance is in harmony with the spirit of our Master. He hated none of the real people with whom He came into contact in His human life. His only scorn was for the unreal people, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, whited se 195 |