Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 February 1898 — WASHINGTON’S POLITENESS. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON’S POLITENESS.

A Very Pleasant Anecdote of the Great American Gcutlemun. In the Century there is an article by Martha Littlefield Phillips, giving “Kecollections of Washington and His Friends.” The author is a granddaughter of the youngest daughter of Gen. Nathaniel Greene's, and she tells the following story in the words of her grandmother, concerning a visit of the latter to Washington at Philadelphia: “One incident which occurred during that visit was so comical in itself, and so characteristic of Washington, that I recall it for your entertainment. Early in a bright December morning a droll-loolcing old countryman called to see the President. In the midst of their interview breakfast was announced; and the President invited his visitor, as was his hospitable wont on such occasions, to a seat beside him at the table. The visitor drank his coffee from his saucer, but lest any grief should come to the snowy damask, he scraped the bottom of his cup on the saucer’s edge before setting it down on the tablecloth. He did it with such audible vigor that it attracted my attention, and that of several young people present, always on the alert for occasions of laughter. We were so indiscreet as to allow our amusement to become obvious. Gen. Washington took in the situation, and immediately adopted his visitor's method of drinking his coffee, making the scrape even more pronounced than the one he reproduced. Our disposition to laugh was quenched at once.”