Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 February 1910 — FACTS ABOUT WASHINGTON. [ARTICLE]

FACTS ABOUT WASHINGTON.

He was the oldest of five children. As commander in chief of the army he drew SSOO a month. Of 69 electoral votes cast for the first President fie got 69. He was 57 years old when he entered upon the office of President. His army, when he first took charge, was 14,000 men, 9,000 of them from Massachusetts. He always had his hair powdered at public receptions, and never shook hands with any one at such times. His father had a fanm of 1,000 acres, so that chopped cherry tree wasn’t such a heavy loss after all. He was very successful as a raiser of wheat and tobacco, and in addition carried on brickyards and fisheries interests. At his inauguration he wore a. full suit of fine cloth made by his own servants, and the dresses of his wife were also woven on the plantation. He was just 21 years old when Gov. Dinwiddle sent him on a perilous journey to Ohio to find out the strength of the French, which he accomplished handily. The Indians said he bore a charmed life after he got four bullets through his coat and had two horses shot under him in a movement led by Gen. Braddock against Fort Duquesne. At 13 he was the strength marvel of the neighborhood, being abundantly able to outwrestlie, outrun, outleap, outpitch quoits and outtoss iron bars any boy of his age in Virginia, to say nothing of his hatchet accomplishments. After one of his disastrous campaigns the ladles of Philadelphia declined to notice his wife and administered instead the snub direct, which was In interesting contrast to their reception of her when next she entered Philadelphia as the wife of the President. He wrote Gov. Clinton, at the close of the war: “The scene is at last closed, and I feel myself eased of a load of public care. I hope to spend the remainder of my days in cultivating the affection of good men and in the praotice of the domestic virtues.”