Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 February 1885 — GEN. WASHINGTON’S APPEARANCE. [ARTICLE]

GEN. WASHINGTON’S APPEARANCE.

A Pen Picture ot the Father of His Country —His Mode of life. An old gentleman whom I met above the Braddook Hotel told me he had for years heard George Washington Cußtis talk of his adopted father. Said he: “Custis looked np to Washington as a god. He described him as straight as an American Indian, and as free in his walk as the savage. From the stories I have heard of Washington, I have tried to picture him in my mind’s eye. He was a tall man, padded with mnsole. He was six feet two in his shoes, and he weighed 210 pounds in his prime. He wore about No. 11 shoes, and had gloves three times as large as the average. His hands were so large that they were a curiosity, and his whole frame was bony and large-joint-ed. He had a broad chest, but not a full one. It was rather hollow, and he was troubled in his last days with a cough. His month was firm, and his lower jaw gripped the upper with a determined grip. In later years he lost his te<eth, and the false ones he got did not fit well, and pushed out his lower lip. He had eyes of cold light grey, which could look stern and angry upon occasion, and which seldom entiled. He was as wide at the hips as at the shdnlders, and kept his straightness of stature to the last. He had large legs, and was a good rider and runner. You have heard the stories of his wonderful strength of arm, and how he threw stones fride distances. His nose was rather thick and coarse. I have never heard that it had a blossom on it. He was rather fastidious as to dress, though he wore plain clothes when not on military duty. He always shaved himself, but had a servant to comb and tie his hair every morning. I have heard Mr. Custis say that he rose very early at Mount Vernon, often before daybreak, and as early as 4 a. m. He would, at sunrise, go to his stables and look at his blooded horses. When he came back he had a light breakfast of corn cakes, honey, and tea, or something of that sort, and then he ate nothing maYo until dinner. I am speaking of his later years. After breakfast he rode over his estate, and at 3 had returned and was dressed for dinner. Dinner was a big meal at Mount Vernon, and Washington ate nothing after it. Ho usually drank five glasses of Madeira wine at"dessert, but I have never heard of his being drunk. He was not opposed to the moderate use of liquor, and When he was first elected to the House of Burgesses of Virginia, among items of his election expenses were a hogshead and a barrel of whisky, thirty-five gallons of wine, and forty gallons of beer. In the Virginia House he did not cut a great figure. He was not much of a speaker, but he was popular, or he could not have held his place for fifteen years, as h 9 did. I have understood that he treated his slaves very well, but that he made them work, and would allow no foolishness among them. Washington liked the theater, and was fond of dancing in early life. “Do you think he was a religious man?” ”—.■■■• “No,” was the reply, “I do not. He was a church member, you know, and a vestryman, but the vestry in those days was a semi-political board. I have heard old citizens say that Washington would often leave the church before the services were over.. Communion, you know, is served at the last of the service. The fact that Washington slighted communion is evidence to my mind that he was not a Christian of the cast-iron kind. Another evidence is the fact that he had no preacher at his bedside during his last sickness. He was sick, you know, for several days, and there must have been ample time to have got a preacher, if he had de- * sired it. He was thoroughly conscious until the last, and it is said that he timed his pulse as long as the breath was in his body. As it left him his hand dropped from his wrist, and he sank back dead. During his last hours he gave the most minute directions as to business matters, directing his wife to go and get the two wills which he had made, and bum the one which he wished annulled. He directed that his corpse be kept for three days, and Tobias Lear, his private secretary, says among his last words were those in regard to his burial. He died on Saturday night, and on the next Wednesday he was buried in a walnut coffin lined with lead. Many years after this his body was changed from this box to the marble tomb in which it now ließ. —Letter in Cleveland Leader.