Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 37, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 February 1905 — Growth of Washington's Fame. [ARTICLE]

Growth of Washington's Fame.

Since George Washington died the changes in the externals of civilization have been so marked that it is hard to comprehend what a comparatively short historic epoch this covers. During his last years Washington was considered to be the richest man in the United States, hut the total sura of his possessions would not entitle him to a place ninong any one of our modern millionaires. He owned farms nud culti-

vated them in the highest style of th« agriculture of his time, but there are hundreds of comparatively unknown men In the West who not only possess largei farms but keep them more easily undei cultivation by means of appliances of which Washington never dreamed. No modern architect would think of offering anything like Washington’s “villa” at Mount Vernon to a modern wealthy buyer. The President's overland journeys were accomplished in coaches. Ferhaps, however, there could be no more significant indication of the alteration that science and civilization have worked than the manner of the first President’s death. There is little doubt that the excessive bleeding resorted to in his last illness hastened his death, possibly many years before the natural limit. A physician who should be guilty of.similar malpractice now would find himself the object of prompt and Vigorous prosecution in the courts. None of these material changes in environment, however, seem to have set the image of Washington any further away. That figure is as near and clear to the people of to-day as is Lincoln's.. In fact, the lapse of time hns brought n better understanding of the man and a more intense admiration for his very re«] greatness. If there hnd even ever been any doubt ns to whether Washington's fame was of the Homeric kind, that increases with age, it was erased long before this birthday. The celebrations with which the day is now observed very generally are growing in number and have taken on a new character within recent years. They are more general and more earnest. The way in which thinking nten in dubs and other organizations are falling into the custom of devoting Feb. 22 to exercises and speechmaking in the first President’s memory is itself significant of the growth of interest in Washington and of the increasing appreciation of his high and patriotic ideals.