Evening Star Newspaper, October 18, 1925, Page 85

THE SUNDAY \ STAR, WASHINGTON, Honor Memory of George Mason As Individual Liberty’s Protector " Admirers of Great Virginia Patriot and Associate of Washington Make Plans for Observ- ance of Bicentenary of Birth. UPPER LEFT: By FLORENCE SEVILLE BERRYMAN. F the word “immortality” with the familiar are born ——, some and some have then it will be last phrase m Gearge Mason, father bill of rights, which stitutes the first 10 ame Constitution of the Un! So completely occupied was he with public service, that he took no steps to insure his own personal, lastin fame. But this Aut on the bi centenary of his birth, a little group of enthusiastic mirers, headed by Walton Mo Representative in rom rfax County, Va., Mason’s is planning to h upen the to found t tly apy of th, s memory with celebrations this month and early in | the Winter The new: city carried, the death of a m whose entire Nf had been dominated by his desire for earthly immortality. He had never marri but had livec lone in the meanest of surrc and had often journeved to nearby cities to spend whole day evards, where he studied the ¢ eums. TUpon his d 1 that he had ms cen years, to a 4 which was to be spent upon a preten- tious monument to him: “I have never dc 1d make people remember me, have no friend and my rela: bother with me ill know I ever lived by the inscription on my tomb.” But lon before the stone of his handsome shaft shall have crumbled the name engraved upon it will mean nothing, ns it meant in life. For he did nothing whatsoever to benefit an- other, nor did he even attempt to tread the other road to earthly re- membrance by modeling his life upon that of Nero or any other infamous character of history Contrasted with such individuals, whose opportunity to live gracio and richly has been tragically wasted, are the truly great, whose numbers grow with ey generation, and whose names throughout many cen- turies stand for service to their fellow men. Such a man pers of a certain Eastern Spring, notices of i of 60 years from _early way people vas George Mason of “Gunston Hall,” in Fairfax County, Va. who was the fourth to bear this name in America. But although he was “as patriotic as \Washington, more intelligent than Jefferson, and far superior to Patrick philosophy,” as some has said, his ne iy as vet obscure compared to irs, because he ignored opportuni- ties to immor ize it to an extent scarcely par d by any other Throughout the first and most com- plete record we have of his life, writ- ten by Kate Mason Rowland in 1892, are found letters In which he refuses to serve in the Virginia Assembly agaln and again, and is urged and horted to do =0 Ly no less a person than Geprge Washington. Mason was elected one of the first Senators from Virginia to the Congress of the United States, where his words would have been accurately preserved for us. But he declined this honor because do- mestic affairs needed his attention. Another factor, too, was that his fight agalnst the Constitution had failed, and he watched with apprehension the growth of strong central power. He had done his utmost to avert what he considered a powerful menace, and doubtless felt that in becoming a mem- ber of the Senate he could not suffi- clently serve his State to compensate for the abandonment of his private lige. e * ok o ¥ EORGE MASON wrote no mem- oirs, and kept no diary, which is &reatly to be deplored, for the greatest men of his day were his warm friends and admirers. His main interest was the present, his own time; although he thought frequently of the future, it was never in connection with how his words might echo down the ages, but how humanity would be benefited or irrev- ocably injured by the events of his day. George Mason exhibited, to a marked sxtent, qualities of mind and character which he had apparently inherited from his great-grandfather, the first Geurge Mason of Brewood, Stafford- NORTH FRONT OF GUNSTON HALL HALL. LOWER LEFT: GEORGE MASON, place and home, | Henry in| LOWER RIGHT shire, and. who had been a mem | ber of Parliament under ' | had fearlessly and eloquently opr - royal measures which seem bitrary. Yet at the same tin d in supporting the estab- | l1shed order against -alism, for he | fought with "the aliers against | Oliver Cromwell, after whe ory | he was obliged o escape to Virginia, | where he settled in Stafford County and gained wealth and promi- rence in the colony. \ Other traits characteristic alike of | | the first George Mason and the Revo-| lutionary patriot were independence and a deeply religious nature. Un friendly Indians from across the Po-| tomac having committed several mur- ders in Col. Mason’s neighborhood, he | immediately gathered troops and pur- sued them’ into Maryland, where his |men slew a large number and cap- | tured an 8-year-old son of one of the| chiefs. n had not waited to re. ques id of the colonial governor | of Virginia, and when subsequently | other settlers on the frontier were harassed by the Indians and sought | his example and take care of themselves. | Incidentally, this was one of the| causes of Bacon's rebellion, with which Col. Mason openly hized. | The 8-vear-old Indian boy suffered | from sleeping sickness soon after fall- | into the Virginians' hands, wias thought by them to be bewitched. | Having heard that baptism cured en: | chantments, Col. M traightway | had the child baptized by the Church | of England liturgy, he and his wife | standing godparents. The boy re-| covered! This, then, v headed type of Revolutionary George soon the fearless, level- nan from whom the | patriot ended. rn in Staf- for Virginia, in 1725. No record of his birth has been found, and consequently there is extensive confusion as to the exact date. His education began early, for he attended a boarding school in Prince Willi County from the years 1736 to 1739, inclusive, at a cost of 1,000 pounds of tobacco annually for board, and 845 pounds for school ing and books. Such schooling had customarily been preceded by private tutorship at the young student’s home. Throughout his life, George Mason had the reputation of knowing more about political sclence and charters than any of his cotemporaries, and few of them rivaled him in general knowledge of all subjects. George Mason loved both wisely and well, and his true love ran not only | smooth but deep. His romance was | characterized by the same propriety, dignity and common sense as were the conduct of his large estate and his career as a statesman. He early lost his heart to Anne Eilbeck of Maryland, said to have been that “youthful low- land beauty” beloved of George Wash- ington. She was as falr as Mason was handsome, both were wealthy and of aristocratic families. An early wed ding, when the bride was but 16 and her husband 25, inaugurated nearly a quarter of a century of the most fe- licitous domestic life for them. No siren ever insinuated herself into George Mason's affections; and Anne Mason’s sole interests were her hus- band and their nine children. o FEW years after they were mar- .ried George Mason hulit for his wife a stately mansion with one of the most beautiful sites along the Potomac for its setting, and named it Gu on Hall, after the English home of his great-grandfather. It s in Falrfax County, about six miles from Mount Vernon, upon an eminence some dis- tance back from the river. It is said to have been designed by Mason him- self, in a modified Elizabethan type of architecture. Preclousness rather than grandeur is its dominant quality, for it is not a large structure. One is quite certain that the nine children could not each have had a separate room. The house is but a story and a “half” in height. The long, sweeping roof, pierced by four massive brick chimneys which rise from the cellar slopes steeply, yielding quaint dormer windows on the upper floor. Sturdily constructed of three thicknesses of bricks imported from Scotland, the hall 1s beautiful and harmonious in its pro- portions. Paneling, wainscoting and carvings in mahogany, pine and other woods, sald to have been the achieve- ment of three years of steady work by convictg brought from England, give rarg dislinction to the interioy. ON THE POTOM A« d he told them to follow Mason's | e nd | ; RIVER. UPPER RIGHT: GRAVE ( SOUTH FRONT, OF GUNSTON HALL, FACING THE POTOMA( Gunston Hall has two that on the north being formal, its lunetted door giving out.on a brick and stone porch with Dorfe pillars. In Mason’s day do rows of heart cherry t raised from stone and hence v shape, formed the approach to this entrance, and were a source of great pride to the owner. For so straight were they that one stunding in the doorway co unt but four inst of more th ese have long since passed. The southern entrance is more inti- ind engaging, co 1l portice with a glorious view Potomac. The avenue which entered at the north front of the man sion runs straight through the south- ern porch down betw boxwood hedg en garden. - sud- den drop of upon the river, which fo tensive deer park in the time of Mason. The entire Gunston Hall estate then consisted of between 5 and 7,000 , for George Mason was account- very rich man. About 500 egroes were attached to the estate, nd represented such varied indus. tries that it was ceritable self sustaining little kingdom. Farm la- carpenters, cabinet kers, tailors and domesti. upied with ¥ to the well ordered seration of the Mason community. he best clothes of the master’s fam ily required out not indispes Some idea of the magnitude of the plantation may be had from the know- ledge that as much a: 00 bushels of wheat would compose a singie ship- ment from Mason's private wharf. Yet he sup ended his own busi- ness affairs practically altogether, rithout the aid of a steward or clerk. Such was his privte life. 'I‘Hlmr'r:nm"r his career George Mason contributed to the political literature of the United States some of the most important documents ever written. Before he was out of his 'teens, he began to participate in the impor- tant episodes of his State. He shared in the organization of the Ohlo Com- pany and in the founding of Alexan- dria in 1749. He was a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses at the age of 34. . The Non-dmportation Resolutions constituted his first outstanding plece of work, and were a_momentous step toward the Revolution. George Wash- ington, the mear neighbor and close friend of George Mason, who was frequently associated with him in schemes for the public welfare, wrote to Mason warmly advocating non- importation associations, which should be bound by voluntary agreement not to fmport or use articles from Eng- land which were burdened with ob- noxfous dutles. This scheme was thoroughly sound, as it attacked the Achilles heel of Great Britain, the purses of her merchants. Mason heartily favored the idea, and drew up the plans, which Washington was to sponsor at the next meeting of the the House of Burgesses, of which he was a member at the time, while Ma- son was not. Lord Botetourt, then Governor of Virginia (and incidentally one of the sanest and most popular of all pre-Revolutionary incumbents of that office), had heard of these reso- lutions and felt obliged to dissolve the House before they could be offered. But its members met immediately afterward and unanimously adopted this Mason and Washington scheme. George Mason soon thereafter wrote and printed a_pamphlet entitled tracts from the Virginia Charte; with Some Remarks Upon Them, which reviewed the political rights of the state and had further Influence in crystallizing resistance to British oppression. He followed this up in 1774 with the highly significant “Fairfax Re- solves,” a series of twenty-four re- solutions setting forth the entire ground of controversy with Great Britain, urging non-intercourse with her and advocating a congress of the colonies. These “Resolves” were the first decisive declaration of the col- onies’ rights, and form one of the greatest memorlals to George Ma- son’s scholarly statesmanship. He presented them on July 18, at a Fair- fax County meeting in Alexandria fthen the county geat) over entrances the black- | iform in size and| mprising a pen- | )F GEORGE MASON AT GUNSTON RIVER. e Washington presided. They presented to the Virginia Con- fon in August, which gave them sanction, and in the following October the Continental Congress sub- stantially adopted them. George Mason was a member of the | Virginia Convention during the years | 1775 and 1776. He was elected a dele- to the Continental Congress in 1775 and again in ‘77, but he declined | to serve. for his beloved Anne had )-Hml in '73, only thirty-nine years of | age, and he felt he owed his first | allegiance to his motherless brood. Yet in all probability the services ie rendered the cause of liberty in his own state surpassed in importance anything he could have done in the Continental Congress. He was a member of the Virginia Committee of afety from August to | Dex The government of was reposed in this bodv. 13" in those days was what we {now mean by “preparedness.” Com- | mittees of safety were organized in | every colony, and usually in each important county of a colony. The | county committee members were elect- ed by people's conventions, and co- operated with the state committes of | safety. These organizations, through- {out the colonies, made ultimate vic. | tory possible, for they were small | enough to be unifled, and so co-ordinat- | ed the varlous parts of the Continental Army; and the Fairfax County Com- mittee of Safety contributed more to the cause than that of any other county throughout the colones. Yet the men who composed these remark- able committees were seldom recom. pvensed for thelr work, and were ac- corded scant recognition, although they gave without stint of thelr time and energ; and, in the event of de- feat. would have been among the first punished. Those of Falrfax County, at the head of the navigable Potomac, were especlally prominent and easy prey. George Mason was also a member during November, of the still smaller committee of correspondence within the committee of safety, com- posed of about six men, to expedite business. * K ok ok ARLY in 1776, In Virginia's last co- lonial assembly before the Revo- lution, George Mason drafted the Bill of Rights, his greatest work, and also the first constitution of Virginia, both adopted unanimously by the conven- tion. The Bill of Rights was substan- tially the inspiration of the Declara- tion of Independence, for Jefferson was an_ intimate friend and enthusi- astic admirer of George Mason, his senfor by 18 years, and often visited Gunston Hall, where there is now a “Jefferson” room in which the Great Democrat wrote an outline of the Declaration. Mason_represented Falrfax County In the Virginia Assembly continuous- ly until 1788. Although a frequent sufferer from the gout, which caused his temporary retirement from public life in 1780 and '81, he was ever keenly sensitive to the colonies’ critical situation and did not cease to give the matter con- stant attention. He was greatly dis- turbed, for instance, over the Brit- ish depredations on non-combatants, whose property they plundered or burned; and he addressed a letter to the Virginia delegates in Congress at Philadelphia in '81, wherein was embodied an. excellent solution; that the States should all be urged to pass laws declaring that all private prop- erty 8o plundered or destroyed l.houfli be made good to the sufferers or their heirs after the war’s end by duties to be imposed upon all imports from Great Britain into the respective States until full reparation should be made. And this effort was purely altruistio on Mason’s part, for the fortunes of war left his extensive holdings intact. In addition to possessing these social instincts, George Mason was @ mili- ant individualist. ~ His sense of jus- tice was so iInordinately keen and rare, so attuned to the rights of the “‘other fellow” as well as his own, that one regrets the term *justice” has been cheapened by careless appli- cation to lesser men. At the very time that his heart and mind were united to the Continental Army, wherein three of his sons were fight- ing under George Washington for the cause to which their father had con- D. 0, OOTOBER 18, 1925—PART 5. Rambler Mixes Some Philosophy - With the Van Ness Family History ~An Early Washingtonian Whose Devotion to Local Affairs Cost Him the Seat in Congress HE rambles suggest, to-the few unlucky persons who read them, ~comparisons between the past and present. A man believes that the years when he lived best were the best years. He believes, or says he does, that the acre he lives on is the best part of earth, and he helieves that he is the best man. Sometimes he is cunning enough to want to keep the last con- viction from his friends, because he knows it is a good stratagem to seem humble and to make public confession that his mind and morals are not the best. On the question whether the pres- ent is worse or better than the past, the Rambler gives it up. Sometimes he thinks one way, sometimes the other. It depends on how the pipe tastes after dinner or how the diges- tion pill works. It s an academic question. I do not know why we use “aca- demic question” to stand for a ques- tion to which there is no answer, and if there were an answer it would not be important. Academia was the grove in which Plato taught, and the academics considered questions and reached conclusions that were impor- tant. It does not much matter to us whether the age of Pericles or the colonfal period of America was better than ours. We cannot live when the Medicis were spending money and we cannot live when stamp taxes, te: Hessfans, Tories and Patriots were ex citing things. We are committed to the age of gas, radlo, jazz, movies and many kinds of bunk, and it is up to us to do the best we can. The Rambler wonders if there h alert to defend the non-combatants against the fighting men. When the forces under Lafayette, Steuben and Wayne were in Virginia in the Spring of' '81, the assembly passed an order authorizing the seizure of one-tenth of every man's cattle for the Army. As this was often construed as the right to take in beef cattle one-tenth of the number of the herd instead of that part from the value of the stock, it often hap. pened that the family so victimized would be deprived of half the va of the stock and left without bee | tallow or leather for the ensulr vear. George Mason set forth these injustices in a forceful letter to Thomas Jefferson, Governor of Vir ginia. Another instance of Mason's abil- ity to put himself in another's place is found in his treatment of David Constable, a young Scotchman who was a tutor to Mason's children from 1774 to 's1. In the latter year he had an unprecedented opportunity to ob- tain an estate in the British West Indies, should he remain loyal and arrive there before his brother, the owner, should depart for England on account of his health. Mason real- ized the young man could never do o well in Virginia, could render lit tle help to the colonles, and would be personally injured to a great extent; 90 he worked out logical detafls for the young man's safe departure, and took necessary steps to obtain a pass- port for him. * * % % NY instance of selfishness on the part of State Legislatures, corrup- tion of officials appointed by the new Congress, which led to infringement upon individual rights, always greatly disturbed George Mason. Himself a stanch Episcopalian, vestryman at Pohick Church for many years, who on occasion received more votes for the office than George Washington, ~ George Mason vet favored complete freedom in worship, and in the first Legislature held under the new Virginia constituton, he presented a measure which would repeal the old disabling acts, leg: all form of worship and release dis. senters from payment of parish rates. The plan adopted for ceding to the Federal Government Virginia's claims to the Ohio territory had been out- lined by Mason in 1780. In order thoroughly to understand the position of George Mason in the cdnstitutonal convention, it must be realized that he had never favored a strong United States Congress. Mason was one of the commissioners who made a compact with commlis- sioners from Maryland on the jurisdic- tion of the Chesapeake Bay, the Po tomac and Pokomoke Rivers. A con- terence held by these commissioners at Mount Vernon was in reality the first steps toward a new Federal Gov- ernment, for Maryland, ratifying the compact. proposed that Pennsylvania and Delaware should be invited to Join them, and Virginia favored in- viting all other States to consider & uniform commercial system. George Mason's next great role was that of a delegate from Virginia to the constitutional convention in Philadel- phia in 1787 His activities {n the convention were highly influential and altogether cred. itable. He was ever alert to the proceedings and on his feet in an instant to defend the states’ righ with what Flanders termed “Inflexi- ble integrity and unbending republi- canism.” He was the first to argue that coercion could not be used against States; first to see the danger in the resolution that the National Legislature should be empowered to call out the force of the Union against any delinquent member, and the first to_suggest an acceptable alternative. He opposed every measure which would perpetuate siavery, yet at the same time advocated that the South should be protected in regard to those slaves already held. He proposed the Virginia constitu- tion (which he had written) as a model for the new National Constitution. But although a great number of features were adopted In this new organ which Mason had consistently fought against, such as a single Executive, he was willing to sign until toward the end of the convention, when it passed the the clause giving indefinite powers to Congress and to the Executive, and “the power given to Congress, by a bare majority, to pass navigation acts” which would bind over the minority Southern states to the East- ern States. It was legislation made possible by this clause, such as the nullification act, which brought on the Civil War. Ho, on September 17, the Consti- tution was read and signed by all except Mason, Edmund Randolph and Elbridge Gerry. Mason returned to ‘Virginia and led the fieht the follow- ing year against ratification. ‘Within two years, as we recall, the Constitution received ten amendments, which were substantially Mason's bill of rights; and the eleventh amend- ment prohibiting suits against States in Federal courts is the direct fruit of Mason's arguments. But his fight proved vain, and he retired to Gunston Hall, where he dled a few years later, on October 7, 1792. It was after the Constitutional Con- vention that George Mason and George Washington became estranged, and the latter wrote some derogatory statements about Mason which have led people to believe that a certain amount of lifelong jealousy had exist- ed between them. But the truth is that they were the best of friends up to_that time. No one of the historic homes of the Old Domininon is better preserved than Gunston Hall, where in Mason's day nearly all the great men, includ- a vhich | tribyted much of his wealth, he was \ing Lafayette, were entertained. To Which He Had Been Elected. been an up-change In the intelligence | York of men in three or four thousand |home years or more. Something warns me | K that there is danger in that observa- tion. It may offend some men who know that all useful knowledge has been gained between--let us say, 1895- | 1825—that nothing much happened in the centuries behind us, and that all |and colleged appropriat knowledge having been gathered, | cial state, took an inter there is little for the coming centuries | and was elected to the to do except make ome minor im-|gress. It was the second session of provements that static will not inter- | that Congress, which me fere with reception and that carbon | ton, November will not form in th cylinders. | the st meeting o Rambler wonders whether there is | i The more or less intelligence in the mul- I n L were moved troops in the Revol was named Lindenwald nderhook, below Albany, and there “Knickerbocker York.” The son of Col. Peter John Peter Van N History of to his so politics Congress ir es of the (i from JOHN P. _REPRODUCED FROM AN OIL PORTRAIT. titude on T street than In those | crowds that jammed the Acropolis at Athens or the stadium when the games were on, or in those crowds that moved among the ways and n parks of Babylon. Are those who |and Minister to Spain, and the o pass along our Avenue more Intel- | was Judge Willlam P. Van Ness, ligent than those who crowded, a |eminent as a lawy hundred yea and those who still crowd the Piazzo del Populo, the Place de I'Etoile and Charing Cross? * ox ok K "THERE have been gains in physical sclences and votaries of those Gl ences know more than their predeces- g classical education: was a stud. Thelr successors will be more | Columbia College: studied law, w learned, and a thousand years hence |Mitted to the bar of racticed; was elected the great sclentists of today will be | Praciqed: was elected a the ancients “‘who had a hazy notion | gress as a Democrat of the law and force of nature.” More | seat December 7, 1801 persons than ever can read and write, | in May, 1802, 1 i but what do they read and write? heiress, of Wasl Through all time there have heen in. |after accepted t} telligent men who could not write, and | jor of the unifor! today there are hordes of unintelli strict gent men who write books and papers. | House of Repi More belngs g0 to school than ever |seat forfeited went hefore. That is due not wholly | then made Wis to a love for learni but because it | v cted is thought to open a way to make an | easy living. The school is not a new thing. There were schools in cities | for whose ruins archeologists dig There were universities {n Europe two | thousand years ago. Schools are more numerous now and parents are sent to jall if they do not send their children to school.* No child can escape school no matter how much he wants to, and just now the output of schools finds employment as doctor clerks. stenographers and Business men, unable to spell, find it a convenience to have a good-looking secretary. who will sometimes take the trouble to look up a word in the | dictfonary. There is much rough work to be done in the world, and already shirtsleeve workers make better wages than persons who work in white collars and lace sts. Boy will turn to rough work when they have to. The stomach is a stern boss. And the boys may bufld better roads and sewers for having learned some algebra and then forgot it. The Ram- bler does not know. This digression made me forget that. T am under contract with you to continue the story of Marcia Burnes and her husband, John P, Van Ness. Usually husbands are of no interest, but when a husband has been dead 79 years he may be of some importance. The Rambler has told you that John P. Van Ness “‘was a member of Congress, four times mayor of the city of Washington, | president of the branch bank of the United States at Washington, one of the three commissioners to supervise ( reconstruction of public buildings damaged or destroyed by the British in 1814, and the first president of the Bank of the Metropolis, now the Na- tional Metropolitan Bank.” His an- cestors were prominent in the col- onies of New York and Vermont, and he was a son of Col. Peter Van Ness, who commanded a battalion of New gton in May, 1800. A point about John P. Van Ness |1s that he had two broth One was ( an Ness. ¢ |ernor of Ver of Lafayette o was an intimate of Washington Irving ‘ * ok x & [ * ister is the following sketch of John P. Van Ness: “John F. Van Ness was sors. ich t his home, president of 1846 see in da sion of the Seventh Con ngton Novembe | T got that date from the proceed the centennial the esta of the s ernment Ben Poore s ok seat I find Wil what ifi Imus ‘Although the 17th of No- vember was the date fixed upon for the meeting of Congress in the new city, when that day arrived a quor- um of neither house was present. On the next day the House had a qu | um, but the Senate did not have a quota u the 2Ist The f day President met in the Senate chaml message. John [ elected mayor of Washing 1830, and re-elected in 1833. There, was not in thaf. The h lowing the houses read Ness w ton in 1832 and extraordin: mayor of W elected in 18 tive terms mayor, James H served fou serve: of one vear; the third Blake, elected 1813 \secutive terms: the fifth mayor, Samuel N. Smallwood, served three terms, 1819-1821; Roger C. Weightman served 1824-1 John G three terms 1 served four ter W. Seaton ser 1849; James G. Berret served terms, 1858-1860: and Richard lach served seven terms, The National Intelligencer, 9, 1846, contained the following s count: “Died, on Saturday afternoon, the 7th Instant, at ha o'clock, General John P. Ness, in the seventy-seventh year ‘of hi age. His funeral will take place at will 1840- three Wal- ns, 1836-1839, ed ten terms, March . PV e of some success | both | L. f tam | 1861-1867. | Washington Irving wrote most of the | New | attend without | | term | Burns | city Philadelphia | residence r | morrow) afterr his friends a the citizens gene fu “General Van oldest and most its of this city ew York, and gress from that s of Mr. J tion. He shortly the only daughter Esquire on s of the la bullt, and from Mr. Jefferson Major of the M it was deemed had forfeited his right the Hous Represent then fixed permanent in this cit i 1o the Bank ther notice proprie was impre of the 1514 and « the | dences of the esteem held by the se munity prope nt he Wd to stra ge | to patronize received | 3 e | listed as ared his | Julius, He | vea is and filled other | Bank of the He died at Washing- | $39,900. The second | ¢ blish- | r- | modore ! ville | H. Carroll, the ftak put was: Carpet case $83, 1 bookstand ndelier bookcase T Ben: Perley Poore’s Political Reg- | curt New York and|ings (0ld) $1. 1 cuttlr Betts 25 years « rs ¢ Sally personal pr Me 98 sk Rockville vou | of the Che t £6,00 here room of the Natfonal Cap- | Lew 34 Brown two e Morris t M weer, t at pew in No. 83 as_bought by . (I cannot make ¢ think it Dow.) turnpike stock was Benjamin Ogle Tayloe f Among the buyers of were Peter Force, R. Greenhow, W. Cathcart . Burke, J. W. M. M Johnson, stoc and J. but I he M. Cu Dr. Bohrer Abbott, J Carusi, ter, G. J Hibbs, Mr. S. A. Elliott In last day setting machine s the passive voice of present, whereas the mbler wr it in the imperfect passive. He dream ed Sunday night that he was crushed by a_thousand denunciatory letters from Washington Latinists, but no re buke w on his desk Monday Peo ple are kindhearted. Perhaps some of them did not “catch” the error. SOUTH FRONT OF THE VAN NESS HOUSE, FROM A PRINT LOANED BY JAMES L, HOOD. A