Evening Star Newspaper, February 21, 1926, Page 69

Old Washington Home Is Reflection Of Spirit of Eleanor Parke Custis Charm of Adopted Daughter of First President Helped to Make Mansion Serene, TLA WILSON BATHON. the Wish more birthday of wn arrives, thoughts to the President s« national >, whom the country at large loves to honor, and we, who live within easy acce his lovely old home on the Potomac. think of him also as a country tleman whom V' most_Aistinguished son Mount Vernon, we ever, that to Ma the pervading seems to cling to it of serenity and sw spirit of youth and the mansion : in name, the ver benign influen visitors, was Parke Custis miliarly known Custfs, the del ther, Gen. Wast To her Marviand Eleanor Calvert, Nellie Custis owed much of her grace, her charm and her sweet ness. The Nellie.” Calvert, was Calvert more. Tt w more manor thi son of Lady W ‘land Is due much of personal 2 e 1) that made ome in fact, as well 2 v presence of wh is still sensed lovely wirl she Is m loved hat or I it on mother, first er of Benedict Lord Balti 18 in Lord Ralti- rké Custis and who the rolling uch spirit ul 2 meas: of Mount shin wooed Nellie ind i cou tre Murtbor children of 1. ton by her former mn Parke Custis and Martia Parke Cus tis, or Patsy or “Little Patty” as she was called, made their home with thefr step-father, Gen and his wife, thelr moth: Vernon. The zener:i. army to victor d new republie, confessed authority Johu or Jack. can govern Lut [ cannot n_boys,” h nd so youns was sent away t home to e went to Annay to the Jonathan Boucher. who tutored other sths. and the Mary and capltal bein v from Mount Vernon, he often 1 > trip back and forth on His way lay past the h £ Mount Airy, where manors £ its was kept to Jl the travelin: and there the young man n rhter of the house, the loy ilvert. Perhaps, in some : was re sponsible for his nter his studies. She was beautiful. she wus gay, and the toast of the county she was one of 10 children fore, with little dowiy lost his heart, and nis d followed suft, with his by ne means inconsider- able fortune. Dignified letters passad betw general and the bened i Mount Alry, and brought together all th: fashion of the countr iowed. e in the Afry, near The t Mount Lo led an ruled the his lack of later some. Toors 2 dau lack of in and ¥ Ith and le soon fol tand in the parlor | nuptial romantic ur the as birds twitter in the century-old that has thrown its gnarled stems, like up over the railings of g as one looks from the indows of this varlor, sacred to the omance of that colonfal age, one can vision stately coaches, with restless | horses and v habited coachmen, with white ribbons fluttering from thelr arms and nosegays in their but- tonholes in honor of the festive occa- sion, as they drive up around the huge circle of boxwood tha nds today as it stood in the olden time. as an ap- proach to the big front door. Mount Airy, mellowed by time, is to- day habitable and homelike. and, though its present owner loves to con- ure ghosts, some more or less sinister, one feels that If there are ghosts some are contented ghosts, serene in recall- ing that happy past when yvoung Jack rode away with Nellie Calvert to drive her to Abingdon, the home he took her overlook Potomac. four miles from and so not far | from Mount Ve His little sister vear before. and Washington, &till overc ith sorrow, did not at wedding, but she sent the voung bride a lette sweet and dear that any girl today would be delighted to receive it as a welcome from her future mother-in law. Her letter read “My Dear Nelli=: God took from Me a daughter when June Roses were hlooming. He has now n me an- other daughter about Age, when Winter winds are blo to’ warm my Heart again. “I am as Happy as One so Afflicted and so Blest can he. Prav receive my Benedlction and a wish that you may long lfve the Loving Wifs of my happy Son, and 4 Loving Daughter of vour Affectionate Mother. “M. WASHINGTON."” act, the husband, TOoDAY we where the ed with a n vows thrill of | the ivy | - had died the | As a matter of outlived her your died in a few vea 1 she agaln, for she was spoken of as most. tempting widow the jointure lands.” But while he lived they made their home at Abingdon, the homelike, old bride long for he married a independent of and, though | were | 2 THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGT i Peaceful and Happy Place That It Was. minded, how- | Wishington, | | | i | | l NELLIE CUSTIS, AFTERWARD MRS. LAWRENCE LEWIS, MIS TRESS OF WOODLAWN, bluff overlook boulevard, but crowned an emineu slled zently down to | The road now { developme | e | | ind t ¢ him and Mount Vernon There ton and | » make thefr ount Vernon today e Nellie's cradle, her which she wrd used, and other pieces of in the west cham over whose door is | the legend, “Nellie Custis’ room,” put there by the regents of Mount Vernon. From her windows stretched a view of the rolling country and woodland, toward that section of the estate | where later Gen. Washington parcelled | off some thousand or more acres as | a weding pr nt for her and band. Maj. ho afte the deaih of Gen. and Mrs. Washing- | ton built a stately mansion there for | himself and his wife On the main floor of Mount Vernon | Nellie's harpsichord. for which Gen. WWashington sent to London, and on which, @ little rl, she used to practice, with many tears, we are told. Across the top f the Instru- ment is the general’s flute, as if he had just laid it down after a duet with ‘his daughter. All about are other* g ers of that sweet youns girl, whose charm helped to make the home of George Washington the serene. peace- ful and happy home it was, and whose gentle influence seems to pervade it today. A FOREIGN visitor, Mr witz, has left for us t tion of Nellie Custis: “About 3 o'clock a carri by two horses, stopped door. A younz lady of wonderful beauty. close ttendant, descended. one of th beings so r: produced by sometimes dreamt of which one cannot o ecstasy Her sweeiness equals her and that is perfect e has many acc and designs bette man of America | N ntle remind- * * =% Neimce- descrip- drawn fore thes| e most ¢ followed by | was T poets see wil beauty, ments, han the or even | she Europe.” Making allowances the exag- gerated enthusiasm of an age when for ved brick mansion. setting high on a chivalry painted strong word pletu ! Nellie one can but helleve that th as inde Lesides the admi inspired. she household and servants and her and tended babyhood to worr the pride of all. adorabl charming, for n of v loved by | tender { e Calvert and timor Alry. long the home descendunts of Lord Balti-| more, is still & home, loved and cared | for, though 1 passed into other | P Its present mistress is Mres, | Duvall. . | Abingdon has become the property of former Representative Philip Camp- Dell, who. with his tamily, makes his |home there. They have brought it back | sraunddaughter of | of the | l |a division of the ON, D. O, FEBRUARY 21, Poisonous Animals, Living and Dead, Received at Office of Stray Letters Clerks Recall Experience of Man Who Recovered Set of False Teeth, While Millions in Money Are Mailed Without Proper Addresses. BY I POE is & youne m o th HART. There m Brooklyn, ar away 0. B, ¥ O, leites i find him tor me am. used as an ad- letter mailed, ap- »a joke, instances problems which the dead lettes omice, United States Post under control of er, S erypte s on a nly, fo ihe difteult confront Office Department. ! from misnse and negleet once more. to occupy in (he community s semblanc »ast of wanor house. the ¢ oustanding . evenis in the its young mistress, Elea Cuistis, wng hushand, Jack { their little family of thre and one son 1St saw the them ( Washington P tis, later known as My avlington,” whose old home pivot interest in the Cemetery, and Is soon to be refurnish el in its old day Just as Mount Ve en by the regents. Campbell aster of his maoti: A\bingdon wnd t with her ting hini \ upper chamber and then night awa <l 1id his 1 and carry her babies went a-visiting under stances, while the little also slept, unde 3 | thelr mammi their hosts i rerry in the doubie parlors b anedr the wide | central hall to the m on the | other side. Mount Vernon is 1 visit the Capital of 11 American citize elers, and to repeople it us in wost romanti homeland | ours. Lose ene nor aughters chit, e ke Custis is non s 1 An since he has D don told b of goin hin 1 in weing | me i pray dray ather with th rell n of folk and liar to all wh Nation,whether foreign trav se with vision s pristine da. spot and swe broad country the test wi o rimages 14 ze that such old hom ity of thelr own. feel it then one {8 out o sense that may old hanor house If on indivie ions 1 | e @ pers | one cannot | luck. Tt ix vatedand \is b f | happily | to this person: | country plainly tha | serenity, pe | 15 as m 1 house in t the visitor mo: wn its history of nd contentment. that tof it as t lines lity tely in \ve been that it who wiil respect, Underwood | to visit lopted by | Senatc Alabamay IN ONE OF THE BEDROOMS OF WOODLAWN. The colored men, who some vears ago still survived the master and mi tress of Mount Vernon and their adopted daughter, used to tell visitors of the rose bush in the old garden, where M Lawrence Lewis, the general’s nephew, and a member of his household, proposed to the aderable Neliie as he gathered some dainty white blooms for her. L.oving romance —and superstitious, as their race is— the old servitors used to add that if any young woman would bring a bash- ful in to that sacred rose bush, safd swain would immediately pro- pose; and the magic of the bush was so great that a single sprig, taken from it and placed beneath one's pil- low, would cause to come a dream of one's future fate. The rose bush stiti blooms to closed in its broad hedge of b and memor: seems and romance pervades the old garden where Nellie ard her jover strolied, and where Lady Washington, with tender care, oversaw its culture, and jeven the ex-soldier and President took an interest, seeing that the other white rose, sacred to the loving memory of his mother, Mary Washin. ton, received the attention it required. { It, too, lives and blooms and teus a for those who. can read such 1:is birthday In gave in mar- ho, next to | his wife, was his tenderest object of affection, to hi almost as dear { nephew, 'Lawrence Lewls, son of his | sister, Betty of Kenmore, in the old home’ town of Fredericksburg, the wedding taking pldce In the parior of Mount Vernon, and at Mount Vernon the dearly loved young couple contin- ued to ake their home, and there s MRS, THOMAS LAV, SISTER OF NELLIE (‘piTk_ ] | their chiidren swere born, It was not until after Lady Wash- ington’s death, which followed her husband's by two years, that Maj. | Lewis bullt the stately mansion of { Woodlawn, on the land given him and | his wife “as a wedding present by Gen. { Washington, who spoke of it as “a i most beautiful site for a gentleman’s | seat,” and in truth it is all of that, com- manding a wonderful view of the Po- tomac and the branches leading to it. By some happy fortune fate has been kind to all the homes whose walls have sheltered the sweet wom- aniine: Nellis Custis, daughter of i spent large sums upon it in restoring and adding modern comforts to it, but neither she nor Paul Kester, the writer, -vho was a previous owner, has in any way destroyed the original form and beauty of the mansion and its superb site It still possesses that indescribable charm which some one designated “the grace of faded things.” Sun and wind have swept its broad facade for many years and mellowed it, and the box circle forming the aproach to the central entrance speaks of an earlier day, when dignity and formality were as much a part of the charm of life as its generous hospitality, It is indeed “a beautiful site for a gentleman’s seat,” and as one drives around the circular roadway to the entrance, which is approached across a flagstone terrace, just a foot above the level of the land, running across the length of the central portion of the mansion, one senses that courtly gen- tlemen and distingulshed ladies have passed through its portals, which are flanked on either side by wrought fron lanterns. held on posts as austere as they are graceful. Indeed, we are told that the Marquis de Lafayette did pass over that ancient threshold, as he was a visitor there. ‘& * X * * TTHAT charming little poem, ‘Want Ad,” by Lila Frost Spragu describes the feeling of Woodlawn: “I want to buy a house— 3.’;,,‘3.'3.,"“;'.‘{.; among the & § i a o trec With I : Wb Jarkepic By i pach ] want an orchard at the side. With & crumbling cobble wall, And bitter sweet all trailing down Where Autumn blackbirds call, I want ‘a house where gentle ghosts Flit in and out. . Snd R 2109 happy ehin 3 a) That happened hero befors.” > Though Woodlawn Mansion, which in the old days was frequently spok- en of and written of, as old letters testify, as “The Lawn,” was not built till after Washington's death, Mr. Kester, its one-time owner, is of the opinion that one wing was built and used as an office by Maj. Lewis, as Washington speaks of stopping there to see him, and when Mr. Kester oc- cupled the mansion, “Maj. Lewis’ wing,” as it was known, appeared to be built of different materials, brick and timber seeming much oider, Dr. | { { | | Abing- | il e culti- | “irst Assistant Postmaster General sohn 1L Bartlett. In addition, on the envelope bear- lines, in licu of superserip- o only the words “St. Mark's in oue corner. It might have hopeless puzzle, but not so in woman employe of the office who is famous for i suder.” -word puzzle termed, the “blind re looked up St. Mark's in a Brooklyn directory, and sent person named As a result, I Ave li cirey | “Robert | the v lie Government de. tmaster General which letters and verable | ix a d i Yet the er astonished | ling to Frank (. nt of the division, | s branch of partment, une New kiges uncluimed and unde from le s, seum clerh sent wl-let overseeing the dead letter and dead -post office here, the supervision the three other branches in the United States. When they nothing unusual open a package, it is for them to find a| | horned toad tipede. a chameleon, {a buby alligator. a stuffed gopher, a | petrified frog, an opium pipe, spirit [ photographs, coftin piates, poker chips or o set of false teeth | A story is current in the division {about the last mentioned. An old man {rushed up to the clerk in charge and | claimed 1 of fulse tecth locked up [in a glass case Why do you think they are yours?" jusked the curator | “Because I woull kpow whi said the them myself 10 v the they . when [ sent them to the mended & them any “1 bought g0, and used n the mails city to be out the 1 them into ey fitted. A few | ibing to cer- | A out of the | The teetl 1= mout HER storfes are told of puisenous | as well as dead, the office. Visitors Arfzonu have been known to send + tew horned toads as typieal enirs from regions explored. W the offices Otfice Depart Pennsylvania | unts of a live Gila | second-class | mimal ived at and dead into its Office cad e division moved warters in the Cit lding, west of ['nion ation, a vuttlesnake 1w nine rattles rich went astray in the mails is said Lave yeposed in a lass jar of bol labeled “Irom Florida.” But the most alarming parcel ever ceived.” interpolated a veteran em- e of the office, “proved to con- small snakes, all squirming and wriggly; one of which, by the way, an adder spotted in vellow und black, made its esape and crawled out from under a desk a day or two later, wlarm of the woman ble clerk the old dead referred to the great of trouble made by rats, h ote the contents of packages stored. In those days. he said, all William Thornton, architect of the | gapitol and of Tudor Place. the { &ieorgetown mansion of Mrs. Thomas Peter, Nellle Custis’ eldest sister, {drew the plans for Woodlawn, with the supervision of Gen. Washington. After living many years at the man- s left it in the | went » where, in Clarke County. they bulit Audley, where they made their home from then on. Audley, like all the other homes of the beloved Nellie, has also fared well, and is in possession of a New York gentleman, who is carrying on the traditions of that part of Vir ginia by raising thoroughbred hors: Woodlawn was later sold to a band of Quakers, who made of the mansion a community center, while they built their individual homes on farms sur- rounding it. In the division of the property, the mansion came to Capt. John Mason of Quaker stock, not of the Virginia family, long-time friends and neighbors of the Washingtons. It was later sold to the principal own- ers of the Mount Vernon electric line, with the idea of making a resort of it, to which the railway was to have been extended. Happily this never happened. In the days of its most unhappy period of neglect, it is said to have been offered for sale with 150 acres for $7,000. When, on the death of Miss Sharpe, it was again on the market, the price had risen to $100,- 000, and it was cheap at that price. Miss Sharpe lavished vast sums upon it, and it has been said that she left it in.a more solid condition than it was even originally. What she did she did with reverence and discrimination, and the result is a home that is full of charm and redo- lent of the days of romance. Antique furniture and scenic wall papers on the bedroom walls carry out the at- mosphere of colonial days. As deep in the =oll of Maryland the roots of the Custis family imbedded themselves, so the branches also spread back to the native State of Eleanor Calvert, for the grandson of Nellie Custis Lewis, Lawrence Lewis Conrad, named for his grandfather, Maj. Lewis, made his home in Balti- more, and there married Sarah, or as she was known to her intimates, “Minnie” Worthington, second daugh- ter of John Tolley Worthington of the ‘Worthington Valley, and his wife, Mary Govane Hood, daughter of James Hood of Hood's Mill, Baltimore County. Montmorenci, the beautiful estate of the Worthingtons, built in 1760, origi- nally- surrounded by 2,000 acres, is still a beautiful old homestead, and has been willed by its last owner and mistress, the late Mrs. Marie Conrad Lehr of Baltimore and Washington, on the death of Dr. Louls Lehr, her husband, to go to the poor children of Baltimore, as a country home, under the jurisdiction of the Episcopal Bish- op of Maryland. Mrs. Lawrence Conrad and her daughter, Mrs. Lehr, have bequeath- ed to Mount Vernon the most inti- mate and personal belongings of Nel- lie Custis—her wedding veil, her tiny ‘white satin slippers, her work box, her laces and shoe buckles and other treasured memehtos of the beloved daughter of Gen. Washington, and the life and spirit of his home, Mount Verngn, 1926—PART THE “GRAVEYARD OF THE POST OFFICE DEPAR TMENT,” THE DEAD LETTER OFFICE, WHERE 6. 300.000 LETTERS AND PARCELS WERE RE IVED BECAUSE THEY WERE IMPROPERLY ADDRESSED By National Phot: received and disposed 011 chec ad letter st year, i circumsta 200,000 portunity to They were much up eloth ce 1] rodents. iddicted to cutting e of dead let and s The d the bric pin-cushions. ag and mischief SAMPLE OF “PUZ7 LETTERS” RECEIVED IN THE DEAD LET- TER OFFICE OF THE POST .OFFICE DEPARTMENT. By National Photo | received 6,300,000 of the number of | undeliverable missives handled last year. Addresses were found for onl 20 per cent of them. The remaini; S0 per cent went into the wast baskets and subsequently were burned. the $10.336 unclaimed parcels, articles of merchandise received in the dead letter service last vear, the local office handled 66,539, and finally | delivered 45 per cent of that number. The balance were destroyed as of no value or disposed of at public auction. Nearly 1,000,000 letters contalning bsures of value, such as money di money orde finally done away with by the help of ferrets, he added. Though modern oved system undeliverable have somewhat conditions, there is still much romance in the work. Superintendent Stal describes the ramifications of h division as the most interesting wor in the entire postal service. Some idea of the vast proportions entailed through this phase of the postal service is conceived from the 1925 summary More than 000,000 undeliveruble | stamps. MISS MYRTLE SOPER, ONE OF THE EXPERTS OF THE POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT, SOLVING SOME OF THE “PUZZLE AD- DRESSES,”. By XNatioual Photo. A This is the | L s and commercial papers ir Importance were recetved he offices of the dead letter s ead lettere money ore ere found Althougi r of parce per cent, the an increase postage or found ne. which tend ce of careles for letters ar n using Un. am’s postal ser to those wt other bean disay Departn and ormatio er the 4 eptstle strictly name of & sender « hecomes knowr - as the ger he eral 1 n improperly s if the experts of the offic clue to his He is assessed a fee « rn of the letter Tort is made to co: mistaken or decipher This ingenuity or tter office experts es for a large of the mail which goes astray Of course there are addresses whi are absolutely hopeless. Some letter writers turn about : 'k out espe devised “fr s in the that dead-lett might ts for ret: FIRST eve rect a these dead Had no ately rec e - envelope addressed: the gnized eak one of the stereo was explained, the have been properly John Overton Andover, A x Christmas great sour letter office general pract dresses on postal card. The last Yuletide brought one a one-half million undeliverabl ings to the dead letter offices in the United It is estimated that this number of cards, including post- age and the cost (o the Unlited States for handling them, represented = waste of $175,000. Officials of the dead letter Service equally scorn the customary sending of other seasonal greetings. So if the well-wisher at _the festival seasons of s to have Uncle Sam is greeting, a return address should appear on the envelope or postal card. Contents of gome of the correspond- ence perused by the “blind readers” would be most_interesting. But study of this material is the coveted privilege only of the “blind reader.” Alas, greeting cards prove of annoyvance to the d This is the result of e of omitting return either the envel are these “personal” letters opened? Lo! Huge bundles of them are placed in an opening machine with a capacity for prying into 50,800 letters a day. And from the expressions on the faces of the 50-0dd clerke in the dead letter office, cach epistle apparently affords much entertainment. R;;i:\g by Sound. EACHING the blind to read by means of different shades of sound is @ new and remarkable method invented by Prof, Rosing, an oculist of Leningrad, Russia, says Popular Science Monthly. Every letter | of the alphabet will be expressed by a | different sound. So far, sounds have | been contrived for 18 letters of the alphabet. The sounds are used, too, to ses objects. Experiments showed, it is claimed, that children using the sound apparatus were' able to define many icles in A room and recognize per ns who were passing,