the discovery. The role of the
iconoclast is a thankless one and I confess to a liking for Dolly, but I
have discovered in Washington's cash memorandum book under date of May
17, 1784, the entry: "By a Cream Machine for Ice," L1.13.4--that is an
ice-cream freezer. The immortal Dolly was then not quite twelve
years old.

Washington seems to have owned three coaches. The first he ordered in
London in 1758 in preparation for his marriage. It was to be
fashionable, genteel and of seasoned wood; the body preferably green,
with a light gilding on the mouldings, with other suitable ornaments
including the Washington arms. It was sent with high recommendations,
but proved to be of badly seasoned material, so that the panels shrunk
and slipped out of the mouldings within two months and split from end to
end, much to his disgust. Such a chariot was driven not with lines from
a driver's box, but by liveried postillions riding on horseback, one
horseman to each span.

The second coach he had made in Philadelphia in 1780 at a cost of two
hundred and ten pounds in specie. It was decidedly better built.

The last was a coach, called "the White Chariot," bought second hand
soon after he became President. It was built by Clarke, of Philadelphia,
and was a fine vehicle, with a cream-colored body and wheels, green
Venetian blinds and the Washington arms painted upon the doors. In this
coach, drawn by six horses, he drove out in state at Philadelphia and
rode to and from Mount Vernon, occasionally suffering an upset on the
wretched roads. It was strong and of good workmanship and its maker
heard with pride that it had made the long southern tour of 1791 without
starting a nail or a screw. This coach was purchased at the sale of the
General's effects by George Washington Parke Custis and later in a
curious manner fell into the possession of Bishop Meade, who ultimately
made it up into walking sticks, picture frames, snuff boxes and such
mementoes.

At Mount Vernon to-day the visitor is shown a coach which the official
Handbook states is vouched for as the original "White Chariot." In
reality it seems to be the coach once owned by the Powell family of
Philadelphia. It is said to have been built by the same maker and on the
same lines, and Washington may have ridden in it, but it never
belonged to him.

Most people think of Washington as a marble statue on a pedestal rather
than as a being of flesh and blood with human feelings, faults