The Project Gutenberg eBook, Washington's Birthday, by Various, Edited by
Robert Haven Schauffler

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Title: Washington's Birthday

Author: Various

Release Date: February 22, 2005 [eBook #15140]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY***

E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Charlene Taylor, and the Project
Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) in
commemoration of Washington's Birthday, February 22, 2005

Our American Holidays

WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY

Its History, Observance, Spirit, and Significance as Related in Prose
and Verse, with a Selection from Washington's Speeches and Writings

Edited by

ROBERT HAVEN SCHAUFFLER

New York
Dodd, Mead and Company

PREFACE

The popular idea of Washington has recently begun to veer away from the
vision of an eighteenth century demigod in a wig,--an old-fashioned
statue in dusky bronze, stern and forbidding. We are swinging around
toward the idea of a loveable, fallible, very human personality with
humor, a hot temper, and a genuine love of pleasure.

Accordingly, in gathering material for this book the editor has passed
by those earlier writers who are mainly responsible for this distorted
view; and he has aimed to gather here the essays, orations poems,
stories, and exercises which best exhibit the modern conception of
Washington; together with a selection from his own writings and the
finest of the elder tributes to the memory of our greatest National
Hero.

NOTE

The Editor and Publishers wish to acknowledge their indebtedness to
Houghton, Mifflin & Company; Doubleday, Page & Company; J.B. Lippincott
& Co.; Mr. David McKay, John Macy, and others who have very kindly
granted permission to reprint selections from works bearing their
copyright.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

I
THE DAY

WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY _Oliver Wendell Holmes_
WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY _Margaret E. Sangster_
THE BIRTHDAY OF WASHINGTON _Anonymous_
WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY _George Howland_
WASHINGTON AND OUR SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES _Charles W. Eliot_
CROWN OUR WASHINGTON _Hezekiah Butterw