trying war to a successful end impossible
without him; a great statesman, who did more than any other man to lay
the foundations of a republic which has endured in prosperity for more
than a century. I find in him a marvelous judgment which was never at
fault, a penetrating vision which beheld the future of America when it
was dim to other eyes, a great intellectual force, a will of iron, an
unyielding grasp of facts, and an unequaled strength of patriotic
purpose. I see in him, too, a pure and high-minded gentleman of
dauntless courage and stainless honor, simple and stately of manner,
kind and generous of heart. Such he was in truth. The historian and the
biographer may fail to do him justice, but the instinct of mankind will
not fail. The real hero needs not books to give him worshipers. George
Washington will always receive the love and reverence of men, because
they see embodied in him the noblest possibilities of humanity.

IX

ANECDOTES AND STORIES

ANECDOTES OF WASHINGTON

Washington's relations with children are most interesting. He always
wrote of them as the "little ones."

Through his life he adopted or assumed the expenses of nine of the
children of his "kith and kin."

Dumas says that he arrived at Providence with Washington at night. "The
whole population had assembled from the suburbs; we were surrounded by a
crowd of children carrying torches, all were eager to approach the
person of him whom they called their father, and pressed so closely
around us that they hindered us from proceeding. General Washington was
much affected, stopped a few moments, and, pressing my hand, said, 'We
may be beaten by the English, it is the chance of war; but behold an
army which they can never conquer.'"

* * * * *

In journeying through New England, Washington spent a night in a private
house where all payment was refused. Writing to his host he said: "Being
informed that you have given my name to one of your sons, and called
another after Mrs. Washington's family, and being, moreover, very much
pleased with the modest and innocent looks of your two daughters, Patty
and Polly, I do for these reasons send each of these girls a piece of
chintz; and to Patty, who bears the name of Mrs. Washington, and who
waited upon us more than Polly did, I send five guineas with which she
may buy herself any little ornament, or she may dispose of them in any
manner more agreeable to herself