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PARLEY'S MAGAZINE.

PART XIX.

NEW-YORK AND BOSTON.

PUBLISHED ON THE SAME DAY BY

CHARLES S. FRANCIS, 252 BROADWAY,

AND JOSEPH H. FRANCIS, 128 WASHINGTON-STREET.

AND SOLD BY ALL BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED STATES.

STEREOTYPED BY GEO. A. & J. CURTIS, BOSTON.

VOL. V. JULY 1837.

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PARLEY'S MAGAZINE.

MOUNT VERNON AND GENERAL

WASHINGTON.

We gave our readers, many months ago, an account of a visit to Mount Vernon, the seat of General Washington, with a brief description of the place. But having recently obtained the engraving which you see on the preceding page, with a few additional facts, and an anecdote or two of Washington, we have concluded to introduce them in this number. Few readers, we apprehend, will be tired of hearing about as great and good a man as General Washington.

MOUNT VERNON. The highest part of the mount is 200 feet above the surface of the river Potomac, which is here over a mile wide. The mount or hill, after furnishing a beautiful lawn, in front of the mansion, of four or five acres, and a smaller one in its rear, between it and the river, falls off rather abruptly. On the north and south, however, it slopes off more slowly. On the north are extensive fields, on the south used to stand Gen. W.'s coach house, stables, vineyard and nurseries. Near the mansion are two spacious gardens, and almost all round a grove of beautiful forest trees.

A lofty portico, 96 feet in length, supported by eight pillars, has a pleasing effect when viewed from the water; and it is said that the green house, school house, offices, and servants' halls, used

to present the appearance of quite a village; but they are now gone very much to decay. In Gen. W.'s days there was also a small park for various kinds of deer, just on the margin of the river; and the deer could frequently be seen by vessels as they sailed up or down the river.

In short there was no place in the. whole United States, fifty or sixty years ago, to which the Commander in Chief of the American Armies could have made a more pleasant and quiet retreat; nor are there many-if indeed any-ancient situations in the country better worth visiting.

ANECDOTE OF GEN. WASHINGTON.When Washington was quite a young man, and only a Colonel, and stationed at Alexandria in Virginia, he happened to get into a dispute with a Mr. Payne; and becoming, for once in his life, a little angry, he said something which offended Mr. P. who, without ceremony, raised his cane, and at a single blow, brought him to the ground. Col. W.'s officers who were present, were at once in a rage, and so was his whole regiment when they heard of it; and there was, for a while, reason to fear that they and the friends of Mr. P. would get into a general quarrel and destroy many lives. But Washington came out, and after thanking them and telling them he was not hurt, begged them to be peaceable, and at last prevailed.

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ANECDOTES OF WASHINGTON.

When Washington came to reflect on the matter, he found he had been in the wrong. No sooner did he come to this conclusion, than he resolved, on the next day, to ask Mr. P.'s pardon. Great a man as he was, he was not ashamed to own it when he had been in the wrong. No sooner had he resolved to do what his conscience told him he ought to do, than he was at peace in his own mind, and that very night he attended a place of amusement, and behaved just as well as if nothing at all had happened.

The next day he wrote a very polite note to Mr. P. requesting him to meet him. The latter, taking it for a challenge, went to the place expecting to see Washington with a pair of pistols. But what was his surprise when, on entering, Washington arose and gave him his hand, in the most friendly manner. "I find," said he, "I was wrong in the affair of yesterday; you have had, I think, some satisfaction; and if you think that sufficient, here's my hand, let us be friends."

A few years afterward Mr. Payne had a law suit in Fairfax, near where Washington lived, and the latter happened, just at that time, to be in the Court house. The lawyer who was opposed to Mr. P. finding he had a very hard case, thought to prejudice the jury by telling them that Mr. P. had, some time before, greatly abused Washington. “This,” said he, "is the wretch, who dared to lift up his impious hand against that greatest and best of men, and to

knock him down, as though he had been but a bullock of the stalls."

This was so unexpected, and pronounced in such a thundering tone, and with such a tremendous stamp on the floor, that it made a prodigious impression. Washington could not bear this. He always wished to have the truth known. Seeing that the countenances of the court began to blacken upon Mr. P. and that the latter began to look wild, he arose and thus addressed the bench.

"As to Mr. Payne's character, may it please your worships, we all have the satisfaction to know that it is perfectly unexceptionable; and with respect to the little difference which formerly happened between that gentleman and myself, it was instantly made up, and we have lived on the best terms ever since. And besides, I could wish all my acquaintance to know, that I entirely acquit Mr. Payne of blame in that affair, and take it all on myself as the aggressor."

PUNCTUALITY OF WASHINGTON. When Washington had agreed to meet Congress at noon, he never failed to be passing the door, while the clock was striking twelve. Whether his guests were present or not, he always dined at four. Not unfrequently new members of Congress, who were invited to dine with him, delayed until dinner was half over; and he would then remark, "Gentlemen, we are punctual here; my cook never asks whether the company has arrived, but whether the hour has."

THE RAT AND HER YOUNG ONES.

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When he visited Boston, in 1789, he appointed 8 o'clock, A. M., as the hour when he should set out for Salem; and when the Old South clock was striking eight, he was mounting his horse. The company of cavalry, which volunteered to escort him, were parading in Tremont street after his departure, and it was not until the General had reached Charles river bridge, that they overtook him. On the arrival of the corps, the General with perfect good nature said, "Major, I thought you had been too long in my family, not to know when it was eight o'clock."

Captain Pease, the father of the stage establishment in the United States, had a beautiful pair of horses which he wished to dispose of to the General, whom he knew to be an excellent judge of horses. The General appointed five o'clock in the morning to examine them. But the captain did not arrive with the horses until a quarter past five, when he was told by the groom, that the General had been there at five, but was now fulfilling other engagements. Pease, much mortified, was obliged to wait another week, merely for delaying the first quarter of an hour.

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A fool struck Cato in the bath; when he expressed some sorrow for the action, Cato had forgotten it.

What is worth having is worth retaining at some expense and hazard.

A friend is never known, till needed.

THE RAT AND HER YOUNG ONES.

A FABLE.

AN old rat one day went out, and strictly charged her young ones not to venture from home, lest they should fall under the claws and jaws of the cat. But no sooner was she gone, than one of them proposed to take a ramble, to which the others consented. "You know," said one, who thought himself very cunning, "here are four of us, and surely our eight eyes will be a match for puss, with only two." So they first peeped through a large hole with great caution; and, finding all clear, they ventured over a floor, covered with bran, towards a nice bag of barley, which they saw in a chamber of some back buildings. They pricked up their ears to listen, and watched carefully on every side, proceeding at the same all at once, the boldest, who thought time with a very cautious step; when, himself the most cunning, gave a dreadful shriek, and found himself caught in a trap, concealed under the bran.

The rest now fled in alarm; and fearing now that the cat would certainly

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