But show us a Washington who was human, had his fits of passion, made his mistakes, committed sin, knew what the lusts of the flesh were, loved to dance all night, admired a fine figure of a woman, hated a poacher to the extent of beating the stealthy wretch and breaking his gun, cursed like a sailor when in a passion, knew how to pick out the best horse, or the best piece of land, had a slave whipped if he didn't do his task, had a private soldier flogged to the limit of the law if he broke the rules, forced the new husband of a dead plasterer's widow to refund an overcharge made by the deceased plasterer for work at Mount Vernon, compelled General Stone to take back a faulty coin paid for ferriage at the Washington ferry and to pay honest money-show us a Washington like that, and we begin to understand him. Show us a man who, in spite of such flaws and blemishes as these, develops the virtues of his nature until such blemishes shall become mere sun-spots, and we will join you in paying heartfelt adoration to the sun.

There had been no marvelous deeds connected with Washington's youth. He was not the brightest boy at school. Nothing he did caused the elders to distill wisdom into predictions. He was just a strong, manly, intelligent boy quicker on the playground than in his books. His family was as good as the best; but not wealthy. His elder brothers, of the half blood, were intimately asso

ciated with some Englishmen whose connections were very high; but at one time the mother of George had thought of putting him on a British ship to become a common sailor.

He became a land surveyor; and in that capacity served Lord Fairfax, who had large tracts of wild land, the boundaries of which needed to be fixed and marked. Handsomely paid for this hard and dangerous work (for the Indians still roamed the woods), he saved his money and bought choice bits of virgin soil for himself. His explorations and surveys were not more perilous than those which Peter Jefferson had been making; and so far as we know, not better. He did his work faithfully, fearlessly, competently, and got well paid for it: that is all. If ever he had to eat his pack-mule while out in the wilderness, as Peter Jefferson is said to have been obliged to do, tradition has lost the indignant mule.

Prof. John Fiske falls into a flutter of wonder and admiration because Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia selected so young a man as Washington to carry a message into the Ohio woods. Really there was no cause for the professor's excitement. The most casual inquiry into the facts clears up the mystery. The Ohio Land Company was reaching out for half a million acres which lay in the fertile valleys of the West; the two elder brothers of Washington were directors

in the company; Governor Dinwiddie was a member of the company; and Christopher Gist was the surveyor of the company. Therefore, when we see Christopher Gist and George Washington thread their way through the woods to warn the French off the land which the company claims, it looks far from mysterious. Professor Fiske's marvel ceases to startle.

The Ohio Company had its powerful London members, as well as its powerful Virginia members. Secure in the support of the imperial government, as well as in that of the colonial government, the corporation did not even wait for the issuance of the formal grant to the land.

Christopher Gist and other hardy rovers were immediately sent to spy out the country, to report on its resources, and to blaze the way for squatters. Indian traders hurried to the Ohio with the customary stock of mean whisky, red blankets, blue beads, striped calico, gaudy ribbons, and other finery dear to the heart of the children of the forest.

In the eyes of the French, who claimed these lands for themselves, the English traders were mere trespassers who must be put out, and they were put out accordingly. Thereupon the Ohio Company put its influence to work; and the gov ernments, imperial and colonial, began to take a hand in the dispute-just as Cecil Rhodes, Barney

Barnato, and Joseph Beit managed to have it do in the matter of the South African goldmines.

That the Washington brothers, Dinwiddie, Gist and Company were honest in believing the territory belonged to Great Britain is not to be doubted. In its wild state the soil was not doing anybody any good. It was a pity that such fine land should serve for nothing better than Indian huntinggrounds. It joined Virginia, it was in the line of Virginia expansion-what more natural than that Virginia should claim it, and should begin to throw around it the tentacles of benevolent assimilation?

Washington was as honest in his purpose as were Miles Standish, John Smith, Daniel Boone, James Robertson, or John Sevier. He wanted the land, he fought for the land, he risked his life and gave days of toil to get the land-and he got it. When the smoke of battle lifted, the hero of Mount Vernon owned seventy thousand acres of the finest forest land in the world; part of which was his own reward as a soldier, and part of which he had bought on highly satisfactory terms from his brother soldiers.

During the terms of Botetourt and Dunmore, we find Washington continually pressing the claims of the Virginia troops to the land for which they had fought; and it is highly probable that,

being encumbered as he was by this matter, he could not act as radically against the two governors as his younger, less embarrassed fellow citizens could do.

In this there was absolutely nothing to Washington's discredit. It was a matter of great importance to him and to his comrades in arms that they should receive grants to the lands which they had so manfully won. Yet in order to get justice he had to secure favorable consideration from the king's officers, the governors. It would seem that this explanation would account for the fact that Washington was not at first recognized in Virginia as a leader in the movement of armed resistance to Great Britain.

He did not for one instant give countenance to the aggressions of the mother country; but he certainly did not do more than keep in touch with the earlier progress of the revolt.

When he married the widow Custis, he not only added largely to his estate in lands and chattels, but he secured control of two hundred thousand dollars in cash.

This was an inestimable advantage. For one thing, it made it possible for him to advance sixtyfive thousand dollars to the cause during the Revolutionary War, and to serve it without pay for eight arduous years.

But up to the time Washington was appointed