y, in marble and plaster and in bronze, in
photographs of original portraits, paintings, and stereoscopic views. We
have seen him on horseback and on foot, on the war-path and on skates,
playing the flute, cussing his troops for their shiftlessness, and then,
in the solitude of the forest, with his snorting war-horse tied to a
tree, engaged in prayer.

We have seen all these pictures of George, till we are led to believe
that he did not breathe our air or eat American groceries. But George
Washington was not perfect. I say this after a long and careful study of
his life, and I do not say it to detract the very smallest iota from the
proud history of the Father of his Country. I say it simply that the
boys of America who want to become George Washingtons will not feel so
timid about trying it.

[Illustration: WASHINGTON PLAYING THE FLUTE.]

When I say that George Washington, who now lies so calmly in the
lime-kiln at Mount Vernon, could reprimand and reproach his
subordinates, at times, in a way to make the ground crack open and
break up the ice in the Delaware a week earlier than usual, I do not
mention it in order to show the boys of our day that profanity will make
them resemble George Washington. That was one of his weak points, and no
doubt he was ashamed of it, as he ought to have been. Some poets think
that if they get drunk and stay drunk they will resemble Edgar A. Poe
and George D. Prentice. There are lawyers who play poker year after year
and get regularly skinned because they have heard that some of the able
lawyers of the past century used to come home at night with poker-chips
in their pockets.

Whiskey will not make a poet, nor poker a great pleader. And yet I have
seen poets who relied on the potency of their breath, and lawyers who
knew more of the habits of a bobtail flush than they ever did of the
statutes in such case made and provided.

[Illustration: THE AWKWARD SQUAD.]

George Washington was always ready. If you wanted a man to be first in
war, you could call on George. If you desired an adult who would be
first baseman in time of peace, Mr. Washington could be telephoned at
any hour of the day or night. If you needed a man to be first in the
hearts of his countrymen, George's post-office address was at once
secured.

Though he was a great man, he was once a poor boy. How often you hear
that in America! Here it is a positive disadvantage to be born wealthy.
And yet sometimes I wish they ha