n a tract of land ten miles square,
known as the District of Columbia. In 1846 that part of the District
lying on the Virginia side of the Potomac was ceded back to the State.

President Washington did not have to escape from the capital to avoid
office-seekers. He could get on a horse at his door and in five minutes
be out of sight. He could remain in the forest back of his house until
Martha blew the horn signifying that the man who wanted the post-office
at Pigback had gone, and then he could return.

[Illustration: MARTHA BLEW THE HORN.]

How times have changed with the growth of the republic! Now Pigback has
grown so that the name has been changed to Hogback, and the President
avails himself of every funeral that he can possibly feel an interest
in, to leave the swarm of jobless applicants who come to pester him to
death for appointments.

The historian begs leave to say here that the usefulness of the
President for the good of his country and the consideration of greater
questions will some day be reduced to very little unless he may be able
to avoid this effort to please voters who overestimate their greatness.

It is said that Washington had no library, which accounted for his
originality. He was a vestryman in the Episcopal Church; and to see his
tall and graceful form as he moved about from pew to pew collecting
pence for Home Missions, was a lovely sight.

As a boy he was well behaved and a careful student.

At one time he was given a hatchet by his father, which----

But what has the historian to do with this morbid wandering in search of
truth?

Things were very much unsettled. England had not sent a minister to this
country, and had arranged no commercial treaty with us.

Washington's Cabinet consisted of three portfolios and a rack in which
he kept his flute-music.

The three ministers were the Secretary of State, the Secretary of War,
and the Secretary of the Treasury. There was no Attorney-General, or
Postmaster-General, or Secretary of the Interior, or of the Navy, or
Seed Catalogue Secretary.

Hamilton, the Secretary of the Treasury, advised that Congress at the
earliest moment provide itself with a national debt, which was done, the
war debt being assumed by the Congressional representatives of the
thirteen Colonies.

A tax was levied on spirits, and a mint started, combining the two, and
making the mint encourage the consumption of spirits, and thus the
increase of the tax, very like