Page Two
The Gold Hill News. Gold Hill, Oregon
ARLINGTON
.SACRED SHRINE OF AMERICAN
DEVOTION ON MCMORIAL DAY
★
★
*
★
By ELMO SCOTT WATSON
An Historic Marriage.
THIS WEEK
thin ks
about:
George Washington Parke Custis
he was continually under her guid
ance and Influence or under the In
struction of his famous adopted fa
ther.
Perhaps no other American boy
ever had better advantages offered
him than young Custis had in his
day. As a child he met all of the
great men who had taken part In the
American Revolution, and when
Washington became President he
was taken with him to live In New
York and later to Philadelphia. In
both places he frequently came In
contact with the builders of the re
public. as well as the most cultured
and retired element with which the
first President continually surround
ed himself.
He was educated along the most
practical lines in the best schools
of his day, forming the foundation
for his subsequent taste for art and
literature, and equipping him as
well for the speaker’s platform,
which he delighted in filling In aft
er years.
Following the death of his grand
mother, he made his home for two
years with his sister, who had mar
ried MaJ. Lawrence Lewis. In 1802,
In anticipation of his own marriage
to Mary Lee Fitzhugh he began
building Arlington mansion, or Lee
mansion, as It later was called. To
this house, designed after the Tem
ple of Theseus in Athens, Greece,
he brought his slxteen-year-old bride
In 1804 and for the next half century
the "Sage of Arlington,” as he be
came known, wag a leading figure
In the life of the national capital.
There were few men of nofp whom
lie did not know and few men who
did not know him. He was popular
with the people of Washington for
whose entertainment he generously
threw the grounds of his pstate
open. They were glad to take advan
tage of his hospitality even though
he was regnrded as something of an
eccentric character.
R elics o f th e W a s h in g to n s
Arlington house became the re
pository of a large and Interesting
collection of relics of the Washing
tons which were given to him by
his doting grandmother, or fell to
his lot In the final division of the
household goods or which he pur
chased from less affluent posses
sors. These Included among other
things the bed In which Washing
ton died and the tent which had
sheltered him during the Revolu
tion. The latter was often pitched
on the Arlington lawn for the awed
admiration of residents of George
town and Washington who were
everly h il l s , c a l if .—
Practical Selassie
Snake killed One
Inch Find of the Gun?
I
A little more than a year later a
young officer in the Virginia col
onial troops, who had distinguished
himself at Braddock’s defeat, came
a-woolng the Widow Custis. His
name was George Washington and
he and Martha Dandridge Custis
were married on January 6, 1759.
Washington grew passionately
fond of his two step-children and
when Martha Parke Custis died on
June 19, 1773, at the age of seven
teen he was almost heart-broken.
Meanwhile her brother, John Parke
Custis, had become deeply smitten
with the charms of Miss Eleanor
Calvert, second daughter of Bene
dict Calvert of Mount Airy, Md„ a
descendant of Lord Baltimore.
His marriage took place in Feb
ruary, 1774.
At the beginning of the Revolu
tion young Custis promptly offered
his services to his country and as
an aide to Washington lie served
with distinction down to the siege
of Yorktown. There, however, he
contracted camp fever and before
the surrender took place he was
forced to leave his post. He was re
moved to the home of his uncle.
Colonel Bassett, at Elthara where
he died on November 5, 1781, leav
ing his young widow and four small
children.
This second blow was almost as
great a one to Washington as the
death of Martha Parke Custis had
been. He immediately adopted as
his own the two younger children,
Eleanor Parke Custis und George
Washington Parke Custis. who were
taken to Mount Vernon and placed
in the care of Mrs. Lund Washlng-
BRISBANE
M ussolini Goes Through
F TH ERE is one place in
the United States toward
which, more than to any
other, the hearts of Americans
turn on Memorial Day, it is
Arlington national cemetery in
Virginia.
There the first Memorial Day
exercises were held on May 30,
1868, after Gen. John A. Logan,
commander-in-chief of t he Grand
Army of the Republic, had is
sued his historic "Order No.
11,” setting aside this day each
year for honoring the Civil war
dead. The principal speaker on
this occasion was Gen. James A
Garfield, later president of the
United States, and at that time
was inaugurated the custom of
honoring the Unknown Dead,
Arlington House, Built by George
as well as those whose names
ton, whose husband was managing
are known. For the principal
the general's property at that place.
ceremony at that first Memorial
When permanent peace came and
Day celebration was decorating
Washington again took up his resi
with flags and flowers a monu
dence at Mount Vernon he and Mrs.
Washington assumed Intimate and
ment that had been erected to
active care of the two children, who
the memory of 2,111 unidenti
proved of much comfort to them In
fied dead found on the fields of
their declining years.
Bull Run and the route to the
Why Named “Arlington”
Rappahannock.
In 1796, what are now the Arling
There, in 1921, was entombed
ton lamia were allotted by the court
the Unknown Soldier of the
to the legal representatives of John
Parke Custis who had died Res
World war, to give the nation
tate. By the law of primogeniture
its most precious shrine.
the estate descended to Washing
And there, as a crowning
to n s namesake, George Washing
glory, has been erected the mag
ton Parke Custis, It was G. W. P.
Custis who named it Arlington, aft
nificent amphitheater of classic
er the Custis ancestral home In
design in which the President
Northampton county on the eastern
of the United States on each
shore of Virginia.
Memorial Day speaks to the na
George Washington Parke Custis
tion and for the nation in pay
had an Interesting career. From the
time he was six months old until
ing tribute to its soldier dead.
the death of his grandmother. Mar
Truly this is hallowed ground
tha Washington, on May 22, 1802,
and Arlington is a hallowed
name.
Rich in sentiment, Arlington is
also rich in tradition and in historic
association. Its story goes back to
the year 1669 when Sir William
Berkeley, royal governor of Vir
ginia, "by authority of King Charles
II, by the grace of God and by the
discovery of John Cabot,” granted
to Robert Howser. a sea captain,
6,000 acres of land, including the
present site of Arlington, for bring
ing settlers to Virginia. Howser is
said to have sold his grant the very
same year to the Alexander family
for six hogsheads of tobacco. But
they do not seem to have taken
advantage of what was obviously a
good bargain until 1735 when John
and Gerald Alexander asserted title
under the grant made 66 years pre
viously and their title was sus
tained.
On Christmas day of 1778 Gerald
Alexander sold two tracts on the
Potomac to a certain John Parke
Custis. One of these tracts, embrac
ing 1,100 acres and Including the
present national cemetery, brought
11,000 pounds sterling in Virginia
currency.
John Parke Custis was the son
of Col. Daniel Parke Custis who
had
married
seven teen-year-old
Martha Dandridge, the reigning
belie of Williamsburg, then the
leading city in the Old Dominion.
Daniel Parke Custis died in the
spring of 1757, leaving besides his
widow and their two children, John
Parke Custis and Martha Parke
Custis, an estate valued at more
than $100,000.
s:«
Thursday, May 21, 1936
Mussolini's men entered Addis Ababa,
driving out the Ethiopian looters, bring
tug safety to vari
oua foreigners, In
cluding our own
minister.
Rome went wild
with Joy; and no
wonder.
In seven month*
Mussolini has con
q u e r e d Ethiopia**
millions, killing and
wounding 256,666 of
them, m a r c h i n g
a t e n d 11 y ahead
through «lungerou*
valleya and h i g h
mountains, driving
A r t h u r llr U lm n »
out the Ethiopian
armies, that were directed by skilled
soldier* from Turkey, Scandinavia and
elwwliere.
Washington Parke Custis on His Estate, Now Arlington National Cemetery.
ferried across the Potomac to at
tend the annual sheep-shearing fes
tivals which Custis held, since the
breeding of merino sheep was one
of his hobbles. A barbecue was the
reward of those who attended these
festivals and "an oration by Custis
was the penalty"—at least, that Is
the way one of hla descendants put
It
Although he was one of the
wealthiest men of his day, Custis
was often hard pressed for ready
cash, tin one occasion he asked the
bank to defer payment of a note for
S65 and In 1831 he applied to the
Bank of the United States for a
Ioan of $12,666 In order to finance
a trip to France. There he proposed
to go to obtain from Lafayette all
of his Revolutionary war papers
and his personal recollections of
Washington for a book on "The
Private Memoirs of the Life and
Character of Washington” which
Custis proposed to write.
Besides aspiring to be the biogra
pher of his adopted father, Cuatls
also had ambitions as a painter, a
poet and a playwright As the lat
ter he wrote such productions as
"Launch of Columbia, or “Our Blue
Jackets Forever." “National Dream
of Pocahontas, of the First Settlers
of Virginia,” and an operetta called
"The Railroad.” "Pocahontas” was
played In Charleston and Columbia,
8. C., and "The Railroad" was pro
duced at the Old National theater
In Washington and also ran for
seven nights In Baltimore.
go with Ida state when It left th*
Union, although It meant the sacri
fice of everything which he held
dear. On April 22, 1801, Col..... 1 and
Mrs. Lee left Arlington for Rich
mond, where he Immediately en
tered the military service, first of
Virginia and later of the Confed
eracy. From the date of their de
parture Arlington was occupied only
by servants and soon afterwards a
force of Union trm>i>s commanded
by Colonel Helntzelman took charge
of It.
First Burials
B
Those Impressed by the high quali
ties of Ethiopia’s Arab slave-trading
ruler will note that in the great crisis
Ms prewnee of mind remained. The
Associated Press gays be took with
idm on the British boat "the Imperial
family Jewels, many eases of gold bul
lion and gold coins." (in hla way
from Addis Ababa to the British ship
he stopped to take all the cash from
the treasury and customs house at
Dlredawa.
In Florida, a well-meaning preacher,
who thought It his duty to let ra ttle
snakes bite him to show the power of
God. actually did let the Minkes hits
him without first removing their fangs.
He Is dead, the Jury said, "by the bits
of a rattlesnake through hla own care
I lessness.”
The poor fanatic succeeded only In
| proving the power of rattlesnake not-
| so«. The laws of the universe could
j hardly be suspended to Justify the
whim of one well meaning fanatic.
The more I jHmtlcr on Ita ly **
sacrifices in E thiopia, as balanced
against w hat she gain*, the more
Em reminded of the old story o f
the Confederate who was released
from a northern prison camp after
the surrender. Skeleton thlu from Jail
fever and debility, he started on tot
tery legs for the Ohio river, deter
mined to die on southern soli. One
night this poor rack-u’-bonea crept Into
a haymow. Nest morn
ing, early, the hired
tuan heurd auspicious
sounds In the loft and
ran for reinforcements.
Presently, the excup-
tlve's refuge was sur
rounded by stalwart,
armed men. The farm
er's six-foot son lev
eled a cocked musket.
“ Come out of ¡bar.
whoever you tie,” In,
Irvin 8. Cobb bellowed. ■'(.: o n s a r n
your hide, we got you.”
The southerner rulsed a white face.
“Yas," lie aalil, wanly, "and one b—I
of a git you got."
• • •
Hla Next Movie,
••artlng a new picture, and
» » I am teamed up with .Slim Sum
merville, (1 feet 6 of pure comedy, mid
little Jane Withers for her age, the
greatest arene-stealer In the business.
It's ns though Little Boy Blue were
anmlwlched In between Jesse James
nnd Calamity Jane. Well, ns 1 go
down for the third time I'll ptlll bo
gurgling feebly, so give me credit,
please, as an earnest gurgler.
They rail our picture "Public Nuis
ance Number I." but a movie la liko
an Indian—starts out with a name and
winds up with anyone of a half dozen.
I once knew a Blackfoot who was first
one thing, then another, and the beet
he could do for himself In hla old ago
was to be known as Chief Many Tall
Feathers Going Over the Hill.
\ A Z , ,lE
After the first battle of Rull Run,
McDowell’s army entrenched Itself
on Arlington Heights; the mansion
was occupied by officers, soldiers
were encamped on Its grounds and
two strong forts were built there
for the defense of Washington. Aft-
er Hie battles of the Wilderness,
Quartermaster Gen. M. C. Meigs or-
dered burial at Arlington for all
soldiers dying In the military hospi
tals In and around Washington. The
official records of such burials be
Pranks of Zlonchsck.
It makes a difference, even to the
gin with May 13, 1884, so Arlington No. 1 Public Enemy, "I'll never be tak- * I 'H E palters st-euied So barren—not
hag been a burial place of soldier en-allve" bandit, which way the gun Is
a single front page story about
dead for nearly three-quarters of a pointed. Mr. Knrpls Is taken, much Representative Zlonche.k, Washing
unknow n
n° « " ' M 1*- '«-y«nd iw M tag ton's No. 1 Boy Scout. Life, Indeed,
w.c,
p r
" I
b’" " " 'r,,w hat 0Ver hl"
'« baffle pho- Is empty on a day whose low descend
tween the Potomac and the Itnppa- tographers.
ing sun sees no gay deed done, no
bannock, were relnterred In Arling
headline won by the nation's official
ton it brought the total of Civil
Much efficiency in ensh rewards; problem child.
war burials there to 16,666.
He may have »farted off at the foot
Dllllnger defied all the “O men"; a re
As for the process by which Ar ward was offered, and a rcd-hnlred of the ladder, alphabetically speaking,
lington became a national cemetery, lady delivered him to the "O men" bui but his startled constituents can't com
it came about in this w ay: In 1862, lets, and got $3,666.
plain that the gallant lad stayed there
by act of congress, a property tax
Either he's getting pinched or getting
W riter of Melodrama
was levied In all the states for the
Whether the $7,666 reward offered Jailed or getting married or getting hl*
“Pocahontas" was criticized as be
conduct of the war. This tax totaled for Karpls tempted some friend of pen In hand to tell the President how
ing too melodramatic and Custis
$92 for the Arlington property, and, that courageous one remains to be to run the country, or getting ready to
wrote to a friend: "Melodrama Is all
since It was unpaid, the property seen.
polish off some fellow statesman of the
the go now, and even In historical
was ordered sold on January 11,
house, or Just getting about.
plays you must sprinkle show and
1864. The government was empow
And hasn't he put the throbbing
The criminal Is In business for mon
pageant and things to please the
ered to bid the property in nnd to ey, nnd when he can sell a friend for pulse Into the Congressional ReconlT
senses as well as the Judgment. . . .
use it for educational and military $5,066, that seems preferable to risk It reads now sometimes as the old
The play Is in London In the hands
purposes. The price paid was $26,- Ing his own life. The reward system Police Gazette used to.
of Washington Irving and John
806.
• • •
should be extended; $5.666 reward for
Howard Payne, who will under their
In 1877 George Washington Custis evidence resulting In arrest and con
Rules for Olympics.
able auspices bring It out on the
Lee brought suit In circuit court vlcton of any murderer.
London stage. If successful there,
2k 8 I understand it - and somebody
for the ejectment of persons living
why, I may be considered here as
* * correct me, please, If I'm wrong—
on the estate. The federal govern
something of a dramatist."
The Curnegle Institute announces a the rules for the forthcoming Olympic
ment had rented out parcels of land
But If Custis never became known
to small fanners, while on one cor “new law of m atter” having to do with Games In Berlin have been so revised
as "something of a dramatist.” he Is
ner of the property a village of the "cohesion of Infinitesimal purtlcles that It will be quite nil right for any
of our Jewish athletes to take p o r t -
remembered for many other reasons.
nearly 1,060 persona had grown up. of matter within the atom.”
One of them Is the fact that It was
If It were not for that law, accord just so they don't win.
Ix-e won his case In the lower court,
In big mansion on June 36, 1831, that
Pm wondering, though, about what
and In 1882 the Supreme court up ing to scientists, “the universe would
his only daughter, Mary Ann Ran
held the verdict. The government consist of nothing hut light hydrogen may happen when the American team
dolph Custis, was married to a
then had made Itself a party to the gas.” That should Interest politi turns up over there with a whole batch
young lieutenant In the engineers
suit, and following the handing cians, who, after the big conventions, of negro foot-racers In the outfit It's
will live, until November, In a universe going to he awfully hard to convince
consisting of something lighter than a Prussian crowd that they're merely
“light hydrogen gas.”
me<llum-to-wei|-d»no Nordic-Caucasian
Block browned In the pan, no to speak.
It so happen* that our fastest run
England's new king. Edward the
Eighth, is said to be engaged to marry ners arc nil colored boys. Perhaps tls
the Princess Alexandrine Louise of Just as well. They may have to keep
Denmnrk, twenty-one years old, the right on running.
English king's third cousin.
Improvement In Influenza.
The uncle of the young Indy says he
nnd her father know nothing of It. YN RESPONSE to large numbers who
Nevertheless, It Is difficult to believe 1 wrote or wired, I would state that
that King Edward will remain a hnche- cither I'm getting over my Influenza,
lor, whether he marries thia charming or maybe I’m Just getting used to It.
young princess or some other, possi Its Intent whimsical notion wa* to set
bly a good healthy young Scotch girl, tle In both ears, and now should It
thunder, a rare occurrence out here,
If one avullnhle could he found.
In order for nje to get the benefit of
Dr. Waller Emerson Briggs, who the phenomenon, It'll have to thunder
teaches dentistry In Tufts college, says agnln—and louder. However, being
"women can take any kind of pain temporarily deaf has Its advantages:
I don't hear the dull things other peo
without a whimper."
Women endure pain more courage ple say, but can still enjoy the bright
ously than men. Childbirth has taught things I guy myself.
As will be noted, I'm hack from
them to suffer nnd endure In Isolation.
Man shows his heroism preferably In Palm Springs, where I cooked In the
crowds, In squadrons, platoons; often desert sunshine until all I needed Io do
he would not do that If It did not before being served was to drape a
take more courage to slay behind alone sprig of watercress across my brow
and thicken the gravy with a llttie
than
to go ahead with the others.
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington.
Women's Is the courageous sex, man brown dour. Driving In, I kept tying
corps of the United States army.
down of the Supreme court decision, Is the other kind and might ns well up the traffic; so many motorists mis
took my face for n stop signal.
His name was Robert Edward Lee
it agreed to pay Lee the $150,060 admit It.
Should I relapse I’m going to try to
and through that marriage the name
he asked as a compromise. Tills
The only certain Immortality Is rep
of another famous Virginia family
sum was appropriated by congress resented by our children left behind to throw myself Into the epizootic. That's
became linked with Arlington.
a horse disease, but I've been ns sick
and turned over to Lee.
work on this earth. It must lie of
The approaching storm of civil
After the close of the Civil war great Interest to provide a child to fill ns n horse and had to be as strong as
war greatly troubled the mind of the
Arlington house, or the Lee mansion a throne and rule the world's greatest a horse to live through It—and, any
master of Arlington but he did not
how, I know n good horse doctor.
as It became known because of its empire—whether or not it lasts.
live to see It break. He died on Oc
IRVIN 8. COBB,
association with the great leader
tober 16, 1857.
copyrlxht.— WNII Service.
of the Lost Cause, remained a de
Two
misguided
Mexicans
decided
to
Custis had bequeathed the Arling
serted mansion. In recent years, ring bells of the ancient tnlRslon church
Ouch
ton House estate of 366 acres to
however, It has been restored anil at Juarez, Mexico, to celebrate the
"Yon say yours is the perfect hus-
his daughter and at her death to
completely furnished with original nomination of a National Revolutionary
her eldest son, George Washington
pieces of furniture, or faithful re candidate for governor of Chihuahua. band?" exclaimed the first woman.
"Yes,” retorted the other, "but my
Custis Lee. Colonel Lee obtained
productions of them and contempo The pious ladles of Juarez thought
leave from the army to go to Arling
rary articles so that a visit to It those old bells should not be rung definition of a husband Is 'a man who
ton to settle the Custis estate and
takPs one hack to the days when the for any revolutionary candidate, and It takes his wife for granted, thinks
during his brief stay there brought
* Sage of Arlington" ruled there and became necessary for troops to rescue having meals on time one of the most
order out of the chaotic conditions
gave the hand of his daughter In the bellringers from the Infuriated Important things In the world, won
Into which It had fallen In the last
marriage to the man who was des women, giving a good imitation of ders why she complains about picking
days of Custis’ life.
up after him and can't he made to un
tined to become one of the greatest Euripides man-hunting Bacchne.
It was at Arlington that Lee
derstand It actually takes money for
captains of all time.
When women start they mean IL
made his momentous decision to
a woman to keep looking present
® Western Ne<vspxp«r Union.
© King F*«t<ir«g flynriicate. Ina.
able."—Cincinnati Enquirer.
WNU Service»