Funding for the digitization of this title was provided by Georgia HomePLACE, a project of the Georgia Public Library Service.
About The Montgomery monitor. (Mt. Vernon, Montgomery County, Ga.) 1886-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 16, 1905)
MAGAZINE SECTION. HISTORIC GDNSTON HALL. VIRGINIA HOME OF THE FAMOUS GEORGE MASON PURCHASED BY TOM WATSON. American History Made Beneath Its Broad Verandas—Has Been Kestor ed to its Original Beauty. Tom Watson, of Georgia, author of a “Life of Tnomas Jeiferson,” is re ported to have bought Guuston Hall, Virginia, 15 miles from Washington, and which was from 1750 to 1792 the home of George Mason, friend and ad viser of Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, James Madison and Pat rick Henry. The house is preserved and a few rods from it is the grave of Mason. The pyramidal piece of gran ite shown in the picture stands above his grave and is inscribed: GEORGE MASON, Author of the Bill of Rights and First Constitution of Virginia. 1720-1702. Gunston Hall is on a ridge command ing a fine view of the Potomac river, a L . - 1 mile distant. It is about five mi’es be low Mount Vernon and three miles be low the ruins of Belvoir, the home of the first Fairfax in Virginia. Gunston Hall was probably without equal in that part of Virginia at the time of its building, and is as well preserved as any other colonial bouse in Virginia It is eighty feet long and forty feet wide and is built of bricks twice the size of those made now. To the right of the north entrance is the room which was occupied by Jefferson on his frequent visits to Mason. On the river portico is where Mason and Washing ton played at draughts by the hour. Several years after the war Gunston Hall in dilapidation was acquired by Colonel Edward Daniels, a Northern man. The place was partially restored by him. Colonel Daniels in the days of reconstruction was the editor of the Richmond Journal and was once a can didate for the House of Representa tives, but was defeated. He was a close friend of President Grant, and Daniels really controlled the patronag* of the State of Virginia. A spry otd gentleman who has personally known a hundred celebrities of other genera tions, he lives on land adjoining Guns ton Hall and which was a part of the estate. Gunston Hall passed to Joseph Specht, of St. Louis, and by him was completely restored and beautified. He died three years ago and the place con tinued in possession of his heirs and in charge of a colored overseer. Ealry Opposed to Slavery. George Mason was the Sage of Guns ton. It was he who after conference and correspondence with Washington drew up the non-importation resolu tions offered by Washington and adopted by the Virginia House of Bur gesses in 1769. One of these resolu tions pledged the signers to buy no slaves imported after November 1,1769. Mason was the author of a tract styled “Extracts from Virginia Char ters and Some Remarks upon Them,” supporting the contention that the Brit ish Parliament had no right to tax the American colonies. This tract had a wide vogue in pre-revolutionary times. Mason and Washington attended the citizens’ meeting at Fairfax Court House, Virginia, in July, 1774. Wash ington was moderator of the meeting. Mason presented twenty-four resolu tions in advocacy of non-intercourse with the mother country. These res olutions were adopted, and were also adopted by the Virginia convention at Williamsburg in August, 1774. It was that body which elected Peyton Ran dolph, Richard Henry Lee, George Washington, Patrick Henry, Richard Bland, Benjamin Harrison and Edmund Pendleton delegates to the First Con tinental Congress, and that Congress substantially adopted the Mason reso lutions. Favored Election of Presidents by the People. Mason after once declining election, and once refusing to serve after elec tion to the Continental Congress, sat in the Constitutional Convention of 1787. In that great body he opposed slavery, saying it was a source of “na tional weakness and demoralization.” He advocated the direct election of the ofe UUmtiunitmf iflmtita. President by the people and for a term of seven years with ineligibility for re eiection. He opposed requirement of a property qualification for voters and also opposed the plan to make slaves equal to freemen for purposes of representation in Congress. He re fused to sign the Constitution as adopted, and fought against its ratifi cation by Virginia. In the Virginia convention to ratify the Constitution Mason led the opposi tion and standing with him were Pat rick Henry, James Monroe, Benjamin Harrison and William Grayson. The leaders for ratification were John Marshall, Edmund Randolph, Richard Henry Lee, George Washington and James Madison, yet so great was Ma son’s influence that in 168 votes' the majority for ratification was only ten and this majority was obtained only after the required number of States had already adopted the Constitution. Os a Famous Family. The first American Mason was George Mason, great-grandfather of Mason of Gunston. He was a commander of a troop of horse at the battle of Wor cester, where he fought in the Stuart cause, as did Colonel John Washington, a near relative of John and Lawrence Washington, English Royalists and the original Washington immigrants. The Mason family was originally of Warwaickshire and there are many Mason memorials in the Church of the Holy Trinity at Stratford-on-Avon. Colonel George Mason, the first, was, however, not a Warwaickshire man, but was born in Staffordshire. One of his fellow Royalist refugees to Amer ica was Gerard Fowke, of Gunston, a hamlet in Staffordshire. The old Eng lish Gunston Hall was standing a few years ago, and was owned by the Gif fords, descendants of the same Giffords who were Royalists with Fowke and Mason, and who owned Boscobel, near Gunston, where Charles 11. day in con cealment after the battle of Worcester. The commonwealth commander at Worcester was General Fairfax, and it was a strange fate that niade a descen ant of this man a neighbor to the Wash ingtons of Mount Vernon and the Masons of Gunston Hall. Belvoir, the Fairfax estate, lay immediately be tween Gunston and Mount Vernon The first American Mason and Fowke settled in the northern neck of Virginia, but Fowke later removed to Maryland. George Mason, the second, married Mary Fowke, daughter of Ger ard Fowke, and they built a home in Maryland, which they called Gunston Hall, in memory of the English Guns ton. These people were grandparents of George Mason, the fourth, or George Mason, one of the republic’s founders. ! In 1750 this man married Anne Eilbeck l of Mattawoman, Maryland, and soon after his marriage began the erection of Gunston Hall, Virginia, which he named after his grandparents’ place in Maryland and the ancestral home of the Fowkes in Staffordshire. Mason was one of the vestrymen of Pohick Church, four miles from Guns ton. Washington and William Fairfax were also vestrymen there. UNCLE JOE CANNON’S AD VICE. Never Keep Back Anything, But Al ways Tell the Whole Truth. Speaker Cannon, whom everybody l calls “Uncle Joe,” told the following story one day when he wished to em phasize the necessity for telling the whole truth, and farther how a man may be deceived by half-truth: A man rented a house, but after look ing at it went back to the real estate agent with a complaint. “You profess to have told me the truth,” he stormed, “but you haven’t told me the whole truth. There’s that lawn, for instance!” “Really, sir," protested the agent, "I distinctly remember describing the lawn, and a very nice lawn it is.” “Oh, yes," went on the kicker. "You told me there was a lawn, but you didn’t tell me that the nearest owner of a lawn-mower lived two miles away! Where am I to borrow a lawn-mower, sir? Answer me that!” Live Slock Matters. "Oh,” said the fair summer boarder, as a couple of calves gamboled across the meadow, “what pretty little cow lets.” “Yew air mistaken, ma’am” said the old farmer. “Them’s bullets.” MT..VERNON, GEORGIA, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1905. A NEW CABINET OFFICE. LIKELIHOOD OF CUE A TION OF DE BAR TMEN T OF INSULAR AFFAIRS. Field Covered by Secretary of War Considered Too Wioe President May Suggest Change to Congress. Since the war with Spain, the enov mous growth of the business of the War Department lias given rise to an oft expressed opinion in high govern ment circles that the time is fully ripe for the creation of another executive department to handle the control of tlie island affairs of the government. It is predicted that the President will make some such suggestion in his forthcoming message to Congress. Following the Spanish War, the War Department naturally took control of the island possessions that came to the i United States as a result of that cou > fliet. These islands, Culm, Porto ltieo and the Phillippiues, fell to the care of ’ the War Department as long as they were under military rule, but when civil government took the place of ; martial law they were still left with 1 the War Department. Kept From State Department. It would seem natural for them to belong to the Department of State, but they have been purposely kept from the province of that department in or der that foreign powers 'might not have a chance to say anything about them. The bureau of insular affairs was created to attend to questions affecting our island possessions, but this bureau lias been under the imme diate control of the Secretary of War, and out of reach of foreign represent atives. With the turning of Cuba over to the Cubans and the passing of Porto ltieo to tlk* State Department and Guam and Tutuillu to the Navy De partment, matters became even more involved. Burden Too Great. Almost of greater importance, at present, than the Philippines, is the canal zone. Secretary Taft tried to shunt this burden to the shoulders of Secretary Root, but failed in his at tempt. He is now preparing to make a visit to the isthmus to see how the work on the big diteli is progressing. Mr. Root declared that the bureau of insular affairs was better equipped to handle canal affairs than any oilier department of the government. However, when Secretary Taft left for the Phillippiues and it was understood that Mr. Root would be come Secretary of State, it was said to be Secretary Taft’s wish that the car.al matter be transferred to Mr. Root and there has been much speculation during the summer and fall us to wtio 1 would eventually oversee this big job. , On one hand it lias been realized that Secretary Taft has had a great deal more than his proportionate share of government work and responsibility, and again it was understood that one of the arguments used by the President to induce Mr. Root to re-enter the Cab inet was the President’s personal de sire that he should undertake the di rection of the can work. His accept ance of the trust would have enabled Secretary Taft to devote more of his time to important Philippine govern rnent questions and the business of the army generally. It seems to have been decided, however, that Mr. Taft is to continue permanently as the Panama canal builder, this decision having been reached at a recent Cabinet meeting. These questions, together with ques tions relating to tin* general staff, the reorganizaion of the army, and other internal affairs, have made the Secre tary by far the hardest worked man in the Cabinet. Taft Travels Far. This is proved, if in no other way, by the immense amount of traveling done by Secretary Taft in the past yeat lie has been to Panama, to the Philip- H T" : *: '' i f It / V, - - % 1 ■j I COL. CLARENCE R. EDWARDS, Chief of Rnreau of Insular Affairs and Pos sible New Cabinet Officer. pines, to Hawaii, to China and Japan, He has just left Washington for his second trip to the Isthmus. Through his connection with tne affairs of the Philippines, he lias become involved in questions wholly outside the regular line of tlie War Department. These are some of the reasons which lead the President and his advisers to consider the creation of another de partment to take complete control of Island and colonial affairs. Whether Congress will consent to this at the corning session, or will move postpone ment, cannot be foretold, but the chances are that, within a reasonable time, the War Department will tie re lieved of some of its heavy burdens. There Is no pic or pudding, father. But I will give you this; And upon the. blacksmith’s toil-worn brow, She printed a childish kiss. ROOSEVELT IN DIXIE. President Speaks to the Followers of Lee. President Roosevelt's recent tour through the South was one continuous ovatiou from the people of Dixie, lu fact his visit has boon heralded as be ing as triumphant as the return of any Roman emperor. Dixie was cap ured by the Rough Rider President. At Richmoud, .the old Confederate Capital, the greeting extended to hint was unusually cordial. After much parading ami speech-making, the Pres ident was taken for a drive through the residence section. In tho center of this section is tho great equestrian , statue of General Robert E. l.ee. At this poiut occurred a scene of the Pres ident's visit which will probably be remembered when all others have , faded into oblivion. Surrounding tlie Loo monument is an iron fence, inclosing a circle of ■ lawn. Tho crowd was thickly grouped around this circle. lusidc, standing upou the base of the monument and wandering about upon the lawn wore ! seventy-live broken, tottering old men. clad in gray and carry’ g small Con ederate flags. Many hobbled upon crutches, and nearly all leaned upon i canes. Here and there an arm or a leg was iii'issting. The voices of -the old i men were low, and they paid no hoed to the crowd around them. They were waiting for ihe President of the United States, lie was io drive past i tlie monument. From time to time a ; little, old man climbed upou a pedi ment and stood, like Ihe very inear nation of the Lost Pause, shading his , eyes and gazing toward tho coming of the great, the powerful, tlie world renowned successor of Lincoln and ' Grant. It was such n sight as Mils which greeted tin* President when his car riage dashed up to tlie monument. Before the old men realized it. the President was facing (liein and shout ing. “Gome closer.” Witli confused ex clamations tin* old men hobbled for ward, with small pretense of march ing. They had til most forgotten the STATUE OF GENERAL LEE AT RICHMOND. Group of Confederate Veterans Waiting to Boe the President, old marching orders In tliclr confusion. | They simply huddled forward to the j fence. The line was not reformed. | Then the President spoke to the South, : ignoring the crowd behind hirn. He spoke only to the wearers of the gray, lie spoke as the President of a re united country. Ills voice seemed as the voice of a nation speaking to the followers of Lee. The veterans devoured every vigor-! ous syllable of the President’s address. They returned his earnest gaze with 1 looks of unmistakable good will and loving friendship. Somewhat abruptly ' the President stopped, waved his hat, It was to them like the halm of Gilead, and shouted, “Good-by, and good luck.” “Oood-hy, good-Wy,” they shouted, and a moment later President ICoose velt was out of sight Expert Na vnl Testimony. When Dick Thompson, of Indiana, was called to the Cabinet as Secretary of the Navy It Is said that he had never even been on a large vessel. One of his earliest visits was made to an Informal Inspection on a large man of-war, lying at the Navy Yard. He climbed up on the deck, was escorted around the vessel, admired and com pllmentel the beauty and cleanliness of It all and finally peered down the hold He looked back at the officer, look off bis glasses, wiped them, looked down again and then finally turned to the commander and exclaimed, "Why the things hollow!" THE STRENGTH OF JAPAN. GARDEN FARMS THE FOUNDA TION OF NIPPON'S POWER. 30,000,000 People Sustained in Com fort on Only 19,000 Square Miles of Cultivated Land. I From “Chicago,” Tlie 11 nat Central Market July, ISUu). “A hundred years hence, leaving China out of tho question, there will be two colossal powers In the world, beside which Germany, England, France, and Italy will be as pygmies— the United States and Russia.” If any one hud told Emile de La veleye, when ho made this prophecy, some years ago, that within a few years the power of Russia on the sea would lie annihilated, and her laud forces defen ted again and again by tho pygmy nation of Japan, would ho have believed it? No, neither lie nor any one else, at that time, would have credited it. The incredible, the unbelievable, has actually happened. There Is no result without a cause. What Is tlie underly ing cause of' this marvelous strength of Japan? It is not in battle ships or siege guns not in torpedo boats or field artillery —not In arms or armor—not in muni tions of war or equipment for bnltles on laud or sea. Russia had all these, and yet she lias suffered crushing, hu miliating, and overwhelming defeat Wliat, then, Is tho secret of Japan's strength? Efficiency of the Unit. It Is In Just ono thing, and that Ib men! It is In the efficiency of the unit. It Is in the physical and mental pow er—in the health, strength, and intelli gence of (lie Japanese people as a whole, and as a consequence, of every Individual soldier and s-ailor. And this physical and nionlnl effi ciency of an entire! people—of (lie en tire citizenship of the JuTiauese nation ! - Is a plain and distinct result of their mode of life. The Japanese people are strong be cause they live as tlie human animal must live to lie mentally and pbysl j cally strong—next to nature. They breathe the fresh air. They eat plain food. They neither starve nor cc:d«. They are mentally and physically active. ’They are an "out of door” people. They understand tho laws of heultb, i and obey them. Their children draw their strength I from the bosom of mother earth. And above and beyond all, they are a nation of homes and home owners. Each family Is In a home and each home is in a garden where health and strength are gained by the labor of cultivating that garden for a living, And in theM, garden homes the peo ple of Japarnlmve far more of real pleasure and happiness and the genu ine enjoyments of life than the aver age wage worker In our country. The White Plague Unknown. We have fallen into a smug and self-complacent and wretchedly super ficial habit of thought which loses sight of the life that a people lead and Jfa BULLDOG SUSPENDERS 00 centa everywhere Will Outwear Three Ordinary Kinds Medain Light end Heavy Weight*, l->t Man and Youth hxtra lengths, m kW with orranfed u< >. •! |.arti, aad m JOd BH •»»»..luiely ui.hrt-aliaMc, %..i t, pllahl" Hull I*,,- I- «» f . n.|«, Hi. v are POSITIVELY THE BL3T SUSPENDER MADE. w KI if v«»ii'l»-«>r cannot eupply you. we will, pOEtpaid, tor .'iOi i-m ■ HEWES A POTT ER- L * r * f * ,t end H.-U Makera o*l*.lK, #7 LINCOLN BT.. BOSTON. MASS ln «"■** dp VaJuM* BwriUrt, "Drau Bupuuicr BtjrUt,” Rceea reqoMlt; PART TWO. measures everything l>y a money wage —a totally false and deceptive stand ard of measurement of the best thing that human life affords. In the United States two hundred and fifty thousand of our people are being annually destroyed by the great white plague, tuberculosis. In Japan the disease is practically 1 unknown. Why? Because the Japanese breathe fresh air. What ■would the Japanese think if they were told that their people could not' have fresh air because they did not have more money? Or could not have exercise because they could not afford to belong to athletic clubs? Or must go without food because they lacked money to buy it at a butcher or a grocery store, when every Japanese gardener has the land from which lie knows how with his own labor to get all the food he needs > for the abundant nourishment for himself and family. The Garden Farm. Os the 415,000,000 population of Japan 30,000.000 are farmers, or more i correctly speaking, gardeners. The ; Japanese farm Is a garden, irrigated and fertilized, and scientifically and intensively tilled. And a recent writer, describing the life of the Japanese farmer, say*:—- “Measured in money, he is not rich. But he dwells In a comfortable and In i vltlng home, purged of every taint of dirt and dust. The transparent paper walls of his house, made of bark from Ills mitsumatu shrubs, Hood Ills dwell i log with light and keep out the wind, lie enjoys good food served in dainty, but Inexpensive dishes made of native woods. Even In the homes of the I poorest, there are no visible signs ot poverty. There is no squalor In agri cultural Japan. The humblest peas ant farmer Is clean, industrious and comfortable. The area of fence corners i abandoned on many American farms to wild mustard, fennel, and pig weed, would furnish comfortable living to a whole family in rural Japan. Some idea of the trifling cost of living in agricultural Japan was given hy an American who has spent lifted years in the Empire. Frequently lit takes a vacation In the farming re gions. IJe lias good food, sleeps on clean and comforluhlei|ullts in impec cable houses Is carried about hi coun try carts,and at the 1 end of two weeks finds that his total expenses have not exceeded ten yen, or five dollars.” And from the garden farms —the Home Acres—of agricultural Japan have come the soldiers who have faced death to drive the Husslans from Man churia and leaped Into eternity In or der that they might wipe the menace of the Russian Navy from the seas thut wasli the shores of their Home Luiul. A Nation of Home Acres. It ts an old saying that a mnn will not fight for a boarding house, but the Japanese have proved that they will fight, like demons to defend the insti tutions of a nation of Home Acres. We instinctively think of the victo ries of Japan as the victories of her leaders. We are naturally hero-worshippers. But there, again, we are superficial. Our military men were loud in their praises of the masterly way in which Kuropntklii played the game of war. And Hojestvensky must have the credit due him for sailing Ids fleet four thousand miles and planning so clH clenfly to provide it with coal and pro visions. But Oyamn and Togo had the men, and every Japanese soldier and sailor Is not only a hero but a leader. If every officer In the Japanese army and navy above the rank of Captain were stricken dead tomorrow, their places would be filled and Japan would con tinue to prosecute the war to final vic tory. The secret of her power lies In the fact that In Intelligence, In mental and physical strength, in Individual Initiative In patriotism, In all that goes to make up a fighting unit, every Japanese soldier and sailor is an Oymn or a Togo In embryo. You might destroy every ship that Japan possesses, destroy all her arms and munitions of war, take away even the clothes on their backs .arid trans port every soldier In her army and every sailor in her navy back to the shores of Japan as naked as the day he wen* born, and leave the nation to Its own devices, and In a few years they would completely reproduce their naval and military power and ho stronger than ever. But destroy the men of Japan and substitute for them the dull-witted peasantry of Bussla or the enaemlc factory operatives of Englund, and you have destroyed Japan. Men Before Battleships. True to his warlike impulses and In* stlncts, President Roosevelt catches up the echo from the great naval battle which has Just been fought, and calls on the country for more battle ships. Rojestvensky had battle ships. He had more of them than Togo. But be didn’t have the men. And lie couldn’t get them. Russian institutions could not produce them. Now, would It not be wise for the people of this country to wake up to the fact that the foundation of our strength as a nation Is not In an army or a navy, but In our citizenship. And also wake up to the appalling fact, powerfully portrayed by Robert Hunter In “Poverty,” his recent book, that we are deliberately following in the footsteps of England and degener ating our citizenship by crowding our working people into cities where they live In an unhealthful environ ment and are weakened by poor food and inadequate nourishment. The lesson to lie learned by this na-
