A WORD PICTURE OF GEORGE WASHINGTON.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2650, 6 July 1889, Page 6 (Supplement)

A WORD PICTURE OF GEORGE WASHINGTON.

Tiikiik has been a great aflluence of portraits of George Washington lately in connection with the centenary of the first President's inauguration and the publication of the Sharpies papers, and the reflection cannot be escaped that if so many unfamiliar portraits insist upon coming out and being authenticated one by one, as accurate likenesses of the Father of his Country, the people will presently be all at sea as to how he really looked. The Stuart portrait has so long been acceptcd as the Washington that when other portraits, showing an almost totally different man, turn up, we simply look at them with astonishment, and say to ourselves, " Can this be Washington!" In view of this confusion, no apology is needed for copying a remarkable realistic account of Washington, which was written by David Ackerson, of Alexandria, V.A., in IS 11, in answer to an inquiry from his sou. Ackerson commanded a company in the Revolutionary War, and had many opportunities of observing the Commander-in-Chief. The letter from which the account is taken is in the possession of Dr Joseph M. Toner, of Washington, D.C'., who is engaged in editing Washington's diaries, and a correspondent of the New York Tribune has got hold of it. It describes Washington as he looked three, days before the crossing of the Delaware, and again pictures him in the closing years of his life." Washington had a large, thick nose, and it was very red that day, giving me the impression that he was not so moderate in the use of liquors as he wa« supposed to be. I found afterwards that this was a peculiarity. His nose was apt to turn scarlet in a cold wind. He was standing near a small camp-fire, evidently lost in thought and making no effort to keep warm. He seemed six feet and a-half in height, was as erect as an Indian, and did not for a moment relax from a military attitude. Washington's exact height was (ift 'Jin in his boots. He was then a little lame from striking his knee against a tree. His eye was so grey that it looked almost white, and he had a troubled look on his colourless face. He had a piece of woollen tied round his throat and was quite hoarse. Perhaps the throat trouble from which he finally died had its origin about then. Washington's boots were enormous. They were No. 13. His ordinary walking boots were No. 11. His hands were large in proportion, and he could not buy a jflove to fit him and had to have his gloves made to order. His mouth was his strong feature, his lips being always tightly compresed. That day they were compressed so tigfitly as to be painful to look at. At that time he weighed 200 pounds and there was 110 surplus flesh about him. He was tremendously muscled and the fame of his great strength was everywhere. His large tent, when wrapped up with poles, was so heavy that it required two men to place it in the camp waggon. Washington would lift it with one hand and throw it into the waggon as easily as if it were a saddle cloth. He could hold a musket with one hand and shoot with precision as easily as other men did with a horse pistol. His lungs were his weak point and his voice was never strong. He was at that time in the prime of life. His hair was a chestnut brown, his cheeks were prominent, and his head was not large in comparison with his body, which seemed large and bony at all points. His finger joints and wrists were so large as to be genuine curiosities. As to his habits at that period, I found out much that might be interesting. Ho was an enormous eater, but was content with bread and meat, if he had plenty of it. But hunger seemed to put him in a rage. It was his custom to take a drink of rum or whisky on awakening in the morning. Of course all this was changed when he grew old. I saw him at Alexandria a year before he died. His hair was very urey aud his form was slightly bent. His chest was very thin. He had false teeth which did not fit, and pushed his under lip outward.