The Project Gutenberg eBook, Washington's Birthday, by Various, Edited by Robert Haven Schauffler

Title: Washington's Birthday

Author: Various

Release Date: February 22, 2005 [eBook #15140]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY***

E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Charlene Taylor,
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
(http://www.pgdp.net)
in commemoration of Washington's Birthday, February 22, 2005

Our American Holidays

WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY

ITS HISTORY, OBSERVANCE, SPIRIT, AND
SIGNIFICANCE AS RELATED IN PROSE
AND VERSE, WITH A SELECTION FROM
WASHINGTON'S SPEECHES AND WRITINGS

EDITED BY

ROBERT HAVEN SCHAUFFLER

NEW YORK
DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY
1926

PRINTED IN U.S.A.

PREFACE

The popular idea of Washington has recently begun to veer away from the vision of an eighteenth century demigod in a wig,—an old-fashioned statue in dusky bronze, stern and forbidding. We are swinging around toward the idea of a loveable, fallible, very human personality with humor, a hot temper, and a genuine love of pleasure.

Accordingly, in gathering material for this book the editor has passed by those earlier writers who are mainly responsible for this distorted view; and he has aimed to gather here the essays, orations poems, stories, and exercises which best exhibit the modern conception of Washington; together with a selection from his own writings and the finest of the elder tributes to the memory of our greatest National Hero.

NOTE

The Editor and Publishers wish to acknowledge their indebtedness to
Houghton, Mifflin & Company; Doubleday, Page & Company; J.B. Lippincott
& Co.; Mr. David McKay, John Macy, and others who have very kindly
granted permission to reprint selections from works bearing their copyright.

CONTENTS