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A Virginia Gentleman With Yankee Qualities

Lawrence's son Augustine, the Augustine of our history, resembled, as can be seen, the pioneer John.

Until Augustine came into the possession of the Washington estates the family had been planters exclusively, but it was his decision that there were other and more profitable undertakings even though they might conceivably lack the cachet that would recommend them in the eyes of his neighbors and friends, Virginia gentlemen and planters all. Therefore, when with a thrift and ingenuity most Yankee-like he set about to found a fortune on iron-mining and real estate and successful venture over-seas, his contemporaries may have acknowledged themselves a little startled and perhaps a trifle shocked. And then, too, he had flouted caste somewhat in marrying Mary Ball, who it seems did not make one of the Four Hundred of Virginian society; but Augustine, whose appreciation of merit far exceeded his reverence for convention, had characteristically ignored the fact. Characteristic, too, was his refusal to be the master of a falling fortune as had become so many of his contemporaries who, feeling it below them personally to manage their plantations, were consistently mulcted by unscrupulous overseers. Noblesse oblige, it would appear, militated against their prosperity.

But noblesse oblige did not so in the case of Augustine Washington, and when neighbors were upon the downward slope of success he, by dint of shrewd management, buying and selling, and the skilful promotion of various ventures, had laid the firm foundation of a fortune.

A MAN OF AFFAIRS

ledgers of the company known to exist bear the date 1723, but they refer back to earlier ones and it is probable that iron mining was being carried on here as early as that inaugurated by Governor Spotswood in Virginia, where later the Principio opened the Accokeek mine on Augustine's land.

This mine was being directed by one John England, a practical iron master sent over from the old country to superintend the work; and, although precisely what was Augustine's connection with the company is unknown, we gather from a certain letter written by England to the managers of the mine at home that it was a position of some importance.

As to y deviding ye shares of ye new founded works in Virginia, have advised with a Counselor about it who tells me

y' except some persons here is appointed y lawful aturney, by a power of atturney from you to signe for you here, y' if your deed or deeds come over for you to signe in England and either of you should dy before, or alter your minds yt you dont sign, than it setts Washington at liberty and all y* work, is at an end. If you see fitt to make Capt Washington a small present of wine (along ye

Virginia Cargo) and to signifie to him y' I have done with him on ye behalfe you like and approve on, or to that effect, y' I leave to your Consideration either to do it or not.

Did Augustine hold any stock in the Principio? It is hard to tell, but it is certain that his two sons, Augustine and Lawrence, the half-brothers of George, were "undertakers" (stockholders), and that the mine was profitable may be told by the fact that the iron mines of the colonies were producing one fifth as much ore as those in England-the Accokeek was itself producing one half of the whole

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In 1718, three years after his return from Oxford, the first cargo of three and one half tons of pig-iron was exported from Chesapeake Bay to England. The Principio Company-the first, as its name suggests, to mine iron ore in Maryland-had opened its first operations on Cecil Creek, Cecil County, Maryland; the earliest

England and the colonies.

Perhaps one of the most important effects of this enlarging of Captain Washington's interests was the closer connection they created between him and the old country. In connection with fortunes on the high seas he made, there can be little doubt, more than one voyage to

England, where he renewed the relations of his youth and acquaintances of his days at Oxford, whither in good time he sent his sons, Lawrence and Augustine

Thus the childhood of George was spent in an atmosphere of energetic achievement and successful promotion of constantly widening interests. That the qualities the boy possessed were developed and inspired by those in the father who had passed them on to him there can be little doubt, and that these early impressions stood him in good stead in later years when his administrative and executive ability was tested to the utmost, we can also believe.

THE WASHINGTON PRIDE OF ACHIEVEMENT

UGUSTINE WASHINGTON died

AUGU

in 1743, when still a young man filled with ideas to be carried out and successes to be achieved. Since he had inherited his share of his father's estates in 1697 he had, through purchase or further inheritance from relatives, through various enterprises and business activities, added tremendously to the family fortunes. He had enriched the Hunting Creek (Mt. Vernon) plantation with slaves and stock and had added to his prosperous Westmoreland properties. He had purchased lands from the Strother heirs and had notably developed the mines on the land near Fredericksburg in Stafford County, where also he had made purchases from one James Hooe. On Maddox Creek he had acquired property and in Prince William County he had bought lands from a Gabriel Adams. It is difficult to estimate his wealth in lands, slaves, houses, crops, ships, tools, stock, and mines, but it was considerable though he had ten children he was able to bequeath to several of them valuable property and to leave his other children and his widow comfortably provided for.

Now here is the point to be hammered home in connection with the father of George Washington, and indeed with all these Washingtons of Westmoreland. Their success in accumulating properties and the increase that their many, for their day and background, unorthodox ventures displayed were due entirely to their own abilities and the energy and skill of their direction. While there were many ways of accumulating estates, either through favoritism and sharp dealing or by abuse of the "headrights" system, by which men could obtain lands in proportion as they induced and assisted families to migrate to the New World, the acres over which George Washington, asserted by some to be "the largest landholder in the United States," could look were acquired in a genuinely American fashion, by hard and unceasing labor.

The pride of the Washingtons was the pride, not of lineage or of past glory, but the pride of achievement, a thing not of the past alone but also of the present and the future and in itself inherently typical of the big men of American life. The young Washington suffered just criticism for the aloofness and coldness engendered in his bearing by this trait. In his full maturity and age it lent a dignity to his bearing thoroughly consonant with his high idealism and in both times it in no wise partook of an unjustifiable arrogance. It was simply an American's honest pride in the self-accomplished result of the sustained and skilful endeavor of himself and his fathers.

And it was primarily to Augustine Washington, landowner, developer of mines, captain of ships, and student of the University of Oxford, that the pride of his great son was due. A gentleman of Virginia and American business manirresistible combination for success.

Prohibition As It Is

II. THE
THE MIDDLE WEST AND THE FARM BELT

The Investigator of the WORLD'S WORK Visits Rebellious Chicago, Also an Iowa Town, Dry and Otherwise, and the Drugstores of Kansas City. The Prevalence of "White Mule" in Kansas BY ROLLIN LYNDE HARTT

ETRIBUTION, manifested by unwashed windows, an unlighted sign, an unlighted unlighted interior, and chairs piled on tables, had overtaken the once gay restaurant to which I went at dinner time on reaching Chicago. They have a dry mayor there. He has closed literally thousands of "soft-drink parlors," and here was additional evidence of his severity.

Nevertheless, waiters in a restaurant a block farther on were serving cocktails in cocktail glasses, whisky in whisky glasses, cordials in cordial glasses. Cups for wine provided the sole recognition of the law. Though a stranger and without introduction, I received a hearty wel

come.

At the table next to mine a personage in horn-rimmed spectacles and with unusually long hair was hailed by man after man as "Judge." At first I thought it must be one of those imaginary titles formerly common in the Middle West, but presently I heard him remark, "And he said to me right in my own court, 'Your honor."" Also, one of the personage's friends asked, "How goes it, Judge? Jury cases?" and the personage assented.

His honor had a cocktail, then several cups of wine, and I confess that I was shocked, New Yorker though I am. In a certain New Jersey town, a judge is the leading bootlegger; in New York, a bootlegger complains that he is forced to give away large quantities of Scotch to judges, and I had seen a Boston judge merry over his wine in a New York restaurant where

he was not known; but this open, shameless defiance of law by the Chicago judge surpassed anything I had beheld.

After he had gone out I got his name from a tipsy politician, who went on to say, "I was a teetotaller for twenty years, but when prohibition came I took to drinking again. Ask my wife here; she'll tell you." And she did.

ON

POLICEMEN AT CABARETS

NE night I was shown an elaborate bar only a few steps from Mayor Dever's office, and saw whisky sold at seventy-five cents a "shot" while a policeman looked on. Then I was shown two cabarets, no great distance away, where throngs of Chicagoans were drinking. In one of the cabarets, a tall, handsome fellow was repeatedly saluted as "Sergeant." I took him for an Army officer. All Army officers, as well as all Naval officers, all lawyers, all civil servants, and all naturalized citizens, have solemnly sworn to support the Constitution, which now includes an Eighteenth Amendment. But it turned out that the tall, handsome fellow was not an Army sergeant. Instead, he was a police sergeant.

My guide suggested a visit to a still larger cabaret far out. There, so he assured me, a thousand people would be seen drinking. However, no liquor is sold on the premises. Guests bring flasks or dispatch waiters to neighboring establishments. So I countered the suggestion by asking him to show me a thoroughly notorious cabaret of which I had heard.

He refused-said the place was too tough altogether and he hated to risk going there. He is a police reporter.

Johnny Weber, low comedian and total abstainer, whom I met in Detroit, had advised me to visit Englewood-rather wet, he called it. In fact, he seemed to think Englewood the one wet spot in Chicago. It is certainly wet. Open saloons sell highly alcoholic beer to any stranger. In several of these saloons I found policemen.

From Englewood I tramped down Halsted Street all the way to West Madison Street-five

miles of prohibition. I counted thirty-one saloons, noticed whisky glasses in six shopwindows, and studied the displays of home-brewing apparatus and materials in eight different establishments. There were wine presses for rent at a dollar a day. There were innumerable

I picked up a copy of La Tribuna Italiana. It contained three enormous advertisements of materials for making wine. The boldest announced "The product which you will obtain will be superior in taste, color, and strength." Near Hull House, a placard advertised "wine barrels; white oak likker keg." In the Jewish quarter a sign read, "Distributors of Sacramental Wine," announcing what was presumably a lawful enterprise, for Chicago had been having a "wine cleanup" in an effort to abolish "fake congregations" and "fake rabbis with fake

"You can't legislate morals into people" is the way the Mayor of Buffalo, formerly a brewer, sums up prohibition. In Buffalo Mr. Hartt found many saloons, but they were kept orderly by a special liquor squad. But Detroit he thought to be a dry town, until one morning at breakfast a waitress said to him: “Oh, wasn't I pickled last night!"

Mr. Hartt's first article, telling of his first week's travel and observations on how far the Volstead Act is affecting this country, appeared in the January issue of the World's Work.

bottle-capping machines. There were kegs, crocks, jugs, and funnels of all sizes. Among the brands of malt-extract displayed, I noted Bosch, High Test Pure Barley, Light Bavarsko, Buckeye, Radio, Puri-Tan, Good Health, Belgian, Wennerstend's, Berg's, Blatz, Bohemian, Unity, Rasmint, Prima, La Swiss, Sieben's," Budweiser" Barley, Kauno, Bohemian de Luxe, High Power, and Quality. Placards proclaimed the merits of the various. brands: "Success assured-no boiling, no odor, no mess"; "Made in five minutes$1 a can"; "Makes the finest beverage.' As a bartender informed me, beer thus manufactured at home cost a cent and a half a bottle.

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One of the shops advertised "old style flavoring extracts in true resemblance to the original." Another advertised syrups-"Cognac, rum, crème de menthe, Rock and Rye, and champagne."

In the Italian section of Halsted Street

whiskers." When the clean-up began there were 275 fake congregations in the city.

At Hull House, Miss Binford said: "Though of course we have not got prohibition, this neighborhood has greatly improved. There are vastly fewer saloons. There is less drinking, especially Elsewhere I was given

among women." a reprint of Judge Gemmell's famous account of prohibition in Chicago, and read:

Fifteen years ago the Bridewell, our city prison, seldom had less than 1,800 prisoners, and very often was crowded with 2,200; now

the number of inmates in that institution ranges from 650 to 1,200. Then it took all the time of two judges, sitting at Harrison Street, our central court, to dispose of the criminal business there. They often tried as many as 400 cases in a single morning. Now only one judge sits there and he seldom has over 125 and often less than 50 cases per day. Then Monday was the worst day of the week, for we had the drunks brought in during Saturday afternoon and Sunday. Now the number

of drunks arraigned in that court will not

average over 50 per day and Monday is our shortest day. Since the Eighteenth Amendment, we have abolished two courts for want of business, one at Hyde Park, where we formerly had from 100 to 150 cases per day, and one at Thirty-fifth and Halsted Streets, where

430

The Anti-Saloon League's Viewpoint

we had a like number. In the last three years the number of prisoners brought to these courts has been reduced from 10 to 20 per day each. The judges, therefore, abandoned

these courts and had what little business there remained transferred to other courts.

Written two years ago, this article of Judge Gemmell's is still circulated by the Anti-Saloon League, though during my stay in Chicago there was a great furor over the increase in crime-"a murder a day, one hanging a year"-and the Crime Commission is said to have a card index of 200,000 known criminals.

On the other hand, Mr. S. M. Singleton, an attorney actively interested in law enforcement, declares, "The improvement in crime conditions which has been effected through Mayor Dever's effort to enforce the prohibition law is convincing the public that it is a good thing for the city and that it can be enforced."

Faced by such contradictory statements, Chicagoans judge principally by what they see. At the Methodist headquarters, in a sky-scraper surmounted by a cathedral spire, Bishop Hughes said, "Don't tell me prohibition doesn't prohibit. I've been here fifteen days and I haven't seen a drunken man yet."

At the office of the Anti-Saloon League, Mr. F. B. Ebbert, state superintendent, paid a warm tribute to Mayor Dever and said, "In forty different restaurants I have tried to buy a drink. I don't know what I should do with one if it came. I

go everywhere and I never see liquor sold." Recalling certain observations of my own the night before, I was about to ask him if he had not sometimes wondered what an innocent-looking coffee cup might contain, or if he remembered the famous epigram, "In vino demi-tasse,' when Mr. Ebbert went on, "Right here in the Loop, before prohibition, there used to be 100,000 people drinking every day. Now there aren't 10,000 who take a drink every day." This may be true, but who knows?

Repeatedly Chicagoans said, "Walk through the 'flop-house' region of West

Madison Street, where the down-andouters congregate, and see if you can find a drunken man there." It was a safe challenge. I walked all through that region at all hours of the day and night without seeing a drunken man. To be sure, I was told that in a single "flophouse" the janitor sweeps up seventy or eighty empty six-ounce bottles, marked "Denatured Alcohol" and with skull and cross bones, every morning; but on the street I beheld no evidence that this could be so. In another part of the city a policewoman said, "It's awful-worse than in the old days-more women," yet even there I saw no drunkenness on the street.

I

INSANITY AND ALCOHOL

CALLED upon Miss Helen L. Hood at the headquarters of the Chicago W. C. T. U. She was interested just then in the alleged increase of insanity under prohibition, and handed me a letter on the subject by Dr. W. A. Stoker, managing officer of the Kankakee State Hospital, largest insane asylum in Illinois. This is what I read:

In regard to the seeming increase in insanity, I will say there has been an increase in the number of people committed to the state institutions during the last three years, but I could hardly say that it was on account of prohibition. The big increase has been in alcoholics who are being sent to state institutions at present, while before prohibition they were sent to the Bridewell in Chicago or the Washingtonian Home or the different institutions for the cure of the drink habit, most of

which closed shortly after prohibition went into effect, as did the Washingtonian Home in Chicago and the hospital at the Bridewell. The majority of alcoholics, in my opinion, should not be sent to insane asylums, as a majority are sobered up by the time they reach us and the few who are still hallucinated soon clear up, and, as I said before, I do not believe that they are properly sent or should be classified as insane. They should be sent to the workhouse or the jail.

Or why not to Dwight, Illinois? That very day the great Keeley Institute at Dwight had a display advertisement in the Chicago Tribune.

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