“Every man I ever knew had ambition but only a few had application with it.”

THE BUCKSKIN”–that is the name George Washington bore in Europe during the eight years of the Revolutionary War when he was forging a nation out of the iron of America. Even Napoleon, in the height of his glory, sighed with envy and admiration as he exclaimed: “Washington! The measure of his fame is full. Posterity will talk of him with reverence as the founder of a great empire, when my name shall be lost in the vortex of revolutions. ‘’

“The Buckskin” was a country boy born on a Virginia plantation. When he was ten years of age he lost his father and faced the grim fact that his way in the world must be made by his own efforts and merit. From that time he began to show signs of the talent which in later years placed upon the map of the world the United States of America.

At the little country school he organized two opposing armies, he commanding one side, and a boy named William Bustle the other. They fought with corn-stalks for muskets, and gourds for drums.

As ho grew into youth, he delighted in the man?liest sports; could run with the lightness and speed of an Indian; could throw a stone across the Bappahannock at the lower ferry of Fredericksburg; and at fencing he was unmatched.

As the ten year old boy began training his body for the high task to which his Country was calling him, he also began training his mind. From that time forward he was constantly studying, under the instruction of Adjutant Muse, treatises on the management of troops, and learning to go through the manual exercise.

Until Washington was twenty years of age, he never saw a town of 5,000 inhabitants. He worked on his mother’s plantation. Later, as a surveyor, he roamed the wild forests, and there acquired the woodsman’s lore which enabled him to handle his brave but scanty troops during the long years of fighting with the Indians, when he had a frontier of 360 miles to defend, and usually about 700 men with which to defend it.

A famous Indian Chief, captured in a desperate battle, was often heard to say: ‘’ Washington was never born to be killed by a bullet, for I had seventeen fair fires at him with my rifle and I could not bring him down.'’

Washington’s uncommon knowledge of military tactics, his powerful stature, his manly appear?ance, and his common sense attracted the attention of the public, and at the age of twenty, the country boy, “The Buckskin,” was appointed Adjutant-General of the Virginia forces. His salary was $500 per year, a dazzling fortune to the youth who had endured sleeping in the forest snows in order to earn the few dollars paid a surveyor, and who said that the only thing which made the life endur?able was the thought that each day earned another piece of silver. ‘’ He was a thrifty lad, and honestly pleased with honest earnings. He was no mere adventurous wanderer, but a man working for results in money, reputation, or some solid value.'’

When the first thunder of the Revolutionary War thrilled the Colonies, Benjamin Franklin exclaimed: “The sun has set. You must all now light up the candles of industry and economy.” First of all in lighting the candle of economy was General Washington, Commander-in-Chief of the Army, who refused then and ever after to take any pay for his services to his Country. In the course of the eight years of war he spent only about $62,000 of public money–so well had he learned how to economize during the days of his youth.

During the dark days when the American Army was obliged to retreat first over the Hudson River into New Jersey, then over the Delaware River into Pennsylvania, one of Washington’s generals queried: “How long shall we continue this retreat?” “Why, sir,” replied Washington, “if we can do no better, we will retreat over every river in America, and last of all over the moun?tains, until we can find the opportunity to stand and win the victory.”

At the close of the Revolution, the army, inflamed and bitter at the failure of Congress to pay them, and to provide them with food and clothing, determined to overthrow Congress and make their beloved leader, George Washington, King of America. A crown was laid before the man who knew he had made a nation, and could lead that nation as no other could. But he shrank in horror from the proposition. He called together his officers and quelled the rising revolt. His unforgotten words ring like a silver bugle: ‘’ My brave countrymen! You have achieved miracles, but a greater miracle remains yet to be achieved. We have had the glory to conquer our enemies; now for the greater glory to conquer ourselves.”

George Washington wedded a rich heiress of Virginia and became the master of extensive-estates, yet he never relinquished the close attention to expenditures and habits of economy which he had learned in early youth. One writer says of him: “He urged frugality and economy everywhere. He saw himself to the building of a goose-pen, to clearing and threshing his wheat, to caring for a horse with a broken leg; to building a smith’s shop; and he carefully noted how long it took his mill to grind a bushel of corn. He would some?times sit at home and figure all day on the various aspects of his affairs, and he kept all his books himself. * * * As nothing proved too large for him, so no useful duty was too small.”

“Nothing sharpens a man’s wits like poverty, hence many of the greatest men have been poor boys.”

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