Valentine's manual of old New York

(New York. :  Valentine's Manual, inc.,  1923.)

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VALENTINE'S MANUAL
NEW YORK'S WASHINGTON MEMORIALS

By Albert Ulmann

Assuredly New York has not forgotten that Wash¬
ington was one of its citizens and that he figured promi¬
nently in its Colonial history and the early period of
independence. The impressive memorials erected in
widely separated localities of the city are worthy re¬
minders of an interesting variety of incidents connected
with his career.

There is, for instance, a memento of his youth and of
an early romance—the Jumel Mansion. In 1756, when
Washington was twenty-four years old, being then a
Virginia colonel, he set out on a mission to Commander
General Shirley stationed at Boston to determine certain
matters in dispute regarding the precedence of officers of
the regular and the Colonial forces. His route lay
through New York and here, the story goes, he met Mary
Philipse, the sister-in-law of his old friend and school¬
mate, Beverly Robinson. We are disposed to think of
Washington as too reserved, too austere, to indulge in
anything like love-making, but it appears, as stated by
Irving, that he was readily susceptible to female charms.
Mary Philipse, according to report, was unusually fas¬
cinating. Furthermore, "her personal attractions are said
to have rivaled her reputed wealth." Young Colonel
Washington was apparently smitten, but for some reason,
not quite clear, the romance halted and subsequently
Miss Philipse married Captain Roger Morris, Washing¬
ton's fellow aide-de-camp under Braddock.

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