GEORGE WASHINGTON.

Auckland Star, Volume 23, Issue 23, 28 January 1926, Page 7

GEORGE WASHINGTON.

HIS LITTLE CHERRY TREE. THE STORY OF A LIE ! A GIDDY OLD FELLOW. WASHINGTON, January 20. Because a famous novelist has used the axe on George Washington's cherry tree, Americans are seriously alarmed. They fear that a profane hand has deprived them of their wooden idol. Rupert Hughes, author, playwright, and novelist, is responsible for the sensation. He asserts that the school book accounts of George Washington are quite wrong. He was not nearly as white as he was whitewashed. On the other hand. George was an infinitely more pleasant companion than the sainted figure in elementary history books. According to Rupert Hughes, Washington had varied accomplishments, but they could scarcely be held up for emulation by the nation's youth. George was a very great card player, and had wide fame as a distiller of good whisky, which he used liberally for the purposes of entertainment. He had a wide vocabulary, and could curse better than anyone else in the country. During the whole of his life he never once uttered a prayer. Replying to a storm of protest raised by these statements, Rupert Hughes said: "The father of our country was a gay old 'cutup,' and if living to-day-would probably be an excellent dancer of the cnariesLon. - Every American has learned to regard George Washington as an Ideal his neighbour should live up to. There is only one George, one cherrytree, ond one axe. A fierce fight is being waged to stop Rupert Hughes from using another axe. Rupert Hughes, a graduate of Yale, was once on the stall' of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. He is well known all over the world as a novelist and a playwright. Latterly he has written and directed many motion pictures.