STORY OF ARLINGTON

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 34, 8 August 1925, Page 16

STORY OF ARLINGTON

AMERICA'B GREAT BURIAL

GROUND.

"God's Acre," that beautiful garden of sleep on the outskirts of Washington, known as Arlington, where many famous Americans are taking their long rest, is more like a beautiful home park than a burial ground. Only the innumerable small stones, upstanding slabs to mark the resVing-places of the dead, denote the grim use to which the ground' has been put. Writing in a recent issue of. the Sydney "Daily Telegraph," Mary Joy, who visited Arlington in ■ May of this year while attending the International Qouncil of women, says that "Arlington is a lovely estate —an historic home. The records tell us that in October, 1669, William Berkeley, Governor of Virginia, granted 6000 acres to Robert Howsen, in consideration of the said Howsen having transported a number of settlors into the colony. In the same year Howsen conveyed these lands to John Alexander — the consideration being six hogsheads ox tobacco. Later on, in 1778, Gerald Alexander conveyed the Arlington tract, about 1000 acres, to John Custis for. 1000 pounds in Virginian currency. This John Custis was a son of Martha Washington by her first marriage. So that John was step-brother to the great George Washington, and 'he was A.D.C. to Washington during the revolution. Poor John died of camp fever, and'the great George Washington adopted his two children. The son, George Washington P. Custis, lived at Arlington, and died there in 1857.

"The great American soldier, Robert E. Lee, married Mary Ann Custis, and their Bon, George Washington Custis Lee, inherited Arlington. Lieutenant-Colonel Robert E.- Lee, United States army, is a great, name in America, and this lovely home reminds one of many an old colonial home in Australia. So many ola homes in America are Georgian in style; no doubt they were built about the same time as many an Australian home. The great stone verandah and Grecian pillars, the large reception rooms and small window?; the lovely woodwork, and the park lands around—such a home as this was Arlington, now used as a museum, and kept much as it was in the days of Robert E. Lee.'

"As I walked about the lofty rooms, and made my way up the old staircase, I seemed to be followed by ghosts ot other days. I looked out of the. windows at surely the loveliest view in that lovely country, where the Potomac River meanders—was ever a garden of sleep so unlike a cemetery? No dead are resting in more lovely surroundings! The lawns, the flowers, the giant trees, suggest rest; no wonder that William Jennings Bryan desired to lie there—where surely sweet souls may rest in peace." ; Congress bought this property in March, 1882, from George Washington Custis Lee for 150,000 dollars.