The opportunity is tempting, because of the ease with which fun can be made when that fundamental source of humor, a violent contrast, can be employed.

But there is no irreverence in it all, for the jest is not aimed at the real Washington, but at the Washington portrayed in the Weems biography.

The worthy "rector of Mount Vernon," as he called himself, meant no harm, and there is a good deal of truth, no doubt, in his book.

But the blameless and priggish boy, and the equally faultless and uninteresting man, whom he originated, have become in the process of development a myth.

So in its further development is the Washington of the humorist a myth.
Both alike are utterly and crudely false.