MD3PAD 274-276

[Toby G Levy]

        Mr. Tallihoe says that George Washington does not wish to see
him, so he will let Mason and Dixon make the somewhat perilous journey
by themselves. The Coach goes non stop all day.  The driver passes
sandwiches through a hatch down to Mason and Dixon, and they have ale
from a keg on tap.  They urinate into glass jars.  The driver drops them
off on the banks of the Potomac, and they climb up Mount Vernon.

        Chapter 28 begins on page 275 with a couple of paragraphs from
the Spiritual Day-Book of Rev'd Wicks Cherrycoke. He ruminates on the
decadence of the Virginia slave holders.

        Washington is a tall man, as much taller than Dixon than Dixon
is taller than Mason. At the time they meet, he is only Colonel
Washington. Mason and Dixon are pleased to find that he is not the
incompetent fool portrayed in the British press.

        Washington mentions the family he has over in Dixon's part of
England, and Dixon detects a slight Geordie accent to Washington's
speech. Washington is reluctant to smile because of his false teeth.

        Washington says he doesn't know what kind of accent he has, but
in Philadelphia they say he talks like an African, due to his proximity
to the slaves.  He invites them to have punch made by "my Man Gershom."

        (Brad Carroll, Dept. Physics, Weber State University, suggests
that Pynchon gets the name Gershom from the French Jewish mathematician,
philosopher, astronomer, and Talmudic scholar Levi ben Gershom
1288-1344).

        Washington tells them of various real estate opportunities
opening up. He suggests that they purchase some land while they are in
America.  He says the French are out of Ohio and "the scoundrel Pontiac
is vanquish'd."

Toby