Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1867-07-31
ALEX. Il. STEPHENS.
TersonaI Charac teristics and Reminds
scences-AoyT "a Rain Storm Took Geor-
gIa out of the Union.

personal characteristics and Reminds
scenees-Hoyv Rain Storm Took Geor-
gia out of the Union.
A correspondent of the New York Times,
writes from Crawfordville, Ca, the home
of A. IL. ..Stephens, the following interest
ing personal description of that gentle
man
Il had never seen Stephen before, nor
from his portraits should | have known
him. Imagine to yourself figure slight
and fragile, nearl y six feet high, but with
the students stoop in the shoulders, and
pale, wan, careWorn, Wrinkled face, on
which no sign Of beard appears-that
would be what first strikes the eye. But
this would fail to give the impression Of
the ensemble Of the man. There is in his
whole personnel certain uaea,thlness
that moves one partly with awe and part
ly with pity awe at what seems almost
disembodied spirit and pity when you
see that 1t is humanity after all, and suf-
terlng humanity, too. I have frequently
seen Stephens face described as the face
OF boy, but boy has not face cover
ed with the burrows Of grief 20 me, it
IS rather the face Of woman-~of moth
er who has borne many suferingg, who
has met these suferings with gentle re-
signation, and whose resignation heaven
has rewarded by that inward peace which
illumines the countenance with an
eVanescent light from beyond the tomb
In his physique he has just enough ma
terial to make him subject to the law of
gravitation. There was PAIR of scales on
the balcony | took the fancy to stand on
it and weigh myself. Stephens, with a
little laugh, stepped on after me-how
much do you suppose he weighed ? Nine
y.four pounds avoirdupois
Perhaps there are some other traits
that | might mention. His head, with
out being imposing, is very fine in its
contour, as though modelled by the hand
Of the sculptor, and the brain laid deftly
where it best belongs. II is hair is of a
silky tineness, brown originally and now
growing gray: Finally, he has pair of
marvellous eyes, dark aud liquid, and full
Of intensity and power. He is IS years
Of age.
Stephens life, as you we'll know, has
been one long story of pain and travail
through which the struggling spirit has,
in its workings,
Fretted the feeble body to decay,
/ And Ger informed the tenement of clay
I Of late he has been rather ILL., and
through I found him much better and up
and around he was still suferiDg-a fact
which he attributed to the east wind, for
he is subject to all the skyey infuenc es.
He finds that he has better health here.
at his birth place, than nywhere else,
and he tells me that he enjoys the air Of
Crawfordville more than that o any place
at which he ever was except Fort War
rem, the Summer climate of which he
spoke of as enchanting; and this is the
only impression his six months imprison-
ment there seems to have produced on
him.
The sene correspondent gives fresh
er item in the following remeDiscence of
the history OF secession, as related to him
by Mr. Stephens:
"Mr. Stephens had wanted a conven-
ton of the people to be held about the
10th Of December. He knew that Geor-
gia would not secedc, and he was also
sure that South Carolina, which had not
yet seeded, would not, hot though 81 g
was, go out alone But he could not
effect this purpose. The election for de-
legates was ordered for the LIST of January,
which was after South Carolina had taken
the leap. We'll, he want on to say, son
the Ist of January, there was rain-storm
more violent than the oldest inhabitant
remembered-not since the food in the
Yazoo had there been such storm.
The result was that the county people
could not get out to vote, and this gave a
prepondering influence in the election of
delegates to the towns and villages, where,
you know, political epidemics are always
stronger than elsewhere. We lost at
least twenty Union members by this
Even Rome, up in the Cherokee country,
where the Union sentiment was vastly
in ascendant, sent secession delegate
7 went over myself to the Court Hous 9
yonder, to vote, and the room was filed
with dripping people, wet with saddles in
their hands, who had come through mud
and mire with immense difficulty. I
made them little speech there, and
said then [ feared the rain would lose us
the election. And so indeed it did,"
+ Two devil fish the sea- rnnnsters