Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1877-05-04

tFaERsoSAFE'-
The Great Staunton Financier!
upon what meat hath this our Caesar fed,
That he hath grown so great ?"
Tear the other party
1t is worth your while to hearl
Mr. Editor:-I am not in general afflicted
with an itch for scribbling, and had begun to
think it much better for man to forget his
misfortunes than to talk of them. But the Lett
ter of VIM Frazier in a former issue was so un-
called for, aud the impertinent way in which
he alluded to my dead Father so unparalleled, |
feel constrained TO attempt reply.
In answer to this vain glorious and selt-con--
ceited article styled "The profits of the Rock
Alum Springs published that all the facts
may be known" Could the writer have had
tn 8 before him "When you speak in your
own praise you add thing to your retuta-
tion;" the pronoun | would hardly have met
one in every line The highly eulogistic way
inv which he claims four Judges have spoken of
him, including Fl NJ G Hendren coupled with
the very hattt ring notices. which appeared in
YOUR paper ana the ''Virginan'' seems not to
have satisfied him, that he is even yet fully vim
dictated, and he seeks still another channel in
which to drag my affairs before the public, and
to speak with dersion Of me and mine. But
| suppose the old m kim holds good here-:A
| guilty conscience needs Lo accuser," For the
man who is pure in life and unconscious of
| guilt requires no vndica'lon.'
First-This concsited letter places the profits
at from Sl2, 900 to 5000, which | am not
| surprised to hear, considering the amount of
property in his hands S270 ooO-as follows:
| R. A Springs $3.50, 900; improvements, S4o,-
600; Bath Alum, 100000; negroes, 500, 900.
| Later, before the commissioners, his sworn
statement fell far short of$l2,O00 as an ave.
| rage, when at sig per cent. it should have been
| SIG, 200, or st ten per cent as such property
| should pay, $27 900. l suspect when W. F.
| wrote of the profits, he was discussing his own,
| which were very great. Having succeeded in
| paying out of the property, to my fathers es
tate, his debt of $s3, 900, bringing the estate in
| debt $l2, 900, besides appropriating the profits
entire of GO and part OF '67 to his own use,
| and all the funds from the sale OF the water
and mass in the hands of the agents when he
] left. During this same period maintaining q
| large family, numbering twelve, when he left
| r A. educating them thoroughly IS they
| grew up, while my widowed mother and
| were driven upon a cold, unfeeling world with
| the report preceding US that our estate was
| bankrupt, I take it that we might be com
|, PEELED to go west TO our friends, and he have
| all to himself, which would have been the case,
| but for the kindness of Col Jas McClung and
| Messrs. VIM Peyton aud Benz. Crawford, of
| your place, who will be rewardej for remem
| bering the WIDOW aud the orphan-they car
/ Jog for US until God provided US a home else
| where | will further state though provided
| with home, had no means Of educating my
| self, so at the breaking out of the ar, finding
( nothing better for idle hands to d !, hired N
self as mill bo' TO n Con federate hospital
, ther,by enabling me to buy broken down
| Confederate horse, for which | gave $40.
! then joined the army at the very mature age of
| fourteen, and remained until the close of the
war and during this trying period never re-
cieved one line enqniring either after my health
or whether needed or desired assistance land
God knows [ did) from this SINE W. F., who
had taken forcibe possession of my property
| and managing it against ray wish charging
So, $50 for his services il the face of an agree
mant that he asked nothing and no notice to Q
contrary until he had entrenched himself as he
toped beyond all reach. And now the court
has reeompensed him for pracricihg this we'll
studied duplicity and on trage By allowing him
| a compensation cfS55 000
When the war closed, Il e writer, wishing to
complete an education never begun, applied
through his guardian for funds, and none we're
t. be had, but in P. s. to his letter, W. T.
said he "was trying to persuade his wife to
take trip to Niagara :"
Second-He speaks of how he found and
how be improved the property and would seal
Brother. So far from emily finding 81 rooms,
be found l04 under contract, besides the bill
lard and sporting house, and far ad gahced to-
war Is compilations; and as far Bs progressed
paid for, and had W F. desired he could net
have stopped the work, thus inste, d of 81 rooms
he opened his first season with 20l rooms, the
whole aa dticn planned, contracted for and
nearly completed before nv father death on.
lY 80 lodging rooms lees than found here in
1858. In fact W F. during his 6 years of ar
rogant and self appointed management only
increased the capacity of the place 80 rooms
located as follows Gothic building l6 rooms
five wooden cottages 2 rooms each and four
rooms adde5 to the Jordan building. Ny faith
er also had purchased before his untlney death
most of the fur nture for the new addition. and
yet W. F. would take the credit of all this to
himself. "Give up this false idolatry Of sell,
which makes your brother nothing That
may not do the gentleman injustice l will Sta tie
that in addition to the thirty ronms cited above
be built two little Gothic cottages, used re-
spectively as store and bar, built a covering
over the springs, music stand, q small bath
house, built new stage stable and removed
the old stable.
Third-He grows quite verbose when he
touches on the sales of Alan W ater; one would
hardly think 10 read that portion of his letter
that he abiding to water which every
intell,g MT physician has declared fer years TO
x
United States, but of some quack compound;
and that he with his great business tact had
forced upon an unwilling public some vile nos
trum and not waters, that heal IS did the Pool
of Bethesda" of old Methinks see ar unused
smile fit over the faces Of indulgent readers Of
that clause o t his letter; since wherever this
water ia known all coEcede that its wonderful
cures and Incompatible virtue alone brought
it 20 prominently before the public.
Years ago when the fame OF these waters first
began to spread and the original owner to i'm
prove the property from year to year, my
father seeing the crowds that thronged here,
tho kept in rude way, determined to pur-
chase, believing that all that was necessary
was to treble its capacity end you would
treble it's company, so he ave MeSsrs Booth,
Christian 4 Anderson an advance bid Of $50,
600 over their purchase twelve months previ-
Gus My father, Tor j. W. F. as he is contemp-
tuous.y called BIZ his brother), predicted and
30 wrote in the register that he would have
5000 arrivals the coming Summer. that number
WAS exceeded by few, tho the year before
there was only 200, thus showing his usual
foresight and sagacity did not fail him in this
the GROWING act of his life Yet W. F would
induce the public to believe that my father !
would have kept the place as he found it, for
he say: The accommodations were entirely toe |
contracted ever to have enabled the place 10 !
pay for itself at the high price at which it was
bought by ]. W. F."
Fifth-We are now introduced to Bigh Mas
ter Commissioner Hendren, and the High Mas
tor Commissioner has only W F. to thank for
the following mention of himself 1 will only
refer to one OF his rulings to show how inca
pable he WAS ofdealing with the case: be not !
only reported. but INDUCED in periodical argu-
ments to support it, that W F. should be al |
lowed to advance Confederate money to the es-