The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-01-24
LEEIN CONGRESS
.,osr OF THE FAMILY TO REGAIN
: pOr1TICAL PROMINENCE.

fHkJAJl / ~ - - -
-- Ureraceflu and Slow of
ensach. but Big-Hearted and the
TFoI of virginians- His Big Farm.
from the Ne,o York Press.
c-,sv1yGrox, Jan. 2l.-Representative
.o..,,av" Lee. who is followed everywhere
,a,, enthusiastic crowd of Nirglnians, is
Nsrst of the old Confederate Generals
,,r,. to get back into national promi-
@.,', Since the war, with the enc excep-
..aa of the election of Rooney" to the
s.a+o Senate in 1876, the family have been
,to ~ notifies altogether. The old General
,'a,salf after he surrendered, went down
~ the Washington and Lee University at
,o1;ngton. and, as President of the institu-
,j,r ended his days there.
g, far as there was any family residence,
.,ot was the place. Gusts Lee, who is said
t tn%e the brainiest of the sons, and the most
~ his father, became interested in the ed
!notional work during their enforced mac
INN, in other directions, and is now his
tatbar's successor as president of the institu-
t ttan Rooney and Robert E. Lee, DR.,
Mrs Robert E. Lee, the granddaughter of
Martha Washington and daughter of George
washington Parke Gusts, who brought con
siderable property to the General by her
5na,g,iaoe had it largely invested in three
a'@onS Virginia estates at the time of her
Goa+b and one of them went to each of the
49,. .Arlington,n the most valuable of
diam would have gone to CuStiS Lee under
Nix arrangement, but it was taken by the
government. turned into a great national
n diars cemetery, and for long time
COINED likely to be treated as some of the
nher spoils of war.
When an indemnity finally was paid by
the government to the family it went to the
ore for whom the estate was designed, and
10 To day is probably the wealthiest of the
h1tbers. though an exceedingly plain
Southern teacher, without one of the big
landed estates which are considered neces-
sarv to keep up the title and style of the
Virginia gentry.
Rooney" Lee, or William Henry Fitz-
high Lee, to give him his full name-no-
bodv knows how he came by the name of
"R6opevn-receiyed "Ravenswoodn in the
division, and lives there with his family
vet. 1t is big, old-fashioned estate, with
thousands Of acres of mill and valley lying
in sight of the mountains on the Virginia
, Midland railroad, some forty or fifty miles
outside of Washington.
The soil is thin and not any more produc-
tive than the majority of old Virginia
farms, but it pays the family something of
m income and allows them to keep up all
the old fashioned Inequalities for which the
oder family was famous The Congress
man himself, when the work is pressing,
takes hold in very plain style, riding about
IRON field to field, giving orders and making
suggestions, very much as George Washing
ION may have done on his farm at Mount
Vernon, a few miles distant.
The Lee families as a matter of fact, live
very much like the Lees of generation or
two ago, and any one who wants glance
Ot Virginia life as it was in revolutionary
times, can't do bette than stop off on
Their way South and take look at Ravens
wood
In his seat in Congress, Mr. Lee is neither
n striking nor particularly attractive
looking man. He is heavy, mgraceful, and
rather dull of cOuntenanCe, and shows on
bis face the result of constant exposure to
the Virginia sun. Only the contour of his
face reminds Southerners of his father His
beard, turning slowly from black to gray,
is the same color, and is worn in the same
way as the Confederate chieftain in the pic
lures that came up to the North in '63 and
VI, and his forehead, without the expanse,
Or the full temples, is extending far enough
back through tine rumpled thin gray hair
to make the similarity striking again.
In his movements and personal manners,
however, Rooney must be very much in
ferior to his father. He walks slowly and
with evident difficulty, carrying his bulk as
if it were a good deal of a struggle, and
very rarely has enough to say to take the
sta in a conversation. Like the whole
family, however. he is easily approached,
evidently kind hearted, and disposed to do
all he can, for Virginians or anybody else,
When he is in the city he lives at one of the
hest hotels and his wife entertains hand
somely He has two sons, who are at the
Washington and Lee University
The other brother, Robert E. Lee, Jr, is
apIain everyday Virginia farmer, living
quietly on his estate at White House, on
the York river. He has not been called out
for political service yet, and shows no dispo-
S'tlon to start in on his own account. His
estate is one of the best in the tidewater
country, and he is said to be very thor
oughly satisfied to live there quietly with
ms family. The Generals two daughters
Mildred and Mary, have spent most of the
time In Europe since the surrender at APP
pomattox They come to this country
occasionally and make their home with
TIER bachelor brother at Lexington
Neither of them is married.
ten Fltzhughs Lee, who is a nephew OF
the General, is said to be completely spoiled
by his election as Governor of the State
de fought through the war as a company
officer, and on his uncle's staff, and was
General of the Army of Virginia just one
month before he had to surrender it. He
went back to farming after the war and
was following the pillow, with his coat ON a
renee stake and his trousers in his boots,
when the word came that he was wanted
by the Democrats to run for Governor