Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-11-12
The story As Told by the Gazette.

A story was recently told GAZETTE re-
porter by young attorney OF Fort Worth
which shows one of three things: That the
imagination of the young gentleman has
been carefully Schooled, so as to produce
abnormal development; that his father, who
figures in the narrative, was man of Won
derful descriptive powers, or that a young
artist, then unknown to fame, but who has
since acquired il, was endowed with fac
ulty which borders on the impossible. The
circumstances, as related, were, however,
vouched for by him who told them, and
happened in Richmond Va, the native
town of the attorney. They We're as fol-
lows:
Some years since there died in Richmond
a several times millionaire, who in con-
trariety to men of this class was 4
philanthropist in every sense of the word,
and this fact is stranger still when the
circumstances surrounding his birth and
his life becomes known. Most men it
would have soured and hardened, caused
them to turn against the world, and
engendered the belief that every mans
hand was against them. On the contrary,
these circumstances had an opposite effect
on the man in question, and when he had
amassed competency reaching up into the
millions, he turned his attention to
alternating the distress of whomsoever APP
piled to him for aid. His kind offices and
philanthropic deeds became notorious and
endeared him to the whole section of
country in which he lived. Several
colleges and eleemosynary institutions of
his state We're endowed by him in sums
ranging from slO0,000 to 100000
Strange to say, the dispenser of all these
charities was nameless in the common ac-
ceptation of the term. That is, mis- mother
was an outcast from the pale of society,
and who his father was he never knew.
Notwithstanding the unfortunate circum-
stance that constantly stared him Ill the
face and the cloud thrown around his birth,
for which he was stunned by companions
of his own age. this man rose above them
all, aud by his innate manhood and the al
ways honorable, upright, Christian manner
of his living demanded and received the eS-
teen, respect and love of his neighbors.
He lived to the age of fifty or more, and
upon his death willed all of his vast prop
erty, except some donations to servants and
friends, to charitable institutions. Some
time after his death it occurred TO one of
the institutions which owed its prosperity
to him that portrait of him would be a
most fitting adornment for the walls of its
library, but this seemed impossible, as the
dead lover of his fellowmen had left no
picture by which his likeness could be
handed down. The father of the young Fort
Worth attorney, who is responsible for this
narrative, was a friend to the dead man
from his boyhood till his death, and was
much in his company. He accord
ingly expressed the belief that
if the services of a certain
young artist in Richmond, who was veri-
table genius in his chosen vocation, could
be secured, he would be able to give such
description of the painter as would enable
him to reproduce the features of the dead
nan. The artist, whose name was Fisher,
was accordingly sent for, and he and the
gentleman in question set about their task.
The artist under the direction of the at
torney's father. made changes and altera-
tons in the features till the face was said
to be an exact counterpart of that OF the
man for whom it was intended. The feat
was published in the local papers, and after
wards served to make the artist famous.
Ten years afterward the body OF the phil
anthrophist, which had been inferred in a
metallic, air-tight coffin, was exhumed and
was in perfect state of preservation. The
portrait was place alongside the face of the
body which had been exhumed, and every
feature of the portrait correspondent exactly
with those of the dead man.
Whether this story is true or not is not
youched for by The GAZETTE.