Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1891-10-15
CHAPTER *.
AT ROOSEVELT PLACE.

q
Colonel Warren Talbot DHS q thorough
man Of the south
The Roosevelt mansion stood little
distance south from the Pulaski House
and fronted east on beautiful open
square or park 1t was a large rectangu
lar building of the old rime southern
architecture, surrounded by rows of pal
metto trees and gnarled live oaks,
In the days of slavery when Mr.
Roosevelt and his wife were young, this
house was filled with notable guests, art
lists and literary folk chiefly, who spent
the winter months in round Of gay, but
quiet and elegant, social pleasures.
The only change that the war and it's
seguelae had brought to this fine ola
house was the discontinuance Of its lib.
eral hospitaities, not on account Of its
owners reduced means but because Of
the general gloom and poverty which
had rendered society moody, RETROSPECT
tive and bitter,
The Roosevelts had managed to keep
together little coterie Of immediate
friends to whom they dispensed liberal
hospitality in something like the old
southern style, but none Of their north
ern friends had returned since the war.
No doubt many of the latter were dead,
and the rest swept past Savannah every
winter in the gay stream of pleasure
hunters going to Jacksonville, Fernan-
dina and the upper waters of the St
Johns
Mrs. Roosevelt dreamed of making
Rosalie the means Of relighting the So
cial fires in her house, and she was not
disappointed The strong and merry
mountain girl brought a breath of the
up country with her She had her hours
of homesickness, it is true, and cried
over her fathers letters, but she rallied
readily, taking up her cheerfulness and
girlish activity where she left off, and
making the most Of the opportunities
her surroundings offered, She was, in
some indefinite way, aware that she was
taking into her life some new and pow
erful elements. She had been delighted
with Chicago she was enraptured by
Savannah.
In a little while she had made ac-
quaintances among the young people OF
her aunt's set, one of them, Mildred
Fain, becoming her devoted friend. Miss
Fam was three years older than ROsalie
a petite brunette. with finely cut features
and & fatltless grace Of manner HeI
family traced itself back to the early
days of the city, where it was honorably
connected with colonial history He
grandfather had been cabinet officer
or something of the sort under a Demo
cratic admin stration, and her father haC
fallen, distinguished Confederate gen
eral, in one of the terrible battles of the
Virginia campaigns. In many points SHE
was quite Rosalie's opposite.
Rosalie loved her from the beginning
and in fact that sweet affection that girl
have for each other was quickly formed
between them, greatly exaggerated by
their wholly opposite temperaments ant
characteristic elements They found il
each other something new and fascinat
ing quite unlike what usually draw
girls together They soon fully contideC
in each other; and so Rosalie discovered
that Miss Fain had lover, a Colonel War
rem Talbot, lawyer and politician, who's
name seemed much honored by the dali,
newspapers of Savannah. This youny
man often dropped in at the Roosevelt
mapsion to smoke and chat awhile will
NJ Roosevelt, but it CHANGED to be soLl
weeks after her first momentary meetin;
with him that Rosalie found herself il
conversation with him on the broat
veranda. 1t was the merest accident
this little tete-a-tete, but Colonel Warrel
Talbot found it most charming bit Q
experience.
"What delightfully."- naive and prett
girl your new friend isl" he said to Mis-
Fain soon after.
''Im quite charmed that you thin
so" responded that young lady; 'she i
the sweetest girl | ever saw, and sh
knows so much, and is SO brilliant, toe
and so good and kind, and altogethe
unlike any other girl ever saw"
"Oh," exclaimed the colonel gayly
''you are an accomplished eulogist. e.
on, however-it is bird singing of
bird, one flower shaking out it's perfum
on another-its all very beautiful"
The next time he went to Roosevelt
place he again talked with Rosalie. Fl
had not been much in the north, and he
vivid descriptions of the great cities an,
the social whirlpools into which she ha,
merely dipped while there were to hin
as charming as anything of the sor
could be, and they gave him as imme
diate an impression Of western powe
and eastern agility as if they had bee
sketches and photographs Of the scene
and persons mentioned.
81 like those people," she said in
tone of enthusiasm; their vim an
movement, their alert eyes and brigh
shrewd faces, give one the idea of IRE
sistible energy"
"Then you like the north better tina
the south% he remarked in careles
tone, but fixing his eyes questioningl
upon her.
s'No, sir. | like the south immeasul
ably better" she quickly responded,
half suppressed rebuke coming with he