The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-12-02

upon M Brown as MS Inferior socially.
and Mr.. Brown resented the scorn OF his
competitor with all the intensity OF a fiery
and impetuOus nature
What the immediate cause OF the fight
was 7 have now forgotten. and IL matters
little. though have somewhere a mass OF
widowed and yellow old handbills con-
tanning the afidavits and counter am
davits OF those then living and eye-wit-
nesses Of the ARRAY. At any rate. Gen.
Clay was speaking in front of the his
toric mansion and Mr.. Brown was pres
ent- Some statements OF Clay were dis
puted, the lie was passed, a pistol shot
rang out, Clay advanced, striking first at
Brown with an umbrella; then there was
the CLEAN Of a knife and Brown stag
gered back down the hill. trying to ward
on the cuts that were showered upon
him by his herece antagonist. and finally
fell over low fence upon the brow OF
a steep deelivity, a limp and almost life
less mass, gasping for breath and bleeding
on the blue grass sod a crimson torrent
from at least a dozen wounds.
There was a large crowd present. but
no one interfered, so quickly was the con-
test ended. That was fifty years ago, and
very few who saw that awful fight are
now alive to tell of IL. And yet the man
sion and the man remain, each made
historic by the other.
The mansion has not changed, nor has
the man, except that time has silvered
both Of them to grayer tints and some
wrinkles to denote its touch. The old
house stands now just as 1t stood then,
and It, too, had its history. Its last hered-
itary owner died a widow a few years
since. Her children are scattered from
New York to Texas and one has been for
years an officer in the United States army,
as her husband was in the confederacy.
Her mother helped TO make history. AS
girl she was woOed. but not won. by that
erratic genius, Mirabeau B. Lamson. His
wooing was unlike the offhand business
methods of lovemaking which now prevail
lie wrote and published a volume of
poems, which was dedicated to her, and
a copy of which, bound in morocco and
gilt-edged. with his autograph on the
fly leaf, is still existent in the family
Heartsore because she rejected his ad-
dresses, he went west and became pres
ident of the Republic Of Texas. She mar
ried at the age of IA a Kentucky horse
drover, one of the Atchison family. who
are well known in Missouri, Kansas, Ten
nessee and Kentucky.
But when this young girl became mis-
tress of the mansion back in the early
'thirties,' II was by no means a new
house. Some of her grandchildren are
now on the shady side of 40 several of
her great-grandchildren are close to q.
Yet the old house shows little change.
II was built when men built homes be-
fore they began to erect residences"
1t is still known by its first name Rus
sells Cave" though under later owners
II had more pretentious name. Col.
Russell, one of the early pioneers of Ken
lucky, built the house. and through the
strange mutations that time brings his
name has chung about il. About six miles
from Lexington, in the very heart of the
Blue Grass Region of Kentucky, on what
is known as the "RusselTs Cave Pike" it
presents to the passerby the thoughts
and ideas of the long ago better than any
biography of its owners could.
Not a more beautiful building site is
there in all the state. Not a more charac-
teristic memorial could have been placed
upon 1t than the building as IL stands
The ground rolls gently upward from the
turnpike, which here winds along a little
stream flowing into Elkhorn creek, a few
hundred yards farther on Just at the
summit of the hill-perhaps 90 or 60 feet
above the level of the road-the ancient
mansion stands, fianked by groves of
venerable forest trees, but without a
shrub to shut the view of it from any
passerby. Such was ancient hospitality;
the rich man and the beggar could alike
behold the open door. There are no flower
beds no pines nor bushy plants, between
the portico and pike-only smooth. SWELL
ing lawn, through which CLEANS the white
line of carriage way leading in serpen-
tine folds, from the gateway up to the
steps of stone.
The building is a massy brick structure
pure white in color. which even the cor
roding breath of time has not been able
to tarnish, for in those days the whitewash
on man or mansion was mingled with the
oil of love, and lived for generations yet
to come. In front of it Is a broad portico.
broad as the hearts of those who owned
the place, its roof supported by immense
Doric columns. In it's architectural eff
feet it has that same dream-like vet sub
stantial idea which the Greeks put into
stone, and reminds one of the capitol at
Washington. A little to one side of if
are the old stone "cabins"-where the ne
groes used to dwell-still showing the
whitewash on their outer walls and in
their rugged outlines thinning mournfully
the dead past, when wealth of southern
families was based on slavery.
Back of the mansion the ground nrA-
sents gradual ascent, so that the old or
chard and the garden can be seen i'm
glimpses. About 100 yards nearer the
road and somewhat to the let of the house
is 'Russelps Cave" A rugged. wild.
bushy cliff frowns at the wayfarer. MAX
ing a strange contrast to the scene of
soft and gentle beauty all about it.
From the cave beneath the cliff pours a
large stream of pure, clear, cold water
forming small creek, whose banks are
fringed all the year round with fragrant
mint and in the spring with beds of VIC
let's. At the caves mouth, between it and
the dry cave extending back some hun
bred feet or so, is the ''old spring house"
built of rough stones and mortar. white
like the other buildings, and full of names
pencilled on the smooth parts of it's sur
face. Names there do not decay, for there
are many of them fresh and bright to-day
that were written more than fifty years
ago. My mothers maiden name is there.
written by her own girlish hand in 1898
1t is a Calypso's grotto, and in. the hot
summe' days when the rush of cold air
from the cavern's mouth forms a dim.
blue mist about 1t, have lain, as youth,
in the MASSEY mint beds dreaming and
reading, for it is an exquisite retreat for
dreams and dreamers.
Such is the mansion which suggests the
man. Part of its romance is his bloody
deed, and so fixed is it with its white spa
ciousness in his memory that his own is
his whitehall"
Tall, but so massively built that he
looks to be below the medium hight.
Cassius NJ. Clay is to-day as 1.-the and