Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1895-09-03
TUESDAY EVENING, SEPT. 3, 1885,

TUESDAY EFEN1cd, SELL. S,1S'o1
TIMES MAY be hard, business stag
nant, and labor unemployed, or there
nav be Improvement. The corr crop
may be long or short, the wheat crop
may fail, the grass be burnt, the factory
and the mill idle, the grasshopper be-
come a burden; but there is n grand
industry that defes all the mutations
of the seasons and cares nothing for
sunshine, or rain, or the csprices of the
weather clerk. 1t is tine grand Yankee
lie factory touching Mr. Jefferson Davis
and the Southern Confederacy. Let
what will happen, that mill is bound to
go on and furnish its customary prod
uct for a market that cannot be glutted.
The latest, if not the best, comes from
Malone, Iowa, and was good enough to
b, telegraphed, as it has been. There
Is or was, it seems, q NJ. w. Payne, q
millionaire, who after many good deeds
has been gathered to his rest. He has
left q lot of legecies pious and benevo-
lent, but these are not calculate
ed to stagger belief. Mr.. Payne,
we are told, was an original and "most
interesting character" HE was q
lifelong friend of Jefferson Davis and
-
when the latter was elected President
of the Southern Confederacy he APP
pointed Payne Secretary OF the Inte-
rior, but he neuer served in that
capacity" Now all this has escaped
history and the pen of the biographer
up to this time. Mr.. Davis makes
no mention of it nor does Mrs. Davis
in her book. MI. Dsyis's Cabinet was
composed of notable men-of Robert
Toombs, the eloquent Senator from
Georgia; @. G. Memminger, the able
and we'll known jurist, of South Caro-
lima; Judah P. Benjamin, the foremost
pleader of the Supreme Court bar and
eminent Senator; John 81. Reagan and
Others of marked distinction. The
Cabinet was, however, lacking in some
thing, evidently, as Mr.. Payne, OF
whom nobody ever heard, was fshed
up by Mr.. Davis and selected to fill a
Cabinet place that never existed in the
Southern Confederacy. We are told
that Mr.. Payne declined to serve.
This, Of course, is only credit
able to him. 1t is true, however,
that most men would decline an office
that was noa created until thirty years
after the war had closed and the gov
eminent extinguished. It would never
do, however, to leave Mr.. Payne at this
stage, rejecting Cabinet Office which
never existed. Some other proof Of
the lifelong friendship must be adj
duced, and some are next told that he
supplied Mr.. Davis with n hundred
thousand dollars which, at his death,
Mr.. Davis had forgotten to pay J"
This amount is rather large. 1t is in
consistent with the accounts that have
reached us of Mr.. Davis's narrow and
straitened life, approaching poverty, in
which he lived for the long years fol-
lowing the civil war. But this is not
all. Mr.. Davis, in his life of ease and
400
afiuence, after spending the 100000,
forgot all about this princely gift. We
had always understood that Mr.. Davis
had a pretty keen memory for his
friends and for his foes. According to
this narration. however, somebody
in the household had a good memory,
for when Mr.. Davis died Mr.. Payne
was called from Iowa ali the way to
Mississippi to preach the funeral SER
mon. We make no reflection on Mr..
Payne for this story. Doubtless he was
a good man and is no way responsible
for it. E~xsggeration is q vice of the
times. Everybody that dies nowadays
is a remarkable character, q man OF
distinguished family, heroic deeds and
great, though mysterious influence
The age is fruitful in genius, but II
takes the hand of death to teach us
what we have lost. All the old darkies
that died up to q late period were body
servants of General Washington. As
for the gentlemen who seem to have
served on General Lees staff, thei,
name is legion. II they could have
been gathered together at Gettysburg
in body a hard drawn battle would
have been settled the first day by this
imposing demonstration, and all our
histories would have to be written
anew.
A GOOD many prophecies and coun'
ter-prophecies touching the outcome o.
the fall election in MARYLAND have haar