Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1896-09-08
The ResI Rouss.
Some of the Finer and T1-uer Traits
Of the Blind Millionaire Phildn-
thropist Reuedled-Another
Mass Of Popular Errors
Corrected.

Il
Excepting only one or two candidates Tor
tho Presidential nomination there are few
Americans whose names are so frequently
seen in the public prints at this present time
as that of Charles Broadway Rouss the blind
New York millionaire merchant king and
| lphiIanthropist. Aud about no personality does
| hover so dense haze of miseonception and
error as that about this remarkable man of
the people In the first place Mr.. Rouss,
white born in q very modest walk in life and
beginning in the most straighlened circnm-
stan ccs. comes Of as coed stock in the way of
ancestral glory US any American possibly can
While Mr.. Rouss has never affiliated with the
Sons of the American Revolution or any of
tie patriotic orders which seek to preserve
the socinl glories of the past, he is legitimate
iy entitled to do so; his grandfather on the
maternal side. Charles Baltzcll, having been
one of the very first to bear arms in defense of
the liberties of the American colouies. Indeed
60 early did this ardor maifest itself that in
| May, 1776, Charles Balzell was commissioned
| by the Delegates of the freemen of Maryland
captain of a company of militia in the middle
district of Frederick county. Later he was
commissioned captain in the German rcgi-
meut of the American army, and throughout
that long and bloody war there was no more
heroic name than his. Mr., Rouss does not
dwell upon this ancestral glory, bat he is none
the less proud of it, and when it has been sug-
gested to him that the doors of certain sets in
the social world of New York might be open
ed by it aud the golden key he also holds he
has always said: "a mans life should be as
he makes it, not as he found it ready made"
4 e, i,a hoe ,,arsisted iOUOrin1 all efforts
to induce him to mingle with even the most
hospitable circles of Vanity Fair. This, how
ever. does not mean that Mr.. Rouss is either
| ignorant or disda inful of the finer courtesies
of social life, and had his son Charles lived
| there is no doubt tn at the hospitable home OF
the millionaire at G32 Fifth Avenue would have
been the scene of many and memorable social
events and entertainments. AS it is have
seen Mr. doing the honors to one or two
| of the most supersensitlve social lionesses of
Washington aud philadelphia. and one OF
them afterward remarked that she had never
met a more polished man of the world.
Neither does the bTILsque'-ie which the news
papers make so much of, affect Mr.. RousS In
| his dealing with those whom he admits to his
real intimacy. He does not seem constantly
| to be posing as an Atlas staggering under the
| weight of world of commercial cares. On
| the contrary he ia unaffected. merry, never
talks shop andlevcr permits 1t to be talked,
and is full of thought upon the deepest and
| saddest of human problems, the problems of
human government, His favorite drive is
through the bosky groves of Central Park,
and here he seems imbucd to the utmost with
the fine poetic feryor Bryant SO admired. The
song of q bird, the sight of u grey squirrel
| when he could yet see, the mysteries OF the
birth and death of flowers; these were the
things which he seemed always to hold IN
closest contemplation, and which have ever
had the greatest power to soothe his SOUL His
finest thoughts he has often said to me, came
to him when in the cornields of his fa.her s
home Mt Shannon Hill, in Virginia. Just af-
ter the war, he worked for the tantalizing
rations of bread and meat, and beheld his
dream of a commercial kingdom where he
was to rule by right none dare dispute as q
cloud picture dim and nebulous in the undis-
covered distance.
This love of nature has drawn him into close
and constant contemplation of those deep and
ever palpitant problems which Dame Nature
holds within her breast. Mans relations to
the creating power, mans hereafter and
mans duties to himself and to others while
here, these deep and eternal problems are
things which all who hold deep and true com
munion with nature in her many moods mus
tnerforee. consider and discuss.
sort has been made to paint Mr.. Rousi
'-Adei. Some penny-aIiuer hai
,,,i1;.a,+ - in applaudiDg the mos
.a-i,as lii,a,,'l,. ~; a+tt,ua "ults upon th'
ues.,ioeu .'.,,s l.9 Iss,,,. Is..suueT lace Mr
staruihg OF IhSefsolIS USE y
Christians church, In the first p..
Rouss is too well bred to be guilty of
gauclcric. In the second, while the result of
his long and steady scrutiny of all the com
plex and conflicting codes and creeds of dog
matte theology, has led him to state of mind
where he can not consistent ly say that he be-
Iieyes in any, still down in his hearts he has
profound reYercnt respect for the faith of
others, and it has ever been his admoaition to
his followers:
Leave thus my sister when she prays.
Her earlier Heaven, her happier views
Nor thou with shadowed hint confuse
\ life that leads melodioas ways"
This forbearance of so deep thi nker, per-
haps, is not appreciated as it sh ould be by the
teachers and preachers of the existent creeds
and codes But this does not disturb Mr.
Rouss. Concerning the religions of to-day lie
might well be called pious unbeliever. con-
corning the religion of tomorrow he IS con-
tent not to teach only by example. This great.
pathetic question of mans inhumanity to man
is what perplexes him. And this brings out
the true notes of the mans being as the touch
of welI-rosined bow upon deep toned and
true Cremona.
Sch the misery of them!" He has more than
once exclaimed to the writer as they picked
their way ON hot Summer evenings along the
crowded and nisery-crusted streets in the vi
oiuity of his Thompson street warehouse. 1t
is not against the sociological conditions which
breed this squalor and poverty that Mr. Rouss
ezclaims, it is against the utter lack of inner
light upon these darkened lives, so to speak.
Each man is fitted to be the arbiter of his own
temporal destiny, in his opinion. Aud what
he cries out against is the general lack of
mental and moral equipment of the whole
human race, the utter inadaptability of so
many to their situation =. Every peg must
have hole" he said to me one day in dis
cussing the reduction of the old Bramin
theory OF the estate and birthright of the con-
science TO practical life. Every peg mu=t
have place. and if we could always find the
right place for the right peg how little trou-
BILE there sTould be. But, as it is it seems
usually the round peg which tries to fit itself
into the square hole, and the square peg into
the round place; this causes half the trouble.
1; is this belief in the existence OF an oppor-
tunity for every man somewhere that causes