Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1897-04-20
SPIRIT OF JEFFERSON.
CHAnLns Town. JnrTHnsoH COUNT. W. Va.
TUESDAY MORNING. APRIL 20, 1897.
Per. Portrait.

Emily M'Laws writes to the Augusta
Chronicle from New York:
"There is no man in the whole country
more written of to-day than Charles
Broadway Rouss, and when / had
a letter the other day from member of
the Augusta chapter of the Daughters of
the Confederacy, asking me to give my
impression OF him in my next letter to
The Chronicle was somewhat surprised,
since imagined every southern woman
had read enough about him to know as
much as possibly could.
To give my impressions of Mr.. Rouss
must tell you first just how he looks
through my eyes. He is not large man,
about FIVE and half feet, I should say,
and slender. He dresses neatly but qui-
etly and casual observer would never
fancy him day over fifty, though he
says he is sixty-one. And there is yet
another thing about this remarkable man
which one finds it hard to believe, that
he is totally blind. He has bright, beau
tiful blue eyes and he looks you squarely
in the face when talking, as though con-
scious of every change in your Own coun.
tenance. He is not stout, neither is he
thin. He is simply well-proportioned
man with figure of man of 80. His
closely cut hair and mustache, which are
white, are the only indications of his age.
His manners are more abrupt than any
other man 1 have ever met. What he
has to say comes in the cIearest and most
concise sentences. One imagines at once
meeting him that he carries his vigorous
business methods always about him. He
converses well and about subjects that
one would fancy he hadn't time to think
about, certainly not leisurely to keep
imselfinformed. His memory of names
seems marvellous, especially southern
names In speaking of the south, like
every other Confederate veteran L have
ever met, he seems to remember it only
as it was during and just after the war.
The names he mentions are those made
famous by that struggle, the songs he
loves, for he is very fond of music, are
those sung in the south in war time.
Mr.. Rouss," I asked him the other
day, "what first gave you the idea of
building battle abbey for the south ?''
"When L was tramping home, after
Appomattox," he replied, raising his
hand in emphasis, 81 made up my mind
to give one thousand, later 1 determined
to give FIVE, then ten, then fifty, then
breaking of, never have said how many
1 would give. You read Mrs. Jefferson
Dayis's article in Frank Leslie's monthly
that will tell you why"
So to you Daughters of the Confeder-
acy, who would know why Mr.. Rouss
wishes to give the old south, and south
ern soldiers, so noble a monument, l
would refer to Frank Leslie's monthly
and Mrs. Dsvis's article. Certainly
there seems to be no one who should be
better able to write on the subject than
the wife of the president of the Lost
Cause.
But before changing the subject from
noted man to noted woman there Is
another person of whom 1 wish to speak.
Ny impressions of Mr.. Rouss always
bring to mind the pretty, intelligent face
of a girl as she sits at his right hand in
his Office, taking the place of his eyes
You are not conscious of his blindness
until he begins to move or until he wish
es something requiring eyesight.
In the last instance the name which
springs to his lips is blanche" and the
girl with the sweet. earnest face is always
there and knows where to find and how
to get whatever he wishes. So to see
Mr.. Rouss seated in his Office without
that girl at his side would seem most un-
natural"
Staunton, Va, has telephone war.