The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-06-20
A BLIND PHILANTHROPIsT.
Charles Broadway ROuss' offer HAS
Brought Him Into Prominence.
W T Nyisschar ;n tbe Svbfcogo rir,es

The offer of a million dollars 10 anyone
who shall restore his sight has brought
Charles Broadway Rouss. the blind mill
of prominence lately. But Mr. Rouss
has prominence of another sort, and that
as a man of great philanthropy and of
noble character generally. That one of
the individuals who declares he can heal
blindness, and proves il by many ceruh-
Gates, is a resident of Chicago, who pro-
poses to restore MIR. Rouss' sight, gives
est as we'll as a general one. The per-
son who proposes to go from Chicago
TO see Mr. Rouss is Harry Slater, an in
telligent young negro man, who came to
this city from Virginia, the native state
of Mr.. Rouss, but he was born and
raised" in Mobile, Ala. He claims to
have knowledge of a Virginia herb, the
secret of which has descended through
several generations of his race, which
heals the blind when properly applied.
Mr.. Rouss was born at Woodbury.,
Md, in 1896, but the family moved to
Berkeley county, Virginia, in lS4l, and
Charles was educated at a high grade
academy in Winchester, twelve miles
away from the home of his father who
was farmer. His education was broad
and liberal and, having a turn for COM
mercial affairs he refused TO adopt the
life of a farmer, and so obtained employ
ment in the establishment of Jacob SEN
seny one of the most enterprising and
prosperous merchants in Winchester.
Young Rouss began on a salary of 81 a
week, which was increased from time to
time. At the end of three years, when Is
years of age, the young man had saved
aR,I xstft n hot ann N
for himself and succeeded 50 well that
at the end of six years, when the civil
war began, he not only had the largest
business house in Winchester, but bank
account of $4,000 clean cash. He had also
taught the Oldest as well as the youngest
of the other merchants in the place much
that was valuable in business methods.
And yet Charles Rouss' philanthropic
tendencies We're greater than his business
instincts. In the fall of 1861, the war being
then under full Roadway, the very neces-
sary article of salt having become so
scarce that it was held at an exorbitant
price and people, even of moderate means
could not obtain it, Mr.. Rouss succeeded
in obtaining by most difficult processes
a thousand sacks of salt from the salt
works of Southeast Kentucky and South
west Virginia, and this he sold to the peo-
pie of Winchester, his customers and the
poorer classes, al what it had cost, not
withstanding he had been offered $4,000
profit on the article. The salt, he said.
had not been procured for speculation and
no offer could divert him from the pur-
pose for which he had obtained 1t. In the
same manner he disposed of large guam
tity of sugar that his business sagacity
had induced him to secure before the mill
tary embargo came. He could have easily
realized $2O, 900 profit on the two articles,
but he declared that he did not need
money made in that way,
Shortly afterward, feeling that his SER
vices were needed by the state he so much
loved in the army, he mounted a good
horse and served through the war as a
private soldier in a cavalry regiment until
Surrendered with his comrades a. Apo
mattox. In those years Of strife he sur
fered, of course, the privations, perils ana
other trials of a soldiers life in active
service, and a the end of 1t all he re-
turned to his fathers home in the Shen-
andoah Valley, penniless, but strong and
hopeful Until the harvest was over IN
1866 he made himself useful on the OLD
home farm; then he told his father that
farm life was too slow for him and that
he was going to New York to become the
rival of A. T. Stewart as a. merchant.
The father had great confidence in this
enterprising son, but he couldn't see how
the Young man, without a dollar, could
cope with such competition as he would
find in a great city, Notwithstanding MS
remarkable success before the war, in a
city of 5000 people. SO he endeayored to
dissuade his sanguine son. Besides, ne
wished to have the boy, from whom ne
had 50 long been separated by the war,
TO remain with him and his mother, both
of whom were growing old. Charles had
the deepest affection for his parents, but
he felt that to be Of the greatest advan-
tage TO them he must go where ne De-
ueved his greatest success must come.
With money enough to pay his passage
to New York and $3.50 more, young Rouss
sought the great Atlantic metropolis FOR
ten years he struggled with alternating
success and failure, and his career was
even romantic in Its severe realism. one
of his business aXioms were: 1T Is not
time. place or circumstance, but the man,
that commands success; and the larger
the field the greater the results" with
views like that, and Industry integrity
economy and promptness as his business
watchwords, he as last acquired an Inn
rnense paying business and has grown "a
he so wealthy that he can easily afford "a
offer a million dollars for the restoration
of his sight. His loss OF vision began
nearly four years ago and has continued
until he has become totally blind. The
cause Is said by eminent oculists 10 be
atrophy Of the optic nerve and Is consid-
cred by the gre oculists to be incurable
But the immense sum offered by Mr.
Rouss for a cure has caused hundreds OF
persons to offer all sorts OF remedial de-
vices. and letters by the cart load come to
him from all parts Of the globe, Offering
restorative suggestions, and these arc OF
salves and washes healing prayers and
the waters Of curative springs. Many have
been tried and have failed. and now the
millionaire keeps a man who IS AMI ted
lust as he IS for the healers 20 experiment
with before they begin on him.
As phllanthropist Mr. Rouss has al
ways acted upon the principle OF these
his own words: Love 70 the greatest Of
All human emotions; kindness the great
est Of all human privileges" Daily n
gives TO the needy far and near. ait
known only 90 himself the recipient anC
his God. His public henefactions are re-
markedly numerous and could not ever
be suggested IN an article like this. Men
ton Of a few may be made. These are $780,
600 10 Increase the water supply Of Win
chester; $4,000 for a fence around TN
cemetery; 5000 20 aid the fire companies
OF that city: 81 900 per annum 90 the az
ricultural fair OF that county; 1900 fo
the confederate monument at Mount Hops
cemetery, New York; $4,000 10 the phyn
cal laboratory OF the University OF Vir
FF.a MnfaTrluH