Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1897-05-18

l.
of nisstafements Corrected.--Story
of Noble Han.
Up. W. Avirett in Atlanta (Ga-) constitutional
There are but few Americans whose
names are so frequently seen in pub
lie prints at this present time as that
of Chas. Broadway Rouss, the blind
New York millionaire merchant king
and philanthropist. And yet about
no personality does there hover so
dense haze of misconception and
error as that about this remarkable
man of the people. In the first
place Mr.. Rouss, while born in avery
modest walk in life and beginning
in most Strengthened circumstances.
comes of as good stock in the way of
ancestry as any American possibly
can.
While Mr.. Rouss has never affili
ated with the Sons of the American
Revolution or any of the patriotic or
ders which seek to preserve the
social glories of the past, he is legiti-
mately entitled to do so his grand
father on the maternal side, Chas.
Baltzell, having been one of the very
first to bear arms in defense of the
liberties of the American colonies.
Indeed, so early did this ardor mani
fest itself that in May, 1776, Chas.
Baltzell was commissioned by the
delegates of the freemen of (" Mary
land" captain of company of
militia in the middle district of
Frederick county. Later he was
commissioned a captain in the Ger
man regiment of the American Army,
and throughout that long and bloody
war there was no more heroic name
Mr.. Rouss does not dwell upon
this ancestral glory, but he is none
the less proud of it, and when 1t has
been suggested to him that the doors
of certain sets in the social world of
New York might be opened by it and
the golden key he also holds he has
always said g A mans life should
be as he makes it, not as he found it
ready made," and so he has persisted
in ignoring all efforts to induce him
TO mingle with the most hospitable
circles of Vanity Fair. This, how
ever, does not mean that Mr.. Rouss
the finer courtesies of social life,
and had his son Charles lived there is
no doubt that the hospitable home of
the millilionaire at No.6 Fifth Ave.
would have be en- the scene of many
and memorable social entertainments
and events.
As it is have seen Mr.. Rouss do
ing the honors to one or two of the
most supersensitive social g LIoNEs
of WASH ngton and Philadelphia, and
one of them afterwards remarked
that she had never met amore polished
man of the world. Neither does the
brusquerie which the newspapers
make so much of, affect Mr.. Rouss
in his dealing with those whom he
admits to his real intimacy. He does
not seem constantly posing as an
Atlas staggering under the weight of
a world of commercial cares. On
the contrary he is unaffected, merry,
never talks shop and never permits
it 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 imbued to the utmost
with the fine poetic fervor Bryant so
admired. The song of bird, the sight
of grey squirrel when he could yet
see, the mysteries of life and death of
flowers these were things which he
seemed always to hold in closest con-
temptation, 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 corn
fields of his fathers home at Shannon
Hill, in Virginia. Just after the war,
he worked for the tantalizing rations
of bread and meat, and beheld his
dream of commercial kingdom
where he was to rule by right none
dare dispute as cloud picture dim
and nebulous in the undiscovered
distance. 30
This love of nature has drawn him
into close and constant contemplation
of those deep and ever palpitant pro-
blems which Dame Nature holds
within her breast. Mans relations
to the creating power, mans here
after and mans duties to himself and
to others while here, these deep and
eternal problems are things which all
who hold deep and true communion
with Nature in her many moods must
perforce, consider and discuss.
An effort has been made 10 paint
Mr.. Rouss as militant infdel.
Some penny-a-Iiner has described
his attitudes in applauding the most
startling of IngersoIl's attacks upon
the Christians church. In the first
place Mr.. Rouss is too well bred to
be guilty of such gaucherie. In the
second, while the result of his long
and steady scrutiny of all the COM
picked and conflicting codes and
creeds of dogmatic theology, has led
hIm to state of mind where he can
not cons silently say that he believes
in any, still down in his heart of
hearts lie has profound, a reverent
respect for the faith of others, and it
has ever been his admonition 10 his
followers:
Leave thou thy sister, when she prays,
Her earlier heaven, her happier views,
Nor thou with Swallowed hint confuse
y life that leads melodious ways
n. -