Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1897-09-21
Norti, Carolina Dead.
COMMISSIONS LAID-CHARLEs BROAD
WAY RoUss AND PARTY.
Address by zee. .Jomes B. A0trell.


Address IN Req. James B. AUireh
Friday last was a big day in Winches-
ter. 1t was not only Rouss day at the
Fair. but the corner stone was laid for q
monument of the North Carolina Confed-
crate dead who sleep in Stonewall Gene
terry. A delegation from North Carolina
was present, and Mr. Charles Broadway
Rouss arrived from New York at $3.50 a.
M, accompanied by Messrs. Erastus
Wiman, Thos. D. Beall, of the New York
Daily News, George Hertzberger, John
Scott, and Mr.. A. ]. Smith, Mr.. Rouss
private secretary. They were met at the
depot and were driven to the residence of
JudgeWm. NJ. Atkinson, where the Judge
received the party with neat and ap
proprlate speech; thence to the handsome
residence of Mr.. James B. Russell, where
Mr.. Rouss met Miss Mamie Russell and
bevy of handsome young ladies. They
| then drove to Mt. Hebron Cemetery, to
visit the Rouss lot, where each grave was
found covered with beautiful floral de-
signs. At ex-Gov. Holidays lunch was
served Mr.. Rouss and party, Mrs. G. F.
Mason of this place, sister of the ex-gov-
ernor, receiving the visitors IN the most
graceful manner.
The procession to the cemetery was
composed of bands of music, Ashby
Camp Guard and Confederate veterans,
fire companies, Mr.. Rouss and others in
carriages, etc. Rev. DR.. S. K. Cox
1 Of
PRAYER. The ceremonies of laying the
cornerstone We're presided over by Rev.
DIR. John P Hyde, chaplain of Turner
Ashby Camp, Confederate Veterans, and
were closed with prayer by Rev. Nelson
P. Dame. Capt. ]. ]. Williams in a
pleasant way welcomed the North Caro-
linian and New York guests to the city,
Carolina, made short but deeply inter
esting talk. He then introduced the or
ator of the day, Rev. James B. Avirett,
at the conclusion of whose address Rev.
DR.. Hyde pronounced the benedicuon.
Mr.. Rouss and party visited the fair
grounds after o'clock, where he enter
tanned his many friends.
Mr.. Avirett opened his address with a
glowing tribute to the women of North
Carolina and Virginia.
- And now to you sir, (here Mr.. Avir-
EFT addressed Mr.. Rouss) Graded in
Maryland, nurtured and developed in Vir-
ginia, underbuying and underselling with
wonderful sue cess in New York, the fair
women of my old state bid me say that
with graatful hearts our portion of the
Southland, and we believe the whole
from the Susquehannat to the Rio Graude,
will cherish the memory of your noble
benefactions with which you have tender
| ly sought to drive away the wolf of want
from the doorway of q thousand Southern
homes. You. sir, have given bread to
the living, and have fifty sepulchered our
dead. You have surrounded this Gods
acre in your munifcence with a beautiful
iron fence which defes the teeth of
time. You have caused water to spring
up in this valley with its refreshment for
the sick and the dying. You have forti-
fed the inhabitants of the old town of
Winchester against the fire fiend by day
and night, and in your annual gifts to
the Shenandoah Valley Fair you have
taught the farmers of this beautiful sec
ton to SOW in hope that they might reap
in joy. Nay more, sir, you have not for
gotten Virginias great shrine oflearning,
for in the dark hour of her Univers ity's
loss from fire, with sons high pride and
joy, you have poured your treasures in
her lap. You have gone still further in
your farreaching tenderness toward the
South. You have expressed your willing
ness, nay your fond desire, to meet the
whole Southland more than half way in
building upon a magnificent plan and
scale great battle abbey, in which might
be preserved the relics. the trophies, the
insignia of her splendid heroism on bat
tlefield in tattered flags. bullet-pierced and
SHREDDED, but ever glorious; upon whose
walls might hang the Potraiture of distin-
guished heroism, and along whose aisles in
chiseled stone might stand sculptured stat
ues of Albert Sidney Johnson, Ashby,
Stonewall Jackson, and our peerless Lee,
and in whose safe repositories might be
placed the records of the land YOU loved
and fought for, struggling to be free
Nor have you stopped here, but to show
how deeply you love the Southern soil,
you have brought the remains of your be-
loved boy from the great emporium of the
continent and given him a christian bur-
ial in the soil of old Virginia. Nay more,
with monumental stone you have marked
the spot, gathering around it the ashes of
your dead, where, after 1ifes fitful fever
is over and your roll of splendid benefac-
tons will have ceased, you yourself, sir,
Confederate veteran, waiting for the
reveilIe of the resurrection morn, hope to
lie. The women of North Carolina have
sent by me, sir, few flowers to lay upon
the grave of your crushed hopes where
sleeps your son, and if only among the
herbs which spring among the Valleys
of North Carolina they might find one
whose medicinal properties would restore
sight to your eyes, they would be grateful
" happy. Cherishing your benefactions
in the depths of their grateful hearts.
they bid me say to you sir, that your
mothers God has taught them that there
are no blind in Heaven"