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

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
a hole" he said To me one day in
discussing the reduction of the whole
Bramin theory of the estate and
birthright of the conscious to practi-
cal life, Every peg must have
place, and if we could always find
the right place for the right peg how
little trouble there would be. But
as it is il seems usually the round peg
which tri es to fit itself into the square
hole, and the square peg into the
round place this causes half the
tronble.' G
1t is this belief in the existence of
an opportunity for every man some
where that causes him to say to all
his disciples, "What i have done
you can do, nothing is impossible to
him who strongly wills" And yet
while he thinks that a large portion of
the misery andwantin human life is the
result of the faults as well as the mis-
fortunes of the sufferers, Mr.. Rouss
does not withhold his aims from even
the most .abiect and hopelessly con-
demned. Indeed his whole theory
of giving seems to be the seeking out
and finding of those to whom others
will not give. He has no prejudices
against the churches, he does not dis
pute the use and the mercy of hospi-
tails, but he thinks that these self-evi-
IDENTIFY meritorioas charities will find
many who give aims as part of their
profession and creed to support them,
and therefore he goes out into the
highways and byways and seeks out
those whom others will not find.
During the last few years, includ
ing his gift of Sl0O,00O for the Con-
federate Battle Abbey, of S25, 000to
the University of Virginia, and his
equally splendid donation of $50, 900
for water works for the old town of
Winchester, the peculiar but practi-
cal gift of $1,000 for fence for Mt.
Hebron cemetery in the same town
his 81 900 to the flood sufferers at
Johnstown, his hundreds to the
stricken ones at Harper's Ferry and
elsewhere at the same time, his gifts
to the earthquake sufferers in Greece,
to the ice funds of the New York
papers and other public benefactions,
it can be safely estimated that Mr..
Rouss has given away fully half
million dollars. Those who know
him, those who have Investigated for
him the thousands of appeals which
daily flood his desk and those who
have been the recipients of his I'M
asked bounty, make almost equal
computation of the amount he has
given in private. This stupendous
sum, more than almost ninety and |
nine men ever even handle has been |
scattered upon the world by man
who has in his time known actual
want and pressing hunger.
A man who has given one fortune
to the people of the town of Win
chester during the war, who gave to
the lost cause of the Southern Con-
federacy years of his life, and who
has never allowed the child of one
who wore the uniform of that same
cause with him to want-the man who
can do that and yet pay thousands
of dollars of old and outlawed debts,
erect in the very mercantile heart of
the worlds great metropolis one of
the finest buildings on Broadway,
who can give to his family living in
one of the finest homes in the entire
city of New York, who has erected
over his dead one of the grandest
memorials of marble that invoke the
blessings of the dawn, and who yet
has the means to go on giving day by
day, TO go on preaching and practice
ing a creed of commercial freedom
that means the entranchisement of
thousands, the man who can do this
way is something more than even a
merchant king, monarch of money.
He is man of power. He is what
Danton called Mirabeau, /" a world
compeller." And blind, though he
NAV be, his power shall not cease.
Even beyond the tomb it mnst avail.
The most beautiful trait of Charles
Broadway Rouss' entire character is
his love of his dead. In nothing is
it more touchingly, shown than in the
fact that when with an intimate he
never drives in the upper portion of
ANSN VI hilhOub ny Wiz
house wherein his brilliant and gifted
son who was to perpetuate his
dynasty, died in his manhood's ear
Hest prime. And as he passes, the
slight bowed form raises itself to the
old familiar soIdierly attitude of
g Attention" and the grey head is
reverantially uncovered with the
dignity and pathos peculiar to those
who having often faced him, know
best of all the power and dignity of
Death. 1t was in this calamity more
even than in The directly personal
one of his present practical blindness
that MIR. Rouss showed the fineness
of the fibre of which he is composed
Crushed almost to earth as he was by
this reuding of heartsstrings, he
found time to write to friend in
affection words which show alike the
greatness and the grasp of the man.
u sa . are downcast. This must
not be. U still have hope"
~ sa q ill. You will find hope
Al |