Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1897-01-26
- MERRY cnRIsrMAs 10 you.
[From the WINCHESTER News.I

Such is the title OF 4 neat little
booklet, from Southerner, which,
among other compliments of the
season. lies upon our table. 1t con-
sists of brief, but graphic sketches
of several prominent men of the day.
At the head of :he list, as is meet,
the most prominent stands Charles
Broadway Rouss, the friend of whom
Winchester has heard a good deal,
bat can never hear too much. We
transfer this notice to our columns ::
Charles Broadway Rouss, New
York City. Beyond the shining
clouds and the illimitable skies on
those golden shores, that lie beyond
the valley and shadow of death, there
is crown set with sparkling gems,
every gem representing some good
deed, done on earth to the toiling
masses of humanity, awaiting Chas.
b. Rouss of New York City All
that is grand and good in human. ma
ture is embodied in the man who sits
stone blind in his open office on the
second floor of the big ten story
store at SOL Broadway, directing the
affairs of business where a thousand
men are employed. No grander her
itage can 4 man bequeath to his
children, than that he was private
soldier in the Army of Northern Vir-
GINA, and that he followed the for
tunes of Lee and Stonewall Jackson
and Early and Stuart down to that
black day in April. 1865, when Gent
Il To- n q l. 70 4
Read in December of Frank Leslie,
that splendid biographical sketch of
Charles Il. Rouss entitled, a South
ern Philanthropist, the Blind Million
aire New York Merchant" written by
his private secretary, Col. Angus
tine Jaquelin Smith, the gallant
soldier and distinguished educator
he, too, from the beautiful Valley of
Virginia. | have been IN Winches-
ter, Virginia, the historic old town
that MIR. Rouss loves so well every
foot of that soil is hallowed ground.
One lonely Sunday afternoon, 1
stood in the Confederate Cemetery
in beautiful Winchester, among the
graves of the unknown dead, as the
sun was setting redlY behind the
tombs, and dropped tears over those
whom L never saw in life.
Frederick county, Nd, gave Mr..
Rouss birth, but he owes his allie
! glance to Virginia. The man who
has given 500, 600 for Confederate
Memorial Hall has drawn the atten-
tiou of the whole United States to-
ward him.,
The man who refused to make
$40, 600 clear profit out of the mis-
fortunes of his neighbors, in the salt
and sugar speculation during those
dark and unhappy days of the war,
deserves TO have his name emblaz-
zoned in letters of good high on the
roll of honor. Unlike A. L. Stewart,
who held a man to damaging con-
tract during war times, when prices
advanced and forced him into bank
rnptcy and beggary, though the man
4 almost got down on his knees to
Stewart, begging to be released from
the contract.
Quoting from Col. Smiths sketch,
"Chas. B. Rouss has lived within an
environment of industrial opportunity
whose greatest possibilities are only
realized under conditions where per-
sonal integrity was a cardinal factor,
the recognition of moral obligation an
essential requisite, and where .oppor-
tunity for heart work rs well as head
work was present to stir the man of
noble soul to, noble action
Chas. B. Rouss' magnificent gifts
to different Southern enterprises
have become matters Of history.
Thirty-fve thousand dollars to es-
tablish physical labratorY at the
University of Virginia, competitive
Art Scholarship for Southern stu
dents in Paris, and a monument to
the dead of the Confederate Camp at
New York, thirty thousand dollars to
increase the water supply of Win
chester, is proof of how we'll he loves
the land of ''Bonnie Blue Flag"
Standing i'm front of Mr.. Rouss,
where he sits in open view surround.
ed by his office force, who hold him in
great respect and reverence, you
face the magnificent painting of the
great commander of the Army of
Nothern Virginia, Gen'l Robert i.
Lee. the work of the celebrated ar
list EDWARD G. Bruce, of Winchester,
Va, taken from life during the war.
His private office is very fascinat-
ing place, and bespeaks the cultured
taste of the man who came here n
war worn, battered hero from the
desoIated Valley of Virginia, and
from the historic plains of that State,
whose name shines out like bril-
liant star on the hlackness of defeat.
Virginia! G. Il. Rouss was s grand
soldier in Rosscr's famous Black
Horse Cavalry, the man who came to
New York thirtv-odd years ago with
one dollar and eighty cents in his
pocket, and the remembrance that
he had fought for state Sovereign
ty," and the Constitution. in that
Army that was baptized in blood and
covered all over with glory. 1t stirs
the blood to think of those old he
roes. But it is like a dream now.
Mr.. Rouss' private office is spacious
and comfortable aud filed with paint
ings and curios. Pictures of his
handsome dead son haug everywhere
the dear son to whom he gave a
fathers idolatry and over whose
grave in Winchester, Virginia, the
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